Easter

This is the bench that I made for Elvis the bobcat! 

Easter was an enjoyable affair even with all the tornado warnings. I colored 5 dozen eggs and brought them to the cats for an Easter treat. All the cats really loved them and I had a grate four hours trying to feed them all out. Today was my day off and finished giving them all out because the weather was so bad on Easter. I really was determined to have an Easter dinner so I convinced a few of my close friends here to all cook something and we will all squeeze around our little table and share it. It was an awesome collection of starches! Haha. We all had not been to the grocery store in around 6 days or so because of the weather so we all cooked whatever we could find. We had pasta with shrimp, sauteed potatoes and green beans, corn, biscuits, green beans, french fries, fruit salad, brussel sprouts, more potatoes, chips and the list goes on. It was very fun :). Hope everyone's Easter was great!

Weather

Tuesday was scary. I shook the entire night, I’d like to say it’s entirely due to left over adrenaline but I know it’s not true. I left for my tour at 4 o’clock and there were some very ominous looking clouds coming quickly. I heard Emily, our supervisor, radio to ask Katie (working in gift shop) to check the weather. Katie said that the radar didn’t show any sign of bad weather, so we continued on like normal. On my tour I had some panicky guests asking if we were going to get rained on and I said that there is a chance and if it starts to rain, we will hurry back. Sure enough, about half way through the tour the clouds were square on top of us and it slowly started to rain. We speed walked the rest of the tour and at the end heard a radio call from Emily to start feeding now and get it done. She it started to pour on us as we were feeding and then the hail came. Gobstopper size hail! It was crazy, and it hurt! Once we got around towards the end of feeding, Katie and I were completely soaked and started hearing radio calls. One was from the other Katie in gift shop saying that there were warnings for severe weather. We continued feeding but informed the guests watching feeding about the weather. 5 minutes later Katie radioed about more severe weather, hail and a tornado watch. The there were a series of radioing static something about tornado, but Katie and I could not hear it. We were feeding 600 lb cats during hail under a tin overhang. All of a sudden I see staff running through the compound and Emily shouting on the radio to get out of the habitat field and get the guests and ourselves inside. Everyone scattered and ran for inside. Katie and I ran around to make sure all the cat’s den doors were open and headed for the giftshop. Apparently there was a tornado warning, which means a tornado has been sighted in the area.  Sure enough there were three touchdowns in Clifty, a town about 5 miles away. We all watched out the window at the terrifying funnel clouds. It was absolute silence in the giftshop for a long time. All I could think about was the fact that there are 120 big cats sitting outside behind, for which I could do nothing about. The cell ended up passing us 5 miles south, so we watched it travel slowly past us and went home.

The next day wasn’t really much better, creepy solid dark gray sky all day with lots of thunder and lightening. More tornado watches, but just the watch not a warning. As I was cleaning the storm started getting really bad, the thunder was so loud you could feel the building shake. Those tremendous cracking noises from the thunder was bad enough but then the lightening started to get worse. Good five to ten second streaks. It started to hit close around the refuge so we decided to go inside for a moment and as we were walking it the lightening hit on the compound, so close we could hear the sizzle after. The well got hit so the water is out for a while. I can definitely say I have experienced the southern weather.

The past three days we have gotten calls from farmers who had some of their livestock hit by lightening. When an animal like that in the area dies, who has not been give any medications or been sick, the farmer can bring it to the refuge to feed out to the cats. So Thursday we got a 30 year old horse that had died of old age, Friday we got another horse that had been hit my lightening and yesterday we got a cow that had also been hit by lightening. I must say, the first time I had to help with the butcher was a little alarming. I’m not squeamish or anything but it is a pretty intense process. All of the animals were at least over 700lbs. It was something I had to deal with, process and get over quickly though because it happens a lot and it is really great for the cats. We have had a lot so far this internship, I think previously we have received a hog, several deer and a donkey. Somehow it was always on my gift shop day or on my day off so this week was the first time I have had to butcher. I guess you can say that I worked a hard days work since I came home covered in sweat, blood, poop and mud. Ah the life of working for animals, gotta love it.

