Musings of a Keeper Walkabout Dec 10, 2008

 

If well received, this may be the first in a series of Keeper Walkabout notes by our staff and volunteers. As I walk about the sanctuary each day I often think how much our supporters would love to see what we see on a daily basis. It is so sad that these cats are in cages, but inspirational to see them make the best of it. This is an effort to convey the daily life at Big Cat Rescue.

 

As I arrived Kathryn was scurrying to the gate for a tour. Honey was busy in the gift shop and Jessica popped in to update me on the medical conditions of some of the domestic cats she has taken home to foster and place. The new intern was cleaning inside and outside there were “Blue Shirts” everywhere, buckets in hand, cleaning the cages.

 

Later Honey updated me on Hope and Ace the rehab bobcats. Hope weighs about six pounds now and has finally figured out that if you stick half your body into the pipe where the rats come from, the rats won’t come that way. Back before Ace was diagnosed with AIDS she would have been able to show Hope how to cheat, which is to get in the highest place in the cage and watch all of the rat holes at the same time. Because we don’t want the rehab cats to associate people and food Jamie had installed pipes to send the rats into the rehab cages, with the entry point far from the bobcats. Because Hope is getting too good at catching the rats, keepers had to extend the pipes much further away so that the arrival of the rat did not coincide with a keeper coming to clean their water bowl. There is a screen to hide behind while cleaning the water bowl, but bobcats are pretty smart, and we do all we can to insure they will survive in the wild when they get to go free.

 

The sun is shining through the fuchsia colored Bougainvillea that drapes over Windstar the Bobcat‘s cage outside my window. It is too pretty outside to be sitting at the computer, so I head out. The first cage I notice appears to be waist high grass throughout and guests must wonder why we don’t mow in there, but if you stand and gaze at the enclosure, you start to notice a maze of tunnels. Little bobcat size tunnels that weave and wind all over the 1200 square foot space. There is one special little sunning spot where the grass is padded into a purr-fect little cat bed with a view of the white sand beach and lake. Little Feather is the resident here and would surely throw a hissy fit if her grass labyrinth were altered in any way other than her own choosing. Mike was cleaning bobcat cages nearby but he knows that poo and leftovers are all you can take from Little Feather’s cat-a-tat.

 

About 30 mallards, here for the winter, took to flight as I walked too close to where they were hanging out with the swans and guinea hens waiting for Mary Lou and Rosie to feed them. That caught the eye of Apollo, Zeus and Anastasia, the Siberian Lynx nearby. Old Anastasia is crippled and diabetic, but was working on a mat in her ruff when the commotion began. A couple days ago it was 40 degrees and today it is 75 degrees and her coat doesn’t know if it is coming or going. As the old coats shed and new coats come in, some of the lynx look like Rastafarians with their dreadlocks.

 

Calvin the Palm Civet cautiously watches from inside his new den in his new enclosure. This new place has so many more great places to climb and root about thanks to the hard work of our keepers in transforming an otherwise bare space into a Palm Civet wonderland. Also enjoying his new digs, is Pappa Bear the Coatimundi. His former owners had cut off all his toes in a botched declawing attempt and shaved his tail to hawk him as the “world’s largest rat.” After the old bobcat Sheera died, Pappa Bear was the perfect candidate for her cage since he cannot climb or dig. Today he was rooting obliviously in the leaves and brush of his new piece of real estate.

 

Adonnis and Bagheera the Black Leopards were sacked out and sleeping so soundly that