May 25 2018

Lauren Grant’s Coordinator Notes for 5/24/2018

Very busy day!! All of the golf carts were scrubbed and washed. Vacationing cats were both moved home. Vacation and FunCation were mowed and weed-eated. A tiger went out to Vacation and Cyrus Caracal is now in FunCation.

Keisha was moved out of the transport cage and into the recovery hospital cage, which now has a den just for her.

We started cleaning up Seth’s cage. The perimeter inside was cleaned up, his platform was scrubbed, and the open part was mowed. Hopefully, he’ll be easier to see for meds.

Nikki’s open-air side was mowed and weed-eated.

That’s about it!
– Lauren Grant

Kathyrn Stapleton’s Coordinator Notes for 5/23/2018

No Rain Today!! Had a good number of volunteers today. Water was off for the back of the property part of the day so cleaning was a bit of a challenge. Will be fixed tomorrow.

Project group made good headway on the perimeter fence clean off.  We had 3 full tours and lots of Intern signoffs.

That’s it for me!
Kathryn

Devin Saari’s Coordinator Notes for 5/22/2018

We were a bit short on feeders this morning but had just enough people to get the cleaning done. We finished cleaning by 1:00 PM.

A new green rope barrier was installed in between Nikki and Maya, and around Nikki’s “sacred mound.” A full meat inventory was completed today. The intern pictures were reorganized in food prep. The cicle cats got their treats. The hospital recovery cage was cleaned today and is ready for when it’s time for Keisha.

Rehab: Lucky was caught today and was put in the small section of cage 1 where Shamrock and Clover are but is still separated from them.

The trees over by Aleesa’s house were watered today, we are doing this every day. Cameron got another turkey today but he is still guarding a portion of it in his den.  Two tours went out today but were canceled a bit early due to lightning

We were all dry up until 3:00 PM

That’s all for today!
-Devin

Kathyrn Stapleton’s Coordinator Notes for 5/21/2018

Another wet day today! Thanks to all that came out to feed and clean in the wet!! The interns managed to get Sundari’s cage finished in between showers so she can come home on Thursday. It did stop long enough for 3:00 PM tours to go out.

Going home to dry off!
That’s it for me!

Angie Gabor’s Coordinator Notes for 5/202018

Another very wet day! Even in the rain, we had great volunteers that came in to help us feed and clean the cats. Finding poop is a bit of a challenge in the rain, but they did a great job, as always.

We had all of our tours today; the Feeding Tour, the Keeper Tour, 2 Adult Tours, a Kids Tour and even a few Private Tours. Our visitors are sure devoted and want to meet our wonderful cats.  Because of the rain, we took the kittens home early.

Lots of small projects were completed today.
* The Project Trailer and the Everything Else trailer were organized.
* Both hospital’s were cleaned.
* The rat room was cleaned and sorted.
* The cleaning storage area on the side of the freezers was cleaned and organized.
* The walls in the cooler were scrubbed.
* Branches that fell in Center section from yesterday’s rain were cleaned out in the morning.

That’s it for me!! Thank you, everyone, for a great weekend!!!

Back in 2015 Keisha was diagnosed with high blood pressure and has been on medication for that since then. Like most drugs, there are side effects, and high blood pressure meds can harm the kidneys. Keisha has done well on this regimen for the past three years, but a few days ago she stopped eating. She frequently goes into heat and stops eating for a week at a time, but at her advanced age we were hesitant to spay her, since she lives alone and there was no chance of her getting pregnant. When she stopped eating a few days ago we decided we should probably go ahead and spay her sooner than later.

Lots of emails and texts flew back and forth between our two vets and our vet care staff, but during it all, Operations Manager, Kathryn, noticed odd behavior that didn’t seem like Keisha’s typical heat. She was staying in her den and being aggressive when we tried to push food out to her on a long stick. It’s been raining, so that didn’t seem too odd, but just enough to heighten everyone’s observations of Keisha.

Yesterday Dr. Justin agreed to come out to the sanctuary after work about 4PM but it was pouring down rain and Keisha was acting even stranger. She’d take a few steps and fall over. Now we were really worried because if she’d had a stroke then sedating her would be about the worst thing we could do. Since we couldn’t lure her into lockout or a transport (she was really mad) there was no way to get a good look at her. We decided to try feeding her again this morning.

She refused foods and was hiding less (it had quit raining) so Dr. Justin came out again after work at about 4PM. We decided to sedate her, run diagnostics and see where they led us. In my best understanding, here is what we found after doing blood work, a urinalysis, X-rays, a sonogram and checking her teeth:

Keisha has kidney values that are deadly in some measurements and just common for a cat who’s lived 6 years past what her kidneys were designed to do. That could have been caused by her blood pressure issues. The eye specialist who saw Keisha today, Dr. Miller, suggested doubling her blood pressure medicine. She feels that Keisha’s eyes are showing signs of hypertension, which would indicate that over time the prescription was not enough. She could have had a stroke, or her eyes could have hurt so badly from the retinas beginning to detach, that she stopped eating and drinking, which meant she wasn’t getting any meds at all and started feeling awful.

