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DAPHNE’S BIG CAT DIARY Part 4

Who would have thought that when I started my diploma in feline studies four years ago, my life would take on such a dramatic change!

Since then I have completed an animal nursing course, ended up teaching animal care both at college and school and, the most dramatic change of all, found a rescue sanctuary for big cats based in Florida, USA. It was during research for an essay on evolution of the cat that I found the place, then known as “Wildlife on Easy Street”. I had typed ‘Sandcat’ in the Google search engine and the first site that came up was this one.

Once I visited the website, I just knew that I had to go there in person. The rest is history, and I visited in both December 2001 and October 2003 (as recounted in previous issues of OUR CATS).

The Need To Go Back
In late 2003, Wildlife on Easy Street changed its name to Big Cat Rescue. The reason for this was twofold. Firstly, the original name gave the impression that all wildlife was catered for, and the sanctuary ended up taking in animals other than cats, everything from Lemurs, Binturongs and Civets to Patagonian Cavies and Ducks with broken limbs!

One of the binterongs.

This meant that there was less money for their original aim - to provide a safe home for unwanted exotic cats such as Lions, Tigers, Cougars, Leopards, Lynx, Bobcats and the like. Secondly, it gave the impression of “an easy life”, something that it definitely is NOT! Having stayed at the sanctuary as a paying guest twice, the word I would use to describe this place is “tranquility”, both for the cats and myself.

There is a real air of calmness. The cats do not generally pace up and down (unlike many in zoos) unless it is getting near feeding time, and it’s so quiet that you feel that you could be anywhere in the world, not just ten minutes from Tampa International airport and very close to a major road system. Staying here helps me to revive after a challenging few months at school. No pupils shouting, no phones ringing, just peace and quiet. Each time I leave, whether I have been for a two-hour tour or stayed for several days, I find myself becoming emotional and within hours I start to feel a very strong need to return. Having just visited in October, by Easter the following year I was already feeling the wanderlust again, so booked a flight to return in mid-July.

View over the lake.

However, this time I wanted to actually do something positive, rather than just wander round the site to watch the animals. I contacted Scott Lope, the Operations Manager, to ask whether I could actually work as a volunteer and he agreed. He would have liked me to stay for several weeks but unfortunately my commitments on this side of the Atlantic meant that I could only go for a few days. However, it would give me a taste of what it is really like to work with the cats.

In Preparation....
Going in July, I knew that the weather would be very hot indeed. I had fears of bad sunburn and so I decided to prepare myself for this by building up some form of a tan on a sunbed. For weeks I did my few minutes under the UV, building it up gradually, telling everyone that I had been to the Greek Island of Handsworth, Sheffield. By the time I got on the plane, I was no longer pasty white and quite confident that I could cope with the hot Florida sunshine.

But The Best Laid Plans: Day One At BCR…
After a long and at times frustrating journey, changing planes at Washington DC, I finally arrived at Tampa some two hours late. I had been travelling for 19 hours, but my journey was not yet complete… My friends, fellow Maine Coon enthusiasts Steve & Carol Lawson, met me at the airport and we drove for an hour down to Sarasota where they live, stopping off on the way for me to collect supplies for my stay at the sanctuary. Shopping at midnight in Wal-Mart (ASDA) on Sunday evening was actually a bit of a blur, but I got food and drinks to last me for the next five days.

The following day I was up at 5.30am and on the road back to Tampa by 7.00am, with Steve driving. We set off in rain and as we got closer to Tampa the weather got worse and worse, with torrential rain by the time we got to Big Cat Rescue. I signed in, took my clothes and supplies to my cabin and returned to the main area, ready to start work, but wondering what we could possibly do in this dreadful weather. I was issued with a walkie-talkie and a red t-shirt with the Big Cat Rescue logo on the front, and “Trainee” in huge letters on the back. Everyone who works at the sanctuary must wear their issued t-shirts at all times when on site as it identifies them as volunteers.

Volunteers with their cleaning buckets.

Note the colour of my t-shirt; I’ll come back to this later!
Within thirty minutes I was out in the pouring rain, helping to check that the cats had all been cleaned and watered. This is known as ‘double-check’ - one volunteer does a section of the sanctuary, and another checks that they have not missed any cats. It may seem laborious, but with so many cats, it is an essential part of the daily routine.

As we checked the cats, it became very evident that there was a drainage problem; many of the cages were starting to become really wet and fill with large areas of water. This was reported to Scott and within minutes we were issued with a variety of implements such as garden rakes and spades and were on our way to clear ditches that were full of pine needles, leaves and sticks. The rain was so heavy that the ditches and drains were becoming blocked with debris and the water was backing up into the cages.

So, within twelve hours of arriving in “sunny” Florida, I was in the pouring rain, soaking wet from head to toe, standing in six to eight inches of water (in my trainer shoes), fishing out debris from the ditches, being told to watch out for fire ants, poison ivy, spiders and leeches. Not quite what I had expected in The Sunshine State! So much for all my time on the sunbed!


