Please don't buy me gifts for the holidays!

There is only one thing that you could do differently for me, that would really make me happy, and that is to start using the automated tour on the iPads and iPhones. It pains me to walk around and overhear so many tours giving information that is wrong or not the best use of the short amount of time we have to educate our visitors. I've ignored it because I know how impossible it is to remember the stories of 100+ cats and work in all of the issues that we need to cover. That's why I have spent so much time trying to make the automated tour something that will work, regardless of which cats show up for your tours. It will need some tweaking, but we can't do that until it has been thoroughly tested by all of you, so please watch the video and take your own smart phones, with the free Big Cat Rescue app, or one of ours, out for a test run to get used to navigating and pressing the buttons. I would like the vast majority of our tours to be the automated tour so seeing you do this by Christmas would really make this my best Christmas ever.

I am in the process of tallying up the number of calls we got last year about exotic cats in need of rescue but think it was well under 30 and most were failing "sanctuaries". As 9 more states have passed bans, and momentum has been gaining for our federal bill, the bad guys aren't breeding and discarding as many cats as in years past. Just 10 years ago we had to turn away 312 big cats in a single year and that number was doubling every other year. A lot of that progress was due to YOUR efforts to end cub handling at malls.

In 2013 we lost 6 cats; Willow Siberian Lynx, Ty Serval, SARMOTI Tiger, Rose Caracal, Shaniqua Jungle Cat and Bella Tiger but rescued 12 cats, including King Tut Savannah Cat, Nala Serval, Skipper & Gilligan, Ginger the Canada Lynx, Mary Ann, Thurston, Lovey, Fencer & Khaleesi the bobcats, JoJo Caravel, and Reise Cougar.

We have purchased 9 acres NW of our corner, touching our border back by Jade and Armani the leopards and today are contracting to buy 4 acres along our southern border. Investing in the real estate around us is a better use of funds than the dismal return on CDs and gives us room to expand. We need to be prepared for displaced cats after the bill passes, although state bans have never resulted in a spike of abandoned cats. It doesn't make sense to spend resources building cages and taking in more cats as long as we haven't addressed the root issue, which is cubs being bred for pay to play and then discarded. Please know that you are changing history and will be remembered as the Big Cat Rescuers who made the world a better place for captive and wild exotic cats. This was the story time section of the volunteer newsletter.

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

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

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