Carole Baskins Diary

Deep Sea Fishing

We got up at 6:00 am and had a wonderful breakfast of fruits and breads at Spices.  We took a cab to Aqua World Tours to go out for a four hour, deep sea, fishing expedition.  Alan Schreier had suggested Dramamine for motion sickness and I was glad he had.  The boat was about a 35 foot cabin cruiser and there was only one other guest; a man from Argentina on board.  He and Alan Schreier made conversation although neither of them was fluent in the other’s language.  I loved the rocking and swaying of the boat and would have paid the $70.00 per person just for the ride.

 

I had a thought, as we were rocking about on those five foot swells, ten miles off the eastern shore of Mexico.  I don’t want to live in sin but as yet am unwilling to give up half of all I worked for in order to obtain a divorce from Don.  Alan Schreier has made it clear that the money doesn’t matter, but that neither does the marriage certificate.  As to the money he has said, “It’s just money.  We’ll make more”.  As to the legalization of our bond he has said “I don’t need a piece of paper to be in a committed relationship.”  It’s my understanding that Maritime Law exceeds ALL local laws and that you can be married by the captain of a ship.  If I married Alan Schreier at sea, would it then be an accepted marriage anywhere?  I can’t marry him in the US until Don is found dead or I divorce him.  That could be another three years and I don’t want to be in violation of God’s Law on adultry or (fornication, whichever it happens to be) for that long.  The Bible does not set forth any prescribed ceremony for marriage, and recognizes common law marriage, but it does require that the Christian abide by the law of the land.  US law prohibits me from marrying while still legally married to another.

 

I know Alan Schreier is the last man I will ever love.  I could never be with another after knowing this wondrous, reciprocal love.  Before Alan Schreier, I could’ve been happy with any man.  I can be happy no matter what hand I’m dealt, but the happiness he has brought me, through his kindness and loving nature is more than I ever bargained for.  Nothing else could ever compare.  Without Alan Schreier there could never again be true love.

 

I find myself in the middle of the ocean wishing I had my laptop computer so I could pull up Maritime Law and see if it addresses the problem of one person in the marriage possibly being already married.  Looking for a loop hole.  I asked Alan Schreier where the line is that separates local law and Maritime Law and he says it is 16-20 miles and cites the cruise ships and the gambling laws.  Would he jump ship and swim for shore if he knew why I was asking?  He’s already told me he is committed and I know his history has been to be loyal even when he wasn’t in love, so what am I wrestling with?

 

He is Jewish and does not believe that divorce is a sin.  To marry me would not, in his mind, forevermore bind him to me.  I would only be binding myself, as the Christian believes there is no excuse for divorce other than adultery (and I don’t believe he would ever give me that reason).

 

My rush to marry him is two fold.  To make my life right with God and to protect him financially in the event of my death.  I would want Alan Schreier to find love again and want to be sure he never suffers another set back in whatever areas I can protect him.  I can assure him of my continued love and admiration for the course of my life, but want to take care of his every need.

 

We read, watched movies and then dined at Spices.  The food was great, the ambiance romantic and the company terrific.

 

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

Yielding

The music, sensuous and low

Surrounds me like the velvet night

Beneath celestial starry glow

It bathes me in the faint moon light.

 

Your kiss, a memory on my lips

A yesterday has come and gone

Back to that time my mem’ry slips

Escape from being all alone…

 

In every thought, you are a part

So much so, I don’t even know

Where my world ends and yours does start

As more entwined our two lives grow.

 

I feared my sense of self, I’d lose

If I should yield to any man

Allowing him to help me choose

A part of how my life is ran.

 

And yet to you I freely give

Carte Blanche to choose for both of us

The way that we’ll select to live

Because in you I fully trust.

 

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 and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet. 

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

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You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

Life is wonderful.  I am in love.  My family is healthy.  My daughter is making her own new life and is doing a great job of it.  The refuge is nearly paying for itself.  I don’t owe any back taxes.  Life just couldn’t be sweeter!

 

I am moving back to “the island” and Jamie is moving into my home here at Easy Street.  Two days ago Nairobi gave birth to a huge, lovely, snow white kitten, much to our surprise, as we thought they had been fixed, and the saga continues.  Jamie is going to raise him in between tiling her new home, painting, wall papering and all the other skills she has taught herself.  I have been working for the past three weeks to get “the island” cleaned up of all Don’s old sheds, trash and debris.  I asked Alan Schreier to move in with me there and he accepted.

 

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 and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet. 

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

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 and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet. 