Daphne all set to get cleaning out... and inadvertently dyeing her underwear!

The rain continued without letting up at all and we wondered whether we were going to have to build an ark for all the animals! The work was very hard, physical graft, but as the water started to move and the level in some of the cages started to drop, it was all worth it. Some of the cats loved the water - the new white tiger, Zabu, loved splashing in her newly-found pond, but others weren’t so keen. In particular, some of the caracals and servals looked like they really needed pairs of wellington boots as they splodged around in six inches of water. However, they weren’t really blessed with brains as they did have drier areas in their cages but insisted on coming down to the lower areas to watch us as we worked to get the water flowing again.

The next job was to remove heavy wet pine leaves from one of the empty cages. All the cages are made out of metal and we had to use stepladders to climb up on the inside of the cage to pull the debris through, raking it and collecting it in plastic refuse bags for removal. Looking back, I feel that this was the most dangerous activity that I undertook during my visit. You see, we were actually working in thunderstorms - on metal ladders in metal cages! I admit that the thunderstorms were in the distance, but being honest, this is the one activity that I really wouldn’t want to do again in this type of weather. The sobering thought was that just a few days before my arrival, Casper, one of the cougars, had been struck down and killed by lightning inside his cage.

Pink Undies….
Everyone was soaking and filthy - both animals and humans, and by the time I finished that night I can honestly say that I had never been so wet in my life. It was so bad that I actually got into the shower with all my clothes on, thinking that this would be less messy all round rather than trying to take my clothes off and get mud all over the floor. To make matters worse, having spent much of the day in ditches, I positively stank! Somehow I had to wash my t-shirt ready to be clean for the next morning. When I took it off, all my underwear was pink because the dye had run! My socks had changed from white to a very dark shade of grey. They were past redemption so went straight into the bin. I collapsed into bed and almost immediately fell asleep.

I had been asleep for a few hours when I was woken by a strange sound that I thought was a machine. I decided to get up to investigate, expecting to find some sort of generator. However, it was not a mechanical item, but loads of bullfrogs all croaking together in the darkness. I have never heard such a racket and it took some time to get back to sleep.

Day Two
Tuesday started as Monday had ended, with torrential rain. However, this time I was better prepared. Whilst it was raining, the temperature was still warm, so I put on my shorts rather than a pair of jeans as I had done the previous day. I decided that it would be easier to dry my legs rather than another pair of heavy jeans.

The ducks enjoyed the rain.

I also tied my hair up - two pigtails and a ponytail at the back. What a sight!!! By the time I got down to the food prep centre, having splodged through six inches of water for most of the way, I was once again soaking wet and rather bedraggled and my attire caused Scott to have a good laugh at my expense. The food prep centre had changed dramatically since my last visit. Gone was the old shabby portakabin, now there was a proper brick-built structure, in part thanks to the exhibitors at the 2003 Maine Coon Cat Club show, who had raised over $2,000 for the new structure. Now there was a large clean and very hygienic building to prepare all the food for the cats and other animals.

Work starts at 8am, and I was usually down at the centre by 7.30am. This gave me a few minutes to have a chat with Scott before the other volunteers arrived to start work. The days are long, often not finishing until almost 7pm with only a very short break for lunch. Obviously, the regular volunteers stay as long as they can, but there were also several interns, people who come to spend 3-6 months working at the sanctuary, and they are expected to work five or six days a week doing 11 hour days. For this, they get no payment or food but are provided with basic accommodation.

They have to support themselves financially during their stay. Reasons for doing an internship vary, but for most it is done to back up their degree course. One intern wanted to work with primates eventually and needed practical experience of working with larger animals; another (who was from Brazil) was training to be a vet and wished to specialise in big cats. There were two from the UK - one who was doing this as part of her work experience from a college animal husbandry course and the other who took three months off work just because she wanted to work with tigers. She is actually a secretary at a Scottish university, but having visited in 2003, decided to come back to work with the cats just to gain experience!

The day starts with the volunteers signing-in. Then everyone decides which area they want to clean. New volunteers work with more experienced people, but its not long before you are working independently. Buckets are set up - these contain different brushes, one for the water bowls and one for cleaning the feeding slab. The bucket also contains a pot with bleach solution in it, a large pair of barbecue tongs for collecting uneaten food and poop, a bin bag to place the poop and meat in, and a rather ingenious long metal bar that can be placed through the cage bars to fish out the poop in the first place.

The cats’ cages are never actually entered, unless the cat is locked up in its “lock-out” cage. There is no physical contact with the cats, except the “interactive cats” where people can actually go in with them. Even these are cleaned without entering the cage. It is important that no one touches the animals, even through the cage bars. Although some of the cats really want attention and it is very tempting to want to stroke them, it must be remembered that they are not domestic pussy cats, and if ever someone got hurt, even unintentionally by a cat grabbing the person through the bars, then the whole place could be closed down and what would happen to the 150 cats then?

