My Puppy Was Almost Leopard Food

Hi Carole,

 

I found this today while moving some pictures around and trying to organize them better. That's me on the right with my friend Loren in 1998ish. This is the trip my wire fox terrier puppy almost became leopard food. Yeah, that was scary and stupid on my part! My mom, Loren, Coy the puppy, and myself were in Tampa for a horse show. I was trying to track down one of my horses to see how he was doing. We couldn't find him, but happened to pass Easy St. I had met you, Jamie, Aurora, and Jumanji earlier that year at an Earth Day celebration in Merritt Island and knew you guys as Wildlife on Easy St. I was bummed about not finding my horse and was 2 hours from home. Saw Easy St. and we ended up there at your place! I let my puppy out to potty before we left and didn't realize the fence with the overgrown brush was an enclosure. I thought it was a perimeter fence. My puppy was sniffing around and the next thing I know there's a leopard inches away checking her out! It scared me half to death! I snatched her up so fast she yelped! LOL

 

Anyway, Loren and I had the best time going through the sanctuary. My mom stayed back with the puppy for most of the tour. Your volunteers were so awesome they let us take turns, so my mom could enjoy the visit too! I remember at the end of the tour going into a house/gift shop where a rather hefty bobcat was lying atop a large night crate. I wish I could remember the name of that one. I have pictures somewhere. If I come across anymore pictures I'll send them.

 

BTW, when I sent my mom the link to the page you created she called me back in tears. She was so moved by it all. Thank you again for doing that for her.

 

Thanks,

Ryane Postell

 

I wrote her back saying, “Thank you for this throwback Thursday.  My guess is that you guys were petting Esmerelda Serval.  A hefty bobcat in the house, would most likely have been Raindance.  Leopards in the parking lot?  Most likely Jade and Armani. Only the last two cats are still alive.

 

We have evolved a lot since then and realize that when people show pictures of themselves petting wild animals it just makes others go out and pay to do it too.  That's what drives almost all of the captive breeding and suffering, so we won't be posting this photo of you guys, but I appreciate that you took the time to send it and to remind me of your visit.”

 

Things I’m Thankful For

 

I am thankful that WWF finally spoke out in the press against tiger farming and suggested that all 8000 tigers be relocated from the farms to sanctuaries today. They have not been very helpful in all the years of working with the International Tiger Coalition because they don’t want to be run out of China for their other projects.

 

I appreciate that Howie took the time to give a DC intern a tour today.  As he said, she has no influence and can’t help us, but she was so enthusiastic when she heard we had visited her boss in DC that she asked him to find us before we left the building so she could come see us in person.

 

I really had a nice surprise yesterday when so many of my team wrote articles and sent photos for the July AdvoCat newsletter.  I usually have to write the whole thing myself, but am grateful they all took ownership of their departments and wrote great stories to share with our 70,000 email list.

 

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and I’ve been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

 

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words a