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

Mom Thinks She Sees Don Lewis

On April 14, 1999 my mother faxed this to the detectives in the Jack Donald Lewis missing person case #97-069358

 

Dear Detectives Lingo and Fernandez:

 

Although I make an extremely poor eye-witness, I feel I need to report that on Friday, April 9, 1999, around 6:30 p.m., while driving south on I-75 about 1/2 mile north of the exit for Dade City, I thought I saw Don Lewis in an old faded vehicle with dealer plates. 

 

My son, Vernon Stairs, Jr., age 31, did not see the driver but was looking at the vehicle.  He says it was an old faded light blue Chevy Astro van or Ford Aerostar.  I remembered it as a full-size faded dark gray station wagon.

 

I do not know if he turned at the Date City exit as he was doing about 60 mph and I was doing 70.  He was born and raised in Dade City.

 

I must admit there have been many times that I thought I saw him but was mistaken as I got closer.  This time I did not slow down to get a better look as my sister had taken an extremely bad fall and was in a tremendous amount of pain so I was trying to get her back to Tampa to her doctor.

 

Possibly the Pasco Sheriff’s Department might be able to contact some of his old neighbors in the area in which he was raised to see if he is back.

 

I am sorry I didn’t go back to check but was pressured at the time for concern for my sister.  Regards, Mary N. Stairs.

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

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 and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet. 

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

The Warning

 

 

Fate nearly took the breath from you

Without a warning you’d be gone

My lingering days would be so blue

If you had left me here alone.

 

I thought so first, the day we met

That you one day my heart would break

And that sad day may still come yet…

My heart has so much here at stake

 

It tells me “run” and save the pain

That only loving one so much

Could turn my sunshine into rain

By ever losing your kind touch

 

But I’m so smitten by your love

I couldn’t leave to save my soul

So tearful prayers to God above

Pray for deliverance from the roll

 

I pray that in His mercy sweet

He’s changed the vision that I’d seen

And let this warning make complete

This awful fate that could have been

 

And grant to us the time to know

A greater love than gone before

To nurture it and watch it grow

A wondrous thing, forevermore!

 

The night before Alan Schreier had called me to ask me to dinner, but the Tigers had busted loose and Jamie and I were frantically trying to separate them, so needless to say, I didn’t get the call.

 

He went to Dominick’s Deli at the corner of Ehrlich and Hutcheson and was eating a sandwich, when he choked on a piece.  A nurse saw what was happening and tried to administer the Heimlich Maneuver but she was too small and Alan Schreier was turning blue.  She called over the biggest guy she could find and after several thrusts, Alan Schreier’s windpipe was cleared.

 

A couple weeks later his ribs are still hurting, but he is alive.  Thank You God!!!!

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only.

Tampa Bay alternative newspaper, Weekly Planet, ran lengthy cover story about Don Lewis, a.k.a. the Cat Man.  Published March 25-31, 1999

 

Into Thin Air

 

On August 19, 1997, an enigmatic millionaire vanished — leaving behind a tangled web of lies, and an estate over which his heirs and associates are still snarling like the wild cats he collected. But most of all, he left behind a mystery that deepens with each strange new revelation.  By Lynn Waddell

 

Down a bumpy shaded dirt road called Easy Street, past a half dozen trailers, behind an eight-foot chain- link fence, lurks the legacy of Don Lewis. More than 200 tigers, lynx, bobcats, panthers, caracals and leopards slink around in shaded mesh pens, looking as cuddly as house cats and eating 10 times as much. Occasionally, one will dine inside the adjacent small ranch-style home of their master, Carole Lewis, Don’s wife.

 

Dressed in a sheer leopard print blouse with matching tank and knee-length leggings, the tall blonde Carole Lewis talks about the disappearance of her husband as she glides among the kitty compounds. His story is frequently interrupted with introductions to the big cats she sweetly addresses as “baby” and “my boy.” She gives the cats’ history, and occasionally pets one. She does it keeping her hands flat to the mesh fence, warning that they will bite.

 

Carole and Don Lewis started this refuge in 1992 after buying 56 bobcats to save them from a furrier’s scalpel. Today, Wildlife on Easy Street is a nonprofit attraction with more than 100 volunteers. All that’s missing is Don Lewis, who still finances most of it.

 

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 and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet. 

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only.

Who Was the Little Boy Traveling with Don?

