May 21 2019

Big Cat Updates

Sapphire is doing well. she is getting back to her old self although she is still a bit angry about her vet visit.

Please leave your kittens at home on Thursday. There will be some awesome work getting done in there. -Karma Hurworth

Hi friends in the UK! This Thursday at 9:00 pm the premiere episode of BBC's new series Big Animal Surgery will feature our own beloved Gabrielle tiger. It is only airing in the UK for now; eventually, it will air worldwide I'm told. The attached episode card gives a few more details. Although the main surgery is on a lion, Gabby's surgery will air second in this same episode. If anyone is able to record it and send to us, we'd appreciate it. -Susan Bass

Alexa Flash Briefing

In case you have missed previous days’ news briefings you can find them all at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCPv8ivo6o4CZHFifkfRYDw

Coordinator Report - Devin Saari

It was a very hot and humid day today but everyone pitched in to make sure the cats got taken care of. Tanya Chute and Mazz finished food-prep after they finished their cleaning. Marie Schoubert did the cicle cats.

We completed a number of projects today.

-Tanya Chute and Devin Saari patched the lockout in the enclosure next to the staff offices.
-Ashley Tait, Tanya Chute, Lexi Agri, Ofek Krauss worked in Mrs. Claws old enclosure and scrubbed all the platforms clean.
-Erin Ainslie, Elizabeth Darby, Vito Z Holmes, and Kate O'Gorman cleaned out the "be the cat" enclosure for the guests.
-The clean hospital cages were put away that were sitting on the cleaning slab.
-All the food-prep cleaning supplies were put away and organized.
-Tanya Chute, Lexi Agri, and Ofek Krauss worked in Sundari's enclosure. The first 2 bubbles were completed but the back still needs to be done.

Also, thank you to Brittany Mira for coming in to feed!
Thank you to everyone who helped out today!

Big Cat Facts - Leopard

Big Cat Facts by Sundari Leopard: The leopard is the smallest member of the 4 “great cats” and most closely resembles its cousin the jaguar. Leopards vary in length from 3 – 6.25 feet with a tail length of 22.5 – 43 inches, and stand 17.5 – 30.5 inches high at the shoulder. Males weigh between 80 – 150 pounds and females between 60 – 100 pounds.

Big Cat Facts by Sundari Leopard

This spotted cat has short powerful limbs, heavy torso, thick neck, and long tail. Its short, sleek coat varies greatly from pale straw and gray-buff to bright, deep ochre and chestnut, and sometimes black (found mostly in wetter, dense forests). Large black spots are grouped into rosettes on the shoulders, upper arms, back, flanks and haunches, and smaller scattered spots on the lower limbs, head, throat and chest, and the belly has large black blotches.

Foster Kitten

Tomorrow after the staff meeting:
Ike
Lou
I will pick them up from the Cabana tomorrow.

Thank you!
Karma L. Hurworth
Assistant Manager/Master Keeper, Big Cat Rescue

Videos of the Day

Meet Jasmine, a female tiger whose age is unknown. Jasmine, two other tigers, and a black leopard have been living at the sanctuary for the past four years under our Witness Protection Program. Now that we are able to share them with you, check out her favorite enrichment item.

Morning Q&A at Big Cat Rescue - Follow along as Keeper Brittany shows you many of the Tigers, Lion, Leopards, Jaguar, Cougars, Lynx, Servals, Bobcats, Savannah Cats and an Ocelot that Call Big Cat Rescue was Rescue Home! Cats Featured: Mrs. Claws, Nabisco, Apollo, Smalls, Ares, Orion, Artemis, Ginger, Beacher, Hutch, Cyrus and Manny!

Do You Ever Forget? I did, but NOT NOW!

Smile.Amazon.com – Did you know that on overall about 97% of Amazon purchases don’t go through AmazonSmile? It is my guess several of those missed donations are from BCR supporters shopping on Amazon.com who forgot to log in through Smile.Amazon.com. How many times have you bought something on Amazon.com and realized afterward that you forgot to log in through Smile.Amazon.com? We hear that from viewers frequently. Carole found something to help prevent that.