Today is Easter! With some of the worst storming yet. The past four days, the weather site has had alerts and warnings of severe weather all day but today it had a red band around today and tomorrow saying severe weather. I have never seen rain like this and for so long. It has been raining for three days and is supposed to storm until Wednesday. Right now we have flash flood warnings and the King river is overflowing. This was not part of the deal when I had my interview!!!

I am on lunch now and when we go back we are going to feed early because the worst of it is supposed to start at 3. Going to feed out cow today. The cats do really enjoy butcher days because it means fresh meat. You can almost picture them in the wild seeing a lion with a big cow leg in their mouth. Circle of life. 

Enrichment

Again, another cute day as far as the cats are concerned. This morning on Tiger row, BB King was being playful with the hose. He chased the stream everywhere and bit at it like Rocky and Jake do when the hose gets turned on. I thought it was cute with a dog, wait til you see it with a tiger. Today was 88 with 80% humidity. HOT. We turned on the misters for the cats and put up all the shade cloths. I made a "bloodcicle" for the cats. (Froze the left over juices from the meat and froze it.) I gave it to Thunder 2 (Tiger), he daintily held it in his paws and licked it until it was gone. I gave it to Cindy and Ales (cougars) who smacked it out of the air and chewed on it. I have it to Wanoka, Bobby and Tiger ( bobcats) where they rolled it around and licked it. And I gave a little to Rayn, she bit into it and it was gone in seconds.
We also froze a bucket of water with grapes and watermelon in it for Bam Bam the Grizzly bear. (Pictures to follow) and he stuck his nose down inside the melty part and ate all the produce, the proceeded to skate around on the remaining ice.
We got a barrel full of carpe donated. Creepy looking fish. We gave them out to the bears, who had more fun swinging them around like a rope toy than actually eating the 12 lb fish. Bam Bam demolished his. When we came back to clean it up, there were little bits of fish gut EVERYWHERE.
I found a tarantula AND a scorpion today! SCARY!

Lately

Today has been a very good day. All the cats enjoyed the weather and were being extra adorable. When Katie and I finished checking locks on the first habitat of the day and let Tigger 3 out, he shot out of his lockdown into the habitat and ran a lap around the perimeter. Then he saw me over by his water and dropped to the grass to stalk me. He got all excited and leapt to his feet and bounded over. After having a very lengthy conversation with him (he moo's like a little cow) he flopped over on his side for some back scratches. Then out of no where, spotted the boys (two lions that share his habitat) and ran over only to roll over and grab his own back foot to wrestle with. Such an amazing five minutes.  As we moved on to the next habitat I saw a little cougar face poking her head of the den. Nala loves to stalk and so I crouched down and crept over behind her den. I snuck up to the door and then took of running so that Nala could chase me. Luna and Ruby battled for a spot at the fence for scratches (Luna is very "well- rounded" so she usually one haha) and then I heard some squeaking/meowing from behind me, Star (cougar) was trying to get my attention. As many times as I said her name, she always responded with a squeak. As I walked over to pet Star, I heard a similar noise, again, from behind me. Shasta was complaining that I was leaving her group without her getting a chance for a little cougar massage. As the morning wore on, we got over to Shir Khan's habitat. When we let him out he walked over to his habitat water bucket and started to drink. He drank for so long he laid down, I mean, might as well! I chuffed at him (I do to all of them but I love Shir Khan so much that I was waiting for him to come over to say hi to me) He was so happy that I was waiting for him that he chuffed between laps of water. Much have taken a lot of stomach muscles! Then later I visited with Hercules, who is not friendly, but so so so cute. He has a rough back story so I don't blame him for hating people. I gave him one of the duck's eggs I found that morning. (Ginger and Dr. Quacks - Doctor of Quack-a-nomics- are both female, so when we find their eggs we give them to the cats as a treat.) Hercules trapped the egg between his paws and smushed it a little and licked. He kept squishing it just a little bit at a time, probably savoring it. After I was done watching Hercules I looked over to find Heather, just to see her crouching in the tall grass stalking me. So I got up and pretended not to see her. I went to hide behind a log so she couldn't see me and we spent about 10 minutes playing hide and go seek. She only ever poked her head above the log just enough to spot me. Little glimpses of dilated pupils and tiger nose is just the best experience. She was so playful, you could hardly see her iris, her pupils were so very dilated.

