October 5 2018

Big Cat Updates

Stars Award, Photos, Videos, Adorable short keeper videos of Manny Jaguar, Nala the office kitty, and Cyrus the caracal.  FAQ Friday is a FUN VIDEO fo the cats getting some cool cooking enrichment! Afton's Coordinator report.  What is 'double check?'  Why do we use green and yellow chains?

Alexa Flash News Briefing

FAQ Friday:  Cooking For Big Cats

Many of you ask why we do not cook the meat for the big cats. This video shows you our big cat's cooking skills and explains why that is not necessary.

Coordinator Report - Afton Tasler

We had a great group of keepers to get all of the tours, cleaning, and to get food prep done and double checking was also done by lunch. That left time to get a project done. Andi bobcat's big section was cleaned up and all around the outside, we weedeated. It looks sooo much better!

Interns are teaming up to care for a bottle feeding baby and planning their daily schedules around that task.

Today the cats that have moved enclosures recently all have their signs moved around. I also removed the green rope by Manny and changed the one between Reise and from green to yellow. The only thing left is to switch the yellow and green barricade entrance signs.

Afton

Question:  What is 'double check?'  

Each morning when the cleaners clean each and every cat's the enclosure.  There is a team who does poop collection and a team sho dumps, cleans, rinses, and refills all of the cats' water containers.  At the end of their cleaning route the report back and add any cat's name on the big dry erase board that they did not find poop for.  It is also noted if any of the cats' water bowls were found low, meaning a cat is either spilling it or drinking excessively, which can be a health issue.

After a cleaning route is finished a second team goes around and double checks the enclosures to make sure nothing was missed, search for poop of any cat that was listed on the dry erase board.  If no poop is found by the second team the cat is added to the observation list for a coordinator to check and if needed alert the vets.  The double checkers also double check to make sure all no water bowls were missed and to top off water bowls, etc.

QUESTION:  What are the green and yellow ropes?

As you know we have keepers at various stages of training and those stages are marked by shirt colors.  Various shirt levels cannot be in the areas of lions, tigers, leopards, cougars etc.  We use color chains (called ropes) to block off those areas.  the chain colors coordinate with the level of training a keeper must have to enter those sections of the sanctuary.

This video will explain that: FAQ Friday: Shirt Colors

Videos of the Day

Q & A with Carole on a Walkabout to see the cats.

This is from Jamie Veronica - Big Cat Rescue - Manny Jaguar was determined to take his enrichment to the other side of his enclosure and into the den. Will he succeed or will he give up? Watch and find out.

This is from Brittany Mira - BigCatRescue on September 24, 2018 - It’s been a year since I started my love affair with Cyrus a.k.a punkin ❤️ I used to visit him every time I was on property and would always get a nice hiss, then I started bringing him a sicle every time I was able to hand them out and one day it clicked! He no longer hissed but would come running over making the sweetest noises and dreamiest eyes ? He makes it almost impossible to photograph him anymore because he runs over and gets too close to the wire... so I decided to slow it all down. Cyrus slo-mo may be the cutest thing on earth! Look at those eyes, ears and tail ❤️ More to come on Instagram.com/bigcatrescue

This is from Afton Tasler - Big Cat Rescue - Narla has been getting taunted by the same lizard for 3 days lol.

The STARS Award

Stars Prize: Each month volunteers who dedicate 25% over their minimum hourly requirements are put into a pool from which one partner and one keeper are randomly selected to win a prize. The prize for this year will be a paw painting from one of the cats. We will be making all of these paw paintings in big batches. So while you will not get to choose the cat who paints your paw painting, you will get to choose from the collection of completed paintings.

• July Keeper - Cindy Kuharek
• July Partner - Matt Dawson
• August Keeper - Lauren Buckingham
• August Partner - Lisa Spencer-Novak

Photos of the Day

Dryden bobcat has such a beautiful ruff ❤️

Dryden bobcat has such a beautiful ruff ❤️

Canadian Lynx, Gilligan is an adorable sleepy boy.

Canadian Lynx, Gilligan is an adorable sleepy boy

Breezy Bobcat loves enrichment time especially when it is spice bags with real fresh mint.

Breezy Bobcat loves enrichment time especially when it is spice bags with real fresh mint.

This is from Afton Tasler - Big Cat Rescue - Keisha says, “Good morning! Have you had your breakfast?”

Photo by Afton - Keisha says, “Good morning! Have you had your breakfast?”

Smalls Bobcat really enjoys enrichment time when she gets cinnamon and catnip, two of her FAVORITE THINGS!

Smalls Bobcat really enjoys enrichment time when she gets cinnamon and catnip, two of her FAVORITE THINGS!

This is from Brittany Mira - BigCatRescue on September 24, 2018 - Nikita says SMILE! Did you know You can donate to the cats at NO COST TO YOU when you select BCR as your charity on Amazon Smile and shop Smile.Amazon.com instead of Amazon.com?!? It is exactly the same as regular Amazon EXCEPT when you use Smile URL Amazon donates .5% of your purchase to BCR. Adds up to over $89,000 for the cats in the last year!

Nikita says SMILE! Did you know You can donate to the cats at NO COST TO YOU when you select BCR as your charity on Amazon Smile and shop Smile.Amazon.com instead of Amazon.com?!? It is exactly the same as regular Amazon EXCEPT when you use Smile URL Amazon donates .5% of your purchase to BCR. Adds up to over $89,000 for the cats in the last year!