Flashes of Insight

It was a beautiful Florida day and a great time to visit one of my favorite places,EARS,a Big Cat Sanctuary. The smoke of the recent forest fires had subsided so it was safe to venture out for an extended time for a change. The weather was perfect and it was the good thing. Sultan, the almost pure white tiger cub who now probably weighs about 500 lbs loves to play splash with me. He has a big cast iron tub to soak and play in and he just loves to see how wet he can get me.

The first time that he showed me his tub,, he was so excited. I could hear him in my head telling me “Hey Flash ya gotta see something really cool!” Then he ran over to the tub and as soon as I got near enough, he stood on his hind legs making himself nearly 6 feet tall and came crashing down into the water throwing a tiger water wave over my entire body. Before I could catch my breath, he had done it again and now I was soaked to my skin. The next time that I visited him, he was already in his tub so I foolishly thought that I was safe from the deluge. Wrong! This time he came flying up and out of the tub and then came crashing back in to splash me. I always think that I can move far enough away and I am always wrong. He clearly sees it as a very fun game to splash Flash. Now I know to wear cotton when I go to EARS for this reason as he ritually soaks the whole front of me.

The last time that I had visited, Sue Sue, the young orange tigress that shares his space, was less playful and Sultan seemed to want to keep her away from visitors. Today she is totally affectionate and kisses my hands profusely. I look into her beautiful cat eyes and remind her of how I used to hold her in my arms and feed her her bottle when she was the same size as one of my cats. Her demeanor softend and we shared a most loving moment. I could really feel both of our hearts opening to each other.

Daunte, the white tiger next-door with brown stripes, was his usual adorable self showing his love for me and the flower essences that I gave him by kissing me all over my hands. He obviously remembers my holding him on my lap and treating him with these essences when he was a little cub as do Sultan and Sue Sue. Daunte has much better tub manners than Sultan and he encourages me to scratch the top of his head by rubbibg it against my fingers [which are outside his enclasure] as he luxuriates in his tub. He was excitedly and patiently waiting his turn with me while I was playing with his neighbors.

Tigers adore water, lions hate it and these fellows live for their tub time. Daunte lifts up one paw and grooms himself and rolls around a bit and again settles into his blissful bathing ritual which I am fortunate enough to share with him.

Today was clearly “cub time” for me with the cats and I visited the 3 young lions who barely resembled cubs anymore. I was shocked by their size. Venus, the female, who is usually more reticent greeted me first rubbing her head against my hand as I put it next to her turnout. She was so affectionate and it was delightful. Loki and Apollo were wrapped up in each other’s arms on their ledge dozing at first. Today was their second birthday and Loki’s mane was just starting to really come in. Loki has the sweetest disposition and turned himself inside out when Gail [one of the owners of EARS] came over kissing her face. She jokingly said,”He doesn’t know he’s supposed to be a lion!”.Apollo, the other male was less friendly today and he has become the largest of the cubs, probably weighing in at about 200 lbs.I believe that these cubs were confiscated by Fish and Game from some drug dealers who were busted.
The wolves were pretty feisty and the 3 new deer have grown and are bouncing around their large turnout. Amazing to see how big they have become since they all arrived at different times as tiny fawns. One of them is blind and I was there and able to treat her the day she was brought in off the highway. Now these beautiful creatures will never need to flee a hunters bullet or a car in the night. There are over 40 big cats total, most of them tigers, 7 lions, 2 leopards, about 8 cougars. a cervil,which is a small African cat and a bobcat named Bob.

Jumanji,the most magnificent lion king, was off to himself so I let him be. When I went over to see Sierra, the lioness who shares space with Zhivah the tigress, I was amazed at how peaceful they both were today. I carefully dodged neighbor tigress, Diva’s attempts to play with me with her paws that have good sized claws. It is most unusual to have that pairing, lioness and tigress, but these two really adore each other and were all cuddled up. When I approached to give them their flower essences, they were more enthusiastic than usual at which point Zhivah turned her butt at me and sprayed me in the face! I was used to watching out for this behavior when the males turned their backs to me and have dodged many a tiger’s spray but this caught me squarely in the face and across my arm. Thankfully tiger spray is not as stinky as housecoat spray but I still smelled pretty bad with clothes soaked in tiger water and my face and hair perfumed with tiger spray. Somehow though I secretly felt like I had been initiated into their clan.

I spent some nice time with Elka,the tigress who had recently lost her mate Haus and treated her with flowers for grief and loss. She is a most gentle soul and would love to just nurse cubs forever but EARS is not about breeding so when anyone’s cubs needed a Mom, Elka was more than happy to serve. When I first met her, the flower essence that she needed was Caretaker and that has never really changed.Today,she was very happy to see me and to know that I understood her grief. We commiserated for a while about loss of loved ones. I had tried to help save Haus about a month ago but his kidney failure was too far along.
Duke, my favorite tiger, was fast asleep which is often the case with the cats in the middle of a hot afternoon and today was no exception. A month ago I had gotten to spend several hours with Duke when I tried to help save Haus who was Dukes neighbor and it was a joyful reunion for both of us.

