Today at Big Cat Rescue June 24 2013

Enjoy tigers ripping up Summer Camper's enrichment offerings, "play" with bobcats, see leopards leaping and attacking cardboard, hear about a water spout that passed by and more on this Sunday afternoon walkabout at Big Cat Rescue.  Thanks to SkipAHolic Peggy McDermott Sundquist, we have three new computers donated by Ciber, Inc. the International IT Consultant company. Ken Goodrich is their Infrastructure Manager and came with Peggy to deliver the Dell computers.

Happiness is our own.

We are not responsible for other's happiness and others are not responsible for our happiness.

Each of us chooses to be happy or not and no one else can make that decision for us. When we truly understand and accept that our happiness is our responsibility then there is no limit to the joy we will experience.

Naturally, it is important to behave in a way that engenders happiness in others; but if they are determined to be miserable, then we shouldn't stress over it. I think it is kind of like religion. We can pray for others, but we can't change their relationship with God. That's their choice and all we can do is be a good example of why it is a good choice.

I believe that all humanity is moving toward enlightenment albeit at different paces and we are all at different places along that path. I try to remind myself that each person is doing the best that they know how, because if they knew how blissful it is to be happy all the time, they would choose to do things that yielded that result.

That seed of God in all of us lets us know when our bad behavior is hurting others and it isn't possible to be truly happy if you know you are hurting someone else. If we are constantly having that argument in our head that says "we are being harsh with someone for their own good," then we are obviously trying to convince ourselves of something we don't truly believe at a heart level.

Maybe the easiest way to digest all of that is to remember that what we think about, we bring about. The Bible says this in many ways, and perhaps most visually in the "move mountains" example. I choose to be happy and when something happens that makes me sad, I look at it as a way of examining what it is in my own beliefs that needs work.

Feds Abandon the Florida Panther

Bizarre Big Cat World

Dear USDA and FWC

We got a call from someone who said her name was Amanda. She said she has a traveling tiger act and that her trailer, with the tigers inside, was stolen and she wanted to know if we could help her get them back. The volunteer who answered the phone told her that we cannot help her, but I thought you guys may want to call since it is a 941 area code in FL. 941 323-4182

The second complaint came in just now of someone selling a tiger cub on Craig's list in Jacksonville Beach. They claim the tiger came from Africa. http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/pet/3891410977.html