Tampa - Animals

B.C.R. Day #2

Today was our second day at Big Cat Rescue! Caroline took sandwich orders last night and made them for us again. Everyone was sleepy at first, but we all slowly woke up. The guys, who got up last, were the last to come out of the sleepy haze. Grabbing our things, we made our way down to the van and were off to Big Cat Rescue.

Upon arriving, we were informed that we would be at the beach finishing pulling all the weeds. While we were working, people from an ad agency approached and asked to take our pictures for a Toyota promotional campaign. Last year, Big Cat Rescue won a truck from Toyota and was fortunate to have the chance to participate this year. Along with other volunteers, workers, and interns, we posed for pictures and participated in action shots of us volunteering. After that, we finished weeding the beach and found out that bees lived in the sand on the beach. Leaving the beach, we headed around the pond to plant flowers and clear tree branches, while Parker and Maggie went to the office to help with all the paperwork. They made copies and entered data into the computer. They realized that while it wasn't directly working with the cats, it was still essential for Big Cat Rescue so they could continue the work with the cats. Casey, Stephanie, Caroline, and Rachel went to plant various flowers around the property. While they were busy making the property even prettier with flowers, John, Jake, Erynn, Skyler, and Nicole were off removing tree branches that other volunteers had cut down this morning. Jake and John filled the truck then drove it to the newest part of the property where, eventually, the wood would be broken into chips and spread into a swamp to help mosquito control. Nicole, Skyler, and Erynn manually carried branches from the side of the road to the back property.

After this, we all took a break for lunch and then went back to planting flowers. The girls were planting by one of the tiger's enclosure (about five feet away) and the tiger crouched on his log. He sprung towards the fence and scared the people who were working too hard to notice the tiger crouching. Earlier in the day, a lioness had stalked a guest and sprung at her. The lioness, Sasha, gets really stressed around large groups of people and will get very agitated. So only the volunteers, workers, interns and very small, private tour groups get to see her. While planting flowers we also learned about how a lot of the cats are declawed and defanged. Even though the cats are defanged, the larger species of cats still have enough power in their bite to crush bone. And even declawed, a tiger can break a person's neck or back with the swipe of a paw. After all the outdoor work, it was time to back up tours. We still are learning so many new facts. For example, a male lion sleeps 22 hours a day. While all the girls plus Parker were planting flowers, working in the office, and giving tours, Matt, Jake, and John went to help build the roof of an enclosure.

Jake, Jon, and Matt helped build an enclosure's roof. Prior to his heart surgery, Vern, the founder's husband, built all of the cat enclosures. Due to his hard work over the years Big Cat Rescue has more than 200 cages. Many of these enclosures are connected. The cages are built out of double-galvanized steel fences for stability. One of the largest cages belongs to the bearcat that is Vern's favorite animal on the property. So, favoritism does pay off!

We learned more about Carole, the founder's, involvement in the program. She is still very active and sees that approximately 85% of profits go back to the cats.

Bengali got to go into his freshly weeded cage that we worked on the day before. The keepers used a piece of steel and augers connected to the original door as a safety precaution. As she released it the augers it was clear that Bengali was too anxious to return to his main cage, and was within 12 inches of Carole as she released the inside precautions. She made her way out of the cage to remove the steel bar wedged between the fence and the door that allows the cat to enter.

As the cat entered his cage he made a slow trot outwards, and immediately moving to the areas that we had been working on. He began to run around the enclosure and toss his 65lbs red ball around like it was nothing. We observed him making more runs up and down the enclosure, and even took a nice swim in his pond. Bengali was acting like a 2 year old instead of a 22 year old. This pleased Justin, the Vet, as well as the volunteers whom had been observing Bengali whilst the enclosure was repaired. The week prior, the sanctuary had to put down two tigers due to cancer, and they were worried that the absence of the two, would play have an impact and Bengali. Not to mention the stress that being removed from his primary enclosure had on him.

There is no clean way to end this blog post, so let's just leave it at "check back tomorrow for more big cat action!" Meow!