March 14 2017

Big Cat Updates

LaWanna is still out of commission.

Sassy Caracal: Ate well. Found poop, very dry and broken up. She also has a watery right eye, Gale was notified.

Nirvana: Took meds and ate better today. 8oz of grd turkey and small turkey pieces. I left her with another 3oz grd turkey tonight.

Smalls: Did not eat again today. I went out multiple times and tried red, ckn, pork, turkey, livers, grd beef, cat food and chicks. She sniffed at it but would not eat

Pharoah: We got a poop sample for him, it is in the cooler.

Picky cats: Cameron ate really well – 9lbs total, chicken drums and thighs. TJ ate ok 7lbs total. Hoover took his meds in the AM but didnt eat until closer to NOON around 6lbs, he ate a further 4.5lbs in the PM with meds. Zeus ate 6.5lbs total. Joseph ate 5.5 lbs.

Projects: The back side of the biscuits enclosure was cleaned out and the front side of Ariels old enclosure, the back side still needs to be done.

That’s it from me 🙂 – Lauren B.

Projects

Lots of leaf raking, stick picking up, and cage enhancement projects while still covering record Spring Break tours. A huge shout out to all of the volunteers who signed up today to make sure the tours were covered and the cats were cared for when we are so stretched for help.

Lots of stuff going on behind the scenes with rescues and release for Wyeth that we will tell you about as soon as we can.

As for our website issues, this is what our security firm, Sucuri, tells me:

“Thank you for your patience! I was able to see what the issue was. It appears that your site was using our name servers as well as godaddy name servers at the same time, which was causing the issue. I was able to resolve the DNS issue on the site. Allow about 2-4 hours for the changes to fully propagate.”

We will see if they finally got this resolved. No one seems to know how the name servers got changed in the first place. I’m thinking about ditching FlyWheel and Sucuri to go with a new company that does both security and website hosting. What do you guys think of this site for WWF and Leonardo DiCaprio that they did? Let me know in the comments what you like and what you don’t like. I could use feedback from both desktop and mobile users as to how responsive and easy (or not) to navigate the site. Did you feel like you immediately knew what the site was about?

http://www.savetigersnow.org/

Facebook Live Video Replays

None this morning. Watch for us on The Dodo Impact on Facebook today at 2:30 when we give blood ‘cicles to Ares, Artemis and Orion. It will be Gale and I doing it, as we are stretched so thin today.

People Often Ask

Do celebrities support you?

On January 11th the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team rolled into Big Cat Rescue. Their head coach, John Tortorella, formerly coached the Tampa Bay Lightning for 8 years. He had visited the sanctuary when he lived in Tampa and thought a tour would be a unique experience for his guys. The Blue Jackets were in town for a line-up against the Lightning and had a packed schedule, but made time to spend a few hours with the cats. Kathryn, our Director of Donor Relations, and Jen, our Director of Outreach, were more than happy to show the guys around the sanctuary. Hailing from the state where 49 animals died in 2011, including 18 Bengal tigers, 17 lions, and three mountain lions – the players were familiar with the downside of treating wild animals as pets. Left winger and team captain, Nick Foligno, organized the trip and seemed truly impressed with the sanctuary and the stories of our cats. Seth the tiger took a particular interest with the team and even joined them for a group photo.

Although the cats will always be loyal to their home team (Go Bolts!), they were honored to host and share a few chuffs with the men that hold the second-longest winning streak in NHL history!
Sadly, I don’t have that team photo (made the mistake of taking it with their phone). But I do have the attached “back” shot.