What is a day like at Big Cat Rescue?

Some things happen EVERY day, some things happen a few times a week, some things happen once a month and some things happen once a year.  The problem with all of this structured order is that EVERY day there is some chaos introduced, so it is always a balancing act to take care of both the critically important, and the things that have to get done every day.

 

To Set the Stage

 

There are 100 exotic cats on 67 acres and about 80-100 volunteers and staff to care for them.  Some cats have more than one cage, or Cat-a-Tat, as we call them, so there are 110 cages and most are the size of a person’s home, up to half acre – 2.5 acres in size.

 

Our cats eat every day.  Most zoos fast several days a week, but our cats are old and no one likes to go hungry, so 7 days a week the cats are fed by a cadre of volunteers.  The food is taken from the freezers to the cooler a day or two in advance to thaw, and then each day special diets have to be made up for a huge number of our cats, because of medical issues they have, and all of the cats are fed.  We feed whole prey rats and rabbits two days a week and the rest of the week it is a combination of a ground beef diet, that has their vitamins and minerals pre mixed in, and chicken and beef chunks.

 

This is the happiest time of the day for the cats.  A couple hours before feeding they all start pacing around and calling out to the Keepers when they hear the wagons hauling the buckets full of food coming down the path.  Keepers shut the most dangerous cats out of the feeding lockouts before feeding time, so they can safely drop the food in on the platters.  Then the cats are let in.

 

Another thing that gets done every single day is the Cat-a-Tats all get cleaned.  That’s like cleaning 110 homes a day where the inhabitants poop all over the place and try to hide it.

 

Each Cat-a-Tat has one to three bowls for water and a platter for food.  Every single day the water is dumped out, the bowls are scrubbed and refilled and the platters are washed down.  If the cats dragged their food into the cage, the Keepers have to spot it and pull it out using long, L shaped scraper rakes to get the stuff to the side and tongs to pull it out through the side of the cage.

 

A lot of things are going on while the cats are being fed and cleaned as well.  All Keepers are looking for changes in the cats’ condition, behavior, food left behind and what the cats’ poop looks like.  They are looking for cage and grounds maintenance issues as well.  As soon as they finish feeding and cleaning they log into the computers and log their observations.  Those observations immediately generate emails to the vet group for animal health issues, and to the maintenance people for the cage and grounds work.  The Operations Manger, the CEO and the President are copied on all of these observations in real time so we all know what is happening.  Any of our volunteers or staff can subscribe to these alerts if they want to be informed and they all have access to our BigCat.me Intranet site where these issues are reported.  The Operations Manager then has to check off the Observation, once she has taken a look at the issue, so that everyone knows that someone in charge has double checked the situation.  All of the health related issues become a permanent part of each cat’s record.

 

Public Tours

 

We are closed to the public on Thursdays, but every other day of the week we have guided tours.  All tours are guided, with a back up to keep everyone together.  They are done in groups of 22 or less, so everyone can hear as the guide shares the stories of the cats and what people can do to protect them in the wild and from captivity.

 

Weekdays

 

We have a tour every week day at 3 PM (except Thursdays)  We also often will have busloads of children from schools, scouts, summer camps, etc. and busloads of cruise ship guests.  We offer private tours throughout the day, as we have volunteers avai