Tampa - Animals

B.C.R. Day #3

We crowded into our 12-person van this morning at 8 a.m. already looking forward to seeing our big, furry friends!

When we got to the site a senior partner greeted us and told us her Big Cat stories and about how she got there. It turns out that our British friend Pam has worked all over the world, from Switzerland to Shanghais, and gave us some memorable advise. But we never sit around long at BCR--soon we were off hosing down plants. While waiting for instructions for our next assignment the founder's husband, Howard, told us how great it was that we took our spring break to help them and told us how he heard of our group as he passed our email along.

Then we were split up. Some of us went to help rake leaves behind the fences where only the staff is allowed. Behind these fences we raked leaves in between the cat's cages in order to make everything look pristine for the guests on tour. While raking we were in petting distance form Nirvana the ocelot, who was very interested to see what we were up to so close to her enclosure, and Tonga the white servile, who was interested in us but slightly less thrilled that we were moving things around on her. Nirvana made a great supervisor, and was sure to keep an eye on us while we worked.

After raking the leaves we all rode in the back of the silver truck to dump the leaves in a pit. For most of us this was our first time riding in the back of a pick-up, which was like being in a video game or a safari movie as we cruised around the tigers.

After lunch some of the group went to the enrichment center, where they create items for the cats to play with. Since the cats now live the remainder of their lives in cages the staff at Big Cat creates things to make life more enjoyable for these great animals. In the center are items like perfumes, spices, paper products, and other arts and crafts related items. Today we took the first steps to make Easter eggs for some of the big cats. So we paper mached balloons with a water and flour mixture. The highlight of the process was when Skyler's balloon popped mid-mechee and splattered the mixture all over Maggie and herself.

While some of us were out doing these activities, others stuffed bags with Big Cat literature to give to the any of the guests that buy items at the gifts store.

Tonight BCR had a special event at the University of Southern Florida, so we headed out early from Big Cat in order to help out at the university. When we arrived we received tees and were asked to round up some students to attend the event. While scavenging for future guests we played Frisbee and wandered around the beautiful campus. The campus has a lot of fountains and tropical flowers, but it's not MIZZOU.

Hunger started to kick in, so after the event we decided to get pizza at a local favorite. Coming in from a parking-lot, Spice Girls dance party, the pizza was a bit surprising. Not only did it come out divided on two trays per pizza, but it was more like a pie around the edges and cut into squares. After trying something new, we decided to wrap up our night with another game of Frisbee back at the church.