Her prognosis, at 18, is not good, but we pumped her full of fluids, gave her an oral liquid dose of the high blood pressure medication and will keep her in the hospital recovery cage with a webcam on her to better monitor what is happening. We really hope this was just a minor set back for her and that she will rebound, but if not, we will not let her suffer. If you want to do something for Keisha, make the Call of the Wild at BigCatAct.com so that other tigers like her are not bred for pay to play schemes and then neglected or discarded when they are no longer cute and cuddly.

Learn more about Kiesha at BigCatRescue.org/keisha/

Big Cat Rescue has around 2,300,000 followers on Facebook, 83,000 followers on Instagram, and over 6,000 members in our official facebook group.

As of 4:20 PM on May 22, 2018, only 4,825 people have made a total of 5,166 calls and sent 2,325 emails.

Yes, you read that correctly, ONLY 5,166 calls made during this legislative session.

While we are thrilled that this many people cared enough to give the cats two minutes of their time to make a phone call I cannot help but wonder why this number is not a whole lot bigger.

Surely, there are more than 4,825 people out of the 2.3 million followers who care enough about big cats to make a 2-minute phone call each week.

YOUR INPUT Desperately Requested: How can we be more effective in motivating people to give up two minutes of their time to make this quick, easy, free phone call?

If you could do something that is free and only takes TWO MINUTES of time and it could SAVE A BIG CAT would you want to do it?

The Big Cat Public Safety Act will save FAR MORE cats than all the good sanctuaries could ever hope to rescue. However, it will NOT become a law UNTIL more of you step up, and keep stepping up, to make this a priority.

We CANNOT DO IT WITHOUT YOU!! PLEASE do not sit back and assume someone else will do it, because guess what, “that someone else” is NOT doing it.

Hoosiers made it clear that they strongly opposed a bobcat hunting and trapping season. The state didn’t have scientific data to support a hunt and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources didn’t even have a current population count! If this rule had passed, the state’s only native wild cat would have been chased down by packs of hounds or caught in cruel leghold traps for the first time in 50 years.

No bobcat hunting in Indiana after commission strikes down proposal​ – ​http://fox59.com/2018/05/15/no-bobcat-hunting-in-indiana-after-commission-strikes-down-proposal/

BCR signed onto a national letter opposing a hunt as well as activated our supporters in the state asking them to contact the commission, attend public hearings, and call the governor to oppose the proposal. AdvoCats like you won this! And this was a particularly tough fight.

Special shout-out to HSUS’s Indiana State Director Erin Huang for coordinating a strong collaborative opposition to this proposal!

Read the PDF here:  Indiana Bobcats Coalition letter MAR 2018

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Meet MaChaia, one of the youngest big cat rescuers!

On Wednesday, May 23rd, MaChaia participated in teach your teacher day with her first-grade class. She came home with her mind made up! MaChaia was introduced to Big Cat Rescue two years ago and her heart was stolen on day one! Sweet Sabre was and still remains the apple of her eye! She gathered up all of my Big Cat Times magazines and went on her way. When she told her teacher about “her” cat Sabre being a black leopard, her class was excited at the thought of owning a leopard. MaChaia was quick to correct them and let them know that you can sponsor and help care for them but that it was never okay to own a leopard or any other wild cat. She told them that all of the cats at Big cat Rescue were hurt by people and that they should be allowed to be wild and free. She was given the link to BigCatAct.com to share with her teacher and class so they could help save cats like Sabre.

Her class was so inspired that they decided to spend the last day of school drawing pictures to teach their own family and friends that these cats need their help. They also sent pictures home with MaChaia to send to Big Cat Rescue to show their love!

I couldn’t be more proud of her! She will continue to fight the world in Sabres name with a smile on her face and love in her heart, truly inspiring a whole new generation!

Mickey’s Memorial Photo Book – Now taking reservations:

40-page, Hardback, Mickey’s story, Keeper notes, and LOTS of photos.  Reserve your copy at BigCatFun.com/books/

Did You Miss Out on Joseph’s Memorial Photo Book?

It has been brought to my attention that two people who wanted a Joseph book could not order one before the books ran out. I can place only one more order then the Limited Edition number of books will be reached. However, to place another order I have to order a minimum of 20 books. I am willing to place that order but only if there are at least 10 people who want one. Books are $35 + S&H.

Payment Plan: To answer the next question, yes, I would still be happy to accept the payment plan. The payment plan is a $5 down payment and $5/month. If you missed out getting one because of finances and still want one, email me at lawanna.mitchell@bigcatrescue.org