 

I spoke with Susan Ranella Lawson this morning who relayed a strange story to me.  She was calling to have me ship her a lynx or lynx hybrid kitten that Don promised her in the winter of 1996.  She said he had arrived at her house in an old, beat up greyish blue van and had a very spotted female bobcat, the hugest cougar she had ever seen in her life and a 12 or 13 year old boy.

 

She said it had been obvious that they had been on the road a long time and they had been sleeping on a foam, egg crate pad in the van.  She said Don took the cougar out of its wire crate and the boy was scared to death of it and climbed up into the front of the van to avoid it.  She said the little boy was very quiet.

 

Don traded her the bobcat for a small, three year old male Canadian Lynx and told her he was going to breed it to a Bobcat and give her a kitten back, or a Canadian kitten if that didn’t work.  She said Don was on his way to the Woods and Waters Auction in Ohio.  I rechecked my diaries from 1996 and 1997 and found no reference of Don going to the auction, but I was pretty happy when he was gone and therefore not as compelled to write.

 

My concern is, who was the little boy and what happened to him?  Debbie Sampson could have been mistaken for a boy, but she was never afraid of the cats, so it didn’t sound like her.  I told Susan that the cats had never arrived here and that Don was notorious for picking up cats along the way to auctions and then selling them there so that I wouldn’t know about it.  I asked what she thought I should do and she said the best I could.

 

She said she doesn’t want money, but rather an animal and I told her that I would not send one of our animals to her but that I would consider diverting an animal her way if a rescue call came in.

 

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 and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet. 

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only.

Ode to Alan Schreier

What rapture is this that you bring?

What made this lonely heart to sing?

What pleasure could dare take the place

And all the memories erase?

 

What gentleness that soothes my soul?

Your healing touch has made me whole!

In not so long, I realize

I melt into your tender eyes

 

And lose myself in thoughts of you

Something I thought I’d never do.

Be tough and strong was ‘fore the plan

Convinced I’d go on with no man

 

I was too strong to e’er give in

And feel the pain of love again

So what raised you above the rest?

What magic is it you possess?

 

Why couldn’t I just walk away

And call it just another day?

What makes you my heart’s desire

Ignites in me this passion’s fire?

 

If it be lust, then I will know

That one day I can onward go

With fond recount and no regrets

For feeling what I had not yet.

 

But if it be the dread word- Love

Defining what I’m writing of

Then help me not, of this to boast

But rather be, what you need most.

 

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 and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet. 

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only.

Coming to you from 2018 with memories of Alan Schreier

 

From the future:  Looking at journal entries, I obviously broke up with Richard Martin last year and in a couple of days I’ll be going all poetic on Alan Schreier.  Maybe I say later how I met him, but at this moment, I can’t remember.  What I did wake up remembering was Alan’s ex-wife, Sheila D. Goggins.  She was tall, voluptuous, had long blonde hair and had been a model.  She had a most beautiful face from the photos I had seen of her.

 

The reason I thought it noteworthy to mention her here is in the “small world” category.  At some point in our early get-to-know-you stage, Alan had talked about how he was utterly taken by surprise when Sheila had asked for a divorce because she was going to run off with a real estate investor she’d come to know through her father, Clay Dean Goggans.  The real estate investor was leaving his wife for her.  I knew that name because Don had frequently gone to the used equipment auctions with Mr. Goggans and I remember some real estate deal between the two for a large commercial parcel where Clay Dean parked a bunch of the vehicles.

 

I listened as Alan rambled on and the more he talked about this mystery man named Don (he didn’t know the man’s last name) I was sure it was Don Lewis.  I believe their divorce was in Dec. 1989 which is also when Don was divorcing Gladys.  It made me wonder if Don’s story to me was true, that Gladys had asked for the divorce so she could marry Mr. Cross from her church, or if Don was so enamored by Sheila that he initiated the divorce?

 

I’d heard Don mention her name before, in connection with her father’s interests, but had no idea that she was anything to him.  Don loved to play those games though, where he was at high risk of being caught, but not just quite.

 

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 and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet. 

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only.

Hercules Snow Leopard Slips His Harness

 

 

We had been out at an event and I was walking Hercules on a harness from the parking lot down the north side of the house when he slipped his harness.  I decided not to act like I noticed, since he didn’t and we continued walking back to his cage and he walked in.  I just let the leash touch him from time to time from behind his head so he thought he was still tethered. 

 

The last thing I wanted to do was chase this happy go lucky snow leopard all over Hell’s half acre.  He could easily leap 20 feet at a pounce, so I was fortunate that he didn’t recognize his momentary freedom.

 

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 and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet. 

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only.