Smilematic is a simple browser extension that any supporter can install for free, and from that point on all their Amazon shopping experiences go through AmazonSmile. I now have it on my computer and it is sure handy!!! Now I just go to Amazon and I am automatically at Smile.Amazon, so now I won’t forget again!

Remember, when you log into your Amazon.com account through Smile.Amazon.com and choose Big Cat Rescue, Corp. as your chosen charity then Amazon donates a percentage of your purr-chase price to the cats here at NO COST to you!

SOMETHING to make that even easier is a browser extension for Google Chrome.  This is what I use because I sometimes forget to go to Smile.Amazon.com instead of Amazon.com.  This browser extension was so easy to add and has never created any trouble.  But, now when I forget and go to Amazon.com it automatically loads Smile.Amazon.com instead.  Since I purr-sonally buy my cat food, cat litter, dog food, laundry soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, well everything, through Amazon this browser extension has really helped me. LOL, I never have time to go to the store so this way it comes right to my porch.

Make it easier using the browser extension Smilematic which will automatically redirect you to AmazonSmile whenever you shop at Amazon!

Here’s Big Cat Rescue’s custom link: https://couponfollow.com/smilematic#59-3330495

And finally here’s a quick example video of what another cause has done.  The video is only a few seconds long and shows you how quick and simple it is to get and use this extension.  I installed it once which was FAST and painless and never even think about it again.  I just go to Amazon and the cats never get left out even when I forget to go to smile.amazon.com instead of amazon.com.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this extension.

Explore.org/bigcatrescue Webcam Highlights

Below are highlights from the that run 24 hours a day on some of the cats. You can find the best webcams at explore.org/bigcatrescue or find all the webcam links at BigCatCams.com

KITTENS - It's a dif-fur-ent episode of game of thrones. Beware, spring is here! Please spay/neuter your pets.

Dutchess Tiger playing, stinky face, and wandering around.

Many of You are Asking...

Many of you are asking if we will be taking any of the poor cats who were seized in Quebec.

Armani Leopard by Marie Schoubert

We were contacted last month about the situation and this is what we said:

At our peak we had 150 cats (mostly bobcats and lynx due to rescuing 118 of them from fur farms in 93, 94, 95 & 97). Only three of those cats are still alive more than 20 years later, so we have MANY empty cages. We currently have about 60 cats, including 5 rehab bobcats who will be released and 5 domestic hybrids. We still have over 100 volunteers and interns who put in no less than 4 hours a week each and our 20 interns work full time, six days a week.

Most of them were built for small cats and our climate is best for small cats. While our smallest cage is 1,200 square feet, the doors between sections, the dens openings and the feeding lock out boxes are all mostly small cat sized: leopards, cougars on down.

We could accommodate all of the smaller cats from the facility and we are able to fund our own transport.

We only have one lioness left here and 8 tigers. We would love to have another male lion as we miss the roaring. We could take a pair or small group, but would have to house them separately pending sterilization to insure no cubs would come of the group.

We were told on May 15 that they had already made arrangements to place all of the cats elsewhere. We don't know where, but we trust HSI will find good places.

Big Cat Rescue Merchandise of the Day

Hoover was rescued from the abusive life of the circus in Peru and is now living his best life here at Big Cat Rescue! This fancy Hoover design by Big Cat Rescuer JoAnn Weiss is featured on many new products including Clothing, Towels, Blankets, Mugs, Stickers and more! https://teespring.com/fancy-hoover-tiger

Big Cat Rescue Merchandise

Are YOU Making A Difference?

Are you still making the Calls of the Wild, every week, at BigCatAct.com? Are you offering to help your friends and family make the calls too? PLEASE, watch this 30-second video to see it is reminds/motivates you to keep making that weekly call.

Photos of the Day

Happy Tongue Out Tuesday from our beautiful, sweet, “misunderstood” Amanda Tigress!

Photo by Alyssa Weber