Lynn asks why we live off site?

 

(Photo is Carole and Jamie at one of the Fur Balls probably circa 2009-2010)

 

I'm curious as to why you have chosen to live off site?

 

My husband and I always left our doors open and because of the lack of facilities that meant that all of the volunteers and guests used our bathroom and our kitchen and the gift shop was in the dining room.  Some of the cats lived in the house, so tours came through to meet them.  All hours of the day and night there were people in my home.  A year after my husband disappeared I began dating and that was awkward under the conditions.  I moved back to a house that was three miles away, that I had refused to sell when Don and I moved to Easy Street, because I had loved it so.  This too is a magical place.  Jamie was living in a trailer on Easy Street, so she moved into my home and her trailer became the gift shop, restroom and volunteer area.  Last year, we needed much more space for the gift shop and volunteers so the volunteers took over the Rustic Cabin and Jamie moved next door to me on the “island” so that we could convert the largest building on the property to offices, gift shop and a media room where we hold meetings and do audio / visual presentations.  We just completed that move last month.  We still have six people on property to watch out for the cats and Jamie and I can be there in 5 minutes.

 

I have to run a real estate business and until last year continued to try and do that from Easy Street, but we have 50 volunteers and even though the volunteer committee was designed to alleviate that responsibility for me, volunteers still all wanted to stop into my office and say “hello”.  Most were quick about it, but there are always a lot of people who are there because they have no life and desperately want someone to notice them, to care about them, and they would stand in my door way for an hour telling me all the wonderful things they did for the cats.  I absolutely LOVE my volunteers, but because of the volume of them, I couldn’t get any work done.  When I am there, every decision is deferred to me, but when I am not there they do a wonderful job of making their own decisions and I try to support them, even when it may not have been what I would have done.  I supply cell phones to the staff and everyone carries two way radios or radio/phones, so I am never more than a ring away in an emergency.

 

My daughter found the same problem in living on the property.  Guests come from all over the world and are hungry to know everything there is to know about how Big Cat Rescue operates and most people want to talk to the highest ranking person they can find.  As President, Jamie was always having to entertain guests and unable to do her job.  Her job is to run the administrative side of Easy Street and to raise money through the gift shop and online gift shop.  She raises more than 150,000.00 of our half a million dollar budget each year by creating the adoption and membership packets, orchestrating the Fur Ball, and keeping the gift shops stocked and orders filled.  She works 5-6 days a week from 9 am till 6 or 7 pm and then at night she works on our videos, ad copy and other graphics needs at home.  Living on property she found that after hours, the volunteers all seemed to congregate in her living room, so she never had a moment of privacy.  Considering she’s been doing this since she was 12, that means half her life has been like this and she is REALLY happy to be living off the property now.

 

When we meet on Tuesday, I shall have with me the $35 fee for my V-Shirt, Zookeeper Training & Safari Guide, and information packet. Can I pay for this via check? I'm planning on attending the V-Orientation scheduled for March 27th. I would like to begin my weekly Sunday/Monday schedule at BCR on Sunday April 4. (The seven-year anniversary of my father's death is April 3.) How's this sound to you?

 

Since the cats will surely benefit from your book,