Had to hire an off duty officer today 

because the crazy animal abusers have come to town for a conference called Take the Conversation Back.  It’s being run by the Calvary Group, who are considerably better organized and educated than our typical opponent.

 

Meanwhile, some good news.  Tim Van Norman, from the USFWS, set up a call with us and Christina Scaringe of Animal Defenders International to discuss the import of Hoover the tiger from Peru.  He wanted to grant it but didn’t want to base it on our meeting the requirements of the law, because he says it’s too easy for the bad guys to make the same claims.  He asked us to SAY that we would donate to tiger conservation in the future like we have done in the past.

 

We did him one better and donated $5000 when he said 1k would be fine.  Our import permit should be coming in the next 2 weeks if I got his drift.

 

Also USDA has a new lead person in APHIS who sent us all (the Big Cat Coalition) a letter saying they would educate the bad guys about why cub handling is bad, but were so vague that it seemed they were just trying to blow us off while being able to answer to Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Blumenthal.  Anna Frostic, atty for HSUS and Leigh Henry of WWF both seem to be more optimistic from their respective meetings, than what I feel from this letter.  We will see.

 

Last night we went to a fundraiser, at the Sena’s home on Davis Island, for Patrick Murphy, who is running for Congress.  On the way home we stopped at Sandy’s restaurant, Tampa Joe’s, to pick up my credit card that I left behind last Sunday when my mother and I went their for lunch.  Howie called my mother, putting her on speaker, to let her know that she could stop looking for it, and to tease me about being so forgetful.  Mom said I’ve always been this way.

 

I know I have been since the amnesia, but don’t know if I was always this way.

 

Later in the day:

 

Half way through Denny Mitchell’s tour a backup intern called for coordinator check.  Gale and I both went.  I stayed with the tour until they left the property.

 

Gale said they were asking the intern specifics about whether or not Teisha really belonged to us and about the other OH cats and taking photos of things that regular guests never do.

 

A small, thin, blonde, 20ish woman was the one asking all the questions and her friend, a larger woman, with a long blonde braid, was filming her asking and then filming the answers, but they seemed to be trying to act like they didn't know each other.  I glued myself to the thin blonde and she never asked another question, nor did she pull her camera back out, which I had been told she was using for video, but trying to make it look like she wasn't.  She was carrying it, awkwardly, and pointing at me initially, from what I saw, and then quit when I was right next to her for the rest of the tour.

 

She wasn't wearing the vox, but rather had it and the earbud, coiled up in her hand.  Everyone else at least had it around their necks, although a number of people weren't wearing the earbud.  Denny was talking loud enough that I could hear him in the back and he doesn't play the iPad stories.

 

I noticed there was one male, tall, bald, middle eastern looking who was engrossed in his cell phone, not wearing the vox, and who kept lingering behind.  He wasn't looking at cats when he lingered.  Just his phone.  A few times I had to leave the blonde just to let him know I was watching him too.  He was clearly with a young, dark haired woman of mid 20s and an elderly woman, who appeared to be her mother, who was riding the golf cart.  I was able to figure out that Cynthia F paid for the trio and the cart.  She also bought stuff at the end and was very polite and interested, according to Denny.  The decoy ;-)

 

At the Kitten Cabana the dark haired woman seemed put off by what we do with the kittens, which you don't see very often, and seemed to exchange glances with the thin blonde, who appeared to agree.  S