Stories

These are some of the stories of the cats that we have rescued and you'll see why they needed rescuing so bad...

Sheba (cougar) Sheba came to us in 2007 from a man who had rescued her from his niece. He did not want a cougar for a pet but knew if he did not take her from his niece, Sheba would have suffered and died. He contacted us shortly after Sheba started to recover from severe malnutrition and abuse. She had been starved to the point where all her bones were showing and had been used as pellet gun target practice. Since she has gotten here she has become one of the most friendly cougars at the refuge. You wouldn't expect this knowing her upbringing, but you can always count on Sheba for some love. She will lay there all day if you continued to love on her and runs to the fence everytime you walk by. If you call her name she talks back, purrs as soon as you touch her and rubs up against the fencing for more. Lucky (lioness) Lucky was rescued in 2001 from a warehouse in Texas. She had been kept in this warehouse with no sunlight and poor nutrition all her life. Because she had never been exposed to sunlight, her eyes never developed correctly and she is blind. She has a lot of bone deformities so she is very unstable on her feet. She also has some neurological damage because her equilibrium is off. She has been though all sorts of testing and medication but nothing conclusive has come from it. She is a very happy cat now. Her quality of life despite her deformities, is great. She roars and snarls just like the rest of them at feeding time, so loud so that you can feel it in your chest. And she meanders out into her habitat to sunbathe and play with her ball. Vada (black leopard)  Vada came from a police officer in Montana. The officer bought him thinking it would make him more intimidating to have a leopard in his cruiser. Vada didn't like it and injured the police man. The mans response was to take pliers to Vada's canine teeth and snap them off. Vada came to Turpentine creek with exposed nerve endings, rotting teeth, no canines and very skinny due to not wanting to eat because of the pain. Some dentists in Arkansas donated 13,000 worth of resources and gave Vada a whole new set of teeth. So now he can eat happily with his new metal teeth. He is quite an old cat, but its so fulfilling to see him in his element, sun bathing in the tall grass. He is a very friendly cat despite his beginnings. You can almost read the contentment on his face.  Tsavo (lion) Tsavo is a very sweet lion. He was originally a circus lion and was deemed not ‘mean enough’ and was given to Predator world. Tsavo endured a lot during the period when the circus workers thought they could make him more aggressive. He was rescued from the Predator World Zoo, which is primarily a facility for aqautic life and decided that the best thing for all of their large carnivors was to have TCWR assume responsibility for all of them. We rescued seven big cats, a bear and a coatimundi from Predator world. Regardless of Tsavo’s difficult upbringing, he a very sweet, playful and charismatic lion. His favorite thing is scent enrichment, especially cheap perfume. He smashes his face against whatever I've sprayed it on. If it his 50 lb ball, he will pick it up and roll onto his back and bear hug it. He a very sweet natured lion, one of the only lions I feel comfortable petting.  Hercules(tiger) Hercules is the cutest thing ever. Probably one of the most aggressive cats here but I don't blame him. He was bought from a breeder in Texas and lived with a private owner in Edinburgh, Texas until he was two years old. While he was living with the private owner, he was house in a cage 4’ wide by 6’ long by 4’ high with a plywood bottom. He was never able to stand up in his cage which caused his bones to develop incorrectly and prevented his muscles from ever developing as well. When he got to TCWR he was so crippled he could barely move around since his hips could not support his weight, but since he has had space to stretch his legs for fifteen years he has become much more active. He has full mobility now except for a slight limp in his hind legs. When I go walking by his habitat I usually wait for him because he likes to walk with you but it takes him some time to get up and make it over to you. He is very aggressive at feeding time but thats like all of the cats. He isn't the type to want pets and lovin' but he is a social tiger and likes to follow you around and check out whats going on. Some more stories  to come!