In any facility that I have ever worked, there are always a few beings that really respond and love the more vibrational remedies like flower essences and Duke is my Flower Boy. Some of the cats just tolerate the essences, some make the funniest wrinkled up faces when they taste the vinegar-based drops, and some cats prefer if I just put it in their water bowls. Duke would drink a whole bottle of Arbor Garden if I offered it to him.

When I was called in to save his life 2 years ago, I knew if anyone would respond to my methods, it would be Duke and he surprised everyone including me that day when I entered his cage where he had been lying for 5 days almost comatose. I worked on and off his body energetically and finished off with a good homeopathic to ideally start his heart. To all of our amazement and delight, he stood straight up within 5 minutes and his slow road to recovery would start. I never miss an opportunity to sit with him and get his wonderful tiger kisses all over my hands after several droppers of his fave Arbor Garden flower essence from Green Hope Farms. This essence makes you feel like you are being held by Angels.

When my parents visited, they were amazed by his affection for me and said “He seems to know you!” as he rolled over on his back when I approached his cage. “Of course he does”I replied, I spent every day with him for 2 weeks by his cage helping him get well. Contrary to what many people think, these animals never forget a kindness.

Owners Gail and Jaye were very busy getting ready for an event off premises so we didn’t spend much time together but I got a good chance to see all the cats. I even saw Bugsy and some of the other cougars and Faith and McGraw, the pair of tigers on the far side of the compound who had been left by a former owner.

They now have a bobcat and a cervil and even a tortoise named Frankie. Thanks to Zhivah, I smelled like a tiger in heat, among other things. Fortunately, none of the male tigers seemed to be phased by my aroma and just sniffed and licked me as usual.

Rick James was his usual sweet self and rubbed back and forth over my hands as I pet him through the wire fence of his turn out pen. This is not a breeding facility however, he and his sisters were accidentally conceived several years ago and have spent their whole lives at EARS. As cubs they even shared bed space with some of the people. Needless to say these are very sweet cats. As wonderful as all of them are though, I never forget for a minute that these are big wild and potentially dangerous animals and I pay close attention to the way they respond to me. If they are the least bit stand offish, I let it be and if they are growly, I give them a wide berth. You simply do not want to argue with a big cat about their attitude adjustment.

Tom Quinn, who was named after a favorite game warden, had arrived at EARS literally as skin and bones. When I first saw his picture, I couldn’t believe that there was even a live cat in the photo. Today, he is all smiles and looks up into my face so adoringly. he knows that this place is good and saved his life and he has not forgotten.. I am constantly in awe of these special beings even though I have known them for at least 8 years. I feel so profoundly fortunate to be able to look into the eyes of these beautiful cats and feel their deep hearts. This is probably one of my favorite places on the planet. I don’t know if its because I carry Cougar Medicine in Native American tradition, or am a Tiger in the Chinese Zodiac, but whatever it is I rarely feel better than when I am sharing time with these special beings.
When I finally arrived home, my mare Chinamoon seemed rather appalled by my scent and began grooming me as if I had been some errant child who had gotten herself very dirty and needed to be cleaned up before entering the house. She was so funny licking and nibbling at me with the most puzzled look on her face as if to say, “Where the hell have you been and who was playing with you?”

My youngest cat Star, who very much resembles a small version of Sultan, greeted me with wide eyes and bewilderment too. He could not place this smell in his repertoire of appropriate mommy scents and toddled off for more important things like dinner.
We are most fortunate here in North Central Florida to be in proximity to the “Hilton of Big Cat Rescues.”

Everyday more agencies call wanting to place unwanted big cats with them. It takes time,money, and an organization of committed volunteers to keep this place going with the ability to help more fortunate animals.

After hurricane Katrina, Jaye and another animal lover created a rescue space for the dogs that were brought in off the streets of New Orleans. I had been working with a simialr group in Gainesville at the time as well.They successfully adopted out or found the original owners for well over 400 dogs. In addition Jaye and Gail adopted a few dogs themselves. The dozen dogs that were not adoptable because of behavior problems will live the rest of their lives in the safety and comfort of EARS.

The public cannot have such a tactile experience for obvious reasons but for those who wish to become members and visit or better yet become volunteers and commit to certain work hours the rewards are immeasurable. You can contact EARS-Endangered Animal Rescue Sanctuary and Gail and Jaye @ www.BigCatSanctuary.org