Tampa - Animals

B.C.R. Day #1

Today was our first day volunteering at Big Cat Rescue. Caroline was the MVP of the morning because she woke up early, took everyone's sandwich orders, and prepared our lunches while the rest of us stumbled around in a sleepy daze. Once we finally had our wits about us, we packed up the van and made our way to the volunteer site.

Once we got to BCR we were greeted by smiling faces and led into the gift shop area. We all signed release forms just in case a tiger ate one of us or something….From there we met Chris, a classy British gentleman who took us on a mini tour on the way to our first activity of the day- helping landscape some tiger enclosures! It was surprisingly fun for all of us; we definitely earned our green thumbs. Getting to see tigers and lions that early in the morning was amazing and we could just tell we were all going to have a great day. From there on our day was filled with various jobs around the sanctuary including pulling weeds from a beach area, getting trained for tour back-ups, assisting with tours and helping shovel dirt around the enclosures. We all enjoyed working together and found it very satisfying to see the immediate impact of our hard work.

Besides appreciating the sanctuary and the cats, we also really liked all of the cool people we got to meet. One of the people we met was Rosie who had been in Tampa for the past three or four decades. She has been working at the Big Cat Rescue for about eleven years now. She used to work for a phone company, eventually quit and moved to a commune. She wound up moving to Tampa and living close to the Big Cat Rescue, found out about it, and became involved. We also met Jeff who had been living and working in the corporate world for a several decades, making a very comfortable living for himself and wife, however they were unsatisfied. They quit their jobs and moved to Tampa, and are now working for Big Cat Rescue living a more simple life, but loving every minute of it. We also met Jennifer, who told us crazy stories about the cats and opossums getting into the enclosures. Needless to say it didn't end well for the opossums. Ultimately, what we noticed and admired about all of the people at BCR was their great passion for the animals.

As a group, we learned a lot about the cats, where they came from, and some of the things they and other cats had been through. Most of the cats were brought from peoples' homes that wanted to keep them as pets, but just got rid of them when they were older. Others came from other rescues. There were only a few from the wild, and those were only bobcats. Big Cat Rescue is trying to get a petition signed and passed for Florida (and eventually all other states) to not allow citizens to keep big cats unless in a zoo or certified to do so. In 20 years, Big Cat Rescue's goal is to no longer exist or be needed in hopes of this petition being passed.

Everyone is excited to see what the big cat's have in store for us on Tuesday!