The Cleaning Routine....
A strict routine is followed during cleaning. Firstly the tile on top of the water bowl is cleaned. Then the water is tipped out of the bowl over the feeding slab to moisten it and the bowl is cleaned. Then the feeding slab is scrubbed. A water hose is then used to wash the tile, bowl and slab and the water is replenished. One hose caters for several cats.

Tiger feeding time.

After finishing, the hose is turned off at the tap and emptied before being rolled up into a neat pile. Any food uneaten from the night before is recorded, as are any unusual behaviours with individual cats. Each cat is checked during cleaning, by observing it as it walks around, looking for signs of injury or illness. Problems are immediately relayed to Scott by walkie-talkie and he comes to examine the animal.

With almost 200 animals to care for, cleaning and double-checking takes most of the morning. Scott then gives everyone other jobs for the afternoon. This can range from landscaping to cage maintenance, cleaning vehicles, moving items around the site, helping in the food preparation area and of course, dealing with the tours that take place twice a day.

More Drains...
As the rain continued to pelt down, we found that although the ditches were now effective, the drains were becoming really blocked with silt and sand. Many of the roads on site were several inches deep in water, and all tours had to be cancelled, which is very bad news for the sanctuary - no paying public, no money to feed the animals! It costs over $1,000 a day just to keep the sanctuary going and this place gets no government aid. Without the paying public and their donations it would soon go under altogether. We had to get the water moving, and quickly.

New food prep. centre.

This meant digging some of the drains up and clearing the debris from inside the plastic pipes. The smell didn’t really affect me, although I was well aware of how much I smelt of stale sludge. Carol Lewis, founder of the sanctuary, came to visit me during the late morning. We swapped some things and she asked me to go out to lunch with her.

Old food prep. cabin.

I felt that I had to turn her down, as I smelt so bad! This was a disappointment, but at least we got to catch up with our news. She also gave me a pre-release copy of a new video that has just been completed, about the species of cat at BCR, as well as some of the stories behind individual cats. I watched this over and over after I came home, and hoped that at some point other members of the club would have the opportunity to see it too, so they can learn a little more about the place I hold so dear to my heart.

After clearing drains, a group of us were sent over to landscape one of the empty pens. This meant digging up ferns from one area of the sanctuary and replanting them in the cage. It sounds nice, but we were planting them in very muddy and often waterlogged areas. However, once done, the pen looked much better and is now partially ready for another new cat to be taken in.

And Finally The Sun Shone...
It was just after 3.00pm when that golden ball in the sky finally made an appearance for the first time in three days and once the sun shone I actually dried out pretty quickly! Other routine jobs were carried out and then we starting the feeding routine. Scott and other experienced keepers prepare the food for all the animals during the day.

There is a large freezer beside the food prep centre as well as a massive walk-in fridge in the centre itself, where meat is defrosted and vegetables for the non-carnivores is kept. There are several feeding routes and I was lucky enough to be on virtually all of them during my visit so I got to see almost all of the cats over the four-day period. Feeding is actually done by the keepers, those experienced volunteers who have been fully trained, and the inexperienced volunteers and interns get to pull the cart. Each cart is loaded up with buckets of meat and a list of individuals’ requirements is issued. Some of the cats get extra supplements such as glucosamide, which seems to help with joint problems in the older cats.

My favourite feeding experience was when Scott took me to feed his “specials”. This included Nikita the lion who had been confiscated in a drugs raid. Nikki had been used to protect drugs and had spent her first few months of life living in a basement on a concrete floor. Consequently when she arrived, just a couple of weeks before my first ever visit, she had huge lumps on her elbows and a number of behavioural problems. Who could have ever dreamed that she would turn out to be the most stunning lion with no physical evidence of her poor start in life?

She truly loves Scott and I was amazed at her gentleness as he fed her. His special charges also included Cameron and Zabu. These two recent additions came from a roadside zoo, a small unlicensed outfit where people can stop at the side of the road and pay to see them in small cages. At night they were kept in a basement. Their owner had planned to mate them - a male African Lion and a female white Tiger to produce Tigrons and Ligers, to make money as these cross-breeds apparently command high prices from people wanting to buy one. When the owner died, his wife could no longer afford to keep them and they ended up at BCR.

Their story is all too familiar, they were the lucky ones, but how many more end up being sold on to game farms in the USA where canned hunts take place? These establishments will drug the animal, often confining it in a small area and take large payments from individuals who then shoot the animal and have it stuffed as some form of “hunting trophy”. Yes, unfortunately this does happen.

Thankfully Cameron and Zabu have been saved from this torture. At that time the two cats were living in separate pens to prevent any unwanted pregnancy, but because they have lived together for so long, a large enclosure was being built so, after appropriate permanent birth control had been implemented, they would be put back together.

Because they had been handled since birth, these two cats were very friendly and, like Nikki, they were very gentle with Scott as he fed them. The bond between Scott and his new feline charges was already developing.

Next Week: Daphne’s Hard Work Continues…!

By DAPHNE BUTTERS