Turkeys Abound!

Last Saturday, In-Sync Exotics held a Turkey Toss for its cats, and the public was welcomed to observe the feasting.  Our local Wal-Mart store donated 42 turkeys for this special event!  Thank you very much Wal-Mart for the turkeys--they were a huge hit with the cats!

We were almost afraid the event might not go on as scheduled since a cold front was predicted in the early afternoon.  The wind was horribly cold and leaves were blowing in every direction!  Even though the temperature dropped about 15 degrees by 1:00pm, we decided no matter what, the cats would receive their turkeys!  

Before we could distribute the tasty birds, our fantastic volunteers cleaned and removed the plastic/metal ties holding the birds' legs together so our animals would not eat these inappropriate items and all the gibblet bags were set aside so we could give them out to the cats later as a special treat.

Once the momentous task of preparing the birds was completed, we carried out four pallets of turkey from the commissary and joined our guests who braved the weather to watch the cats receive their turkeys!  Each large cat received his or her own bird, and the smaller cats received half a turkey or just a drumstick, depending on the size of the animal.

Our guests were amazed by the big cats' powerful jaws as they were able to crunch down on the entire bird.  In this video, Jasmine demonstrates how she eats a turkey:

The wild ones loved their turkeys and they made it clear they had no intentions of sharing!

  

As you can imagine, folks weren't really interested in the cookie decorating contest or arts and crafts due to the changing weather.  They were more interested in decorating their own cookies and munching on them while watching the cats dined on turkeys.

Huge thanks to Fawn Payson who brought the cookies and most of the decorations and to Darla Ellington for her efforts in acquiring six donated cake pans of rainbow colored icing from our local Albertsons!  Thank you Albertsons for your generous and tasty contribution to our event this year!  Even though we didn't hold the cookie decorating contest, everyone thoroughly enjoyed decorating and eating their own tasty treats--the cookie decorating station was a hit!

Another hit was our new hoodies and hats! As you can imagine, both came in handy as the weather changed.  Thanks to our wonderful visitors, we were able to raise $1,843 (donations and merchandise sold) on Saturday!  Thank you everyone for making our Turkey Toss such a success!

Now on to the Emma tiger coloring contest...drum roll, please!

We have a first, second and third place winner!  So without further ado, here are the winning coloring pictures and the names of the artists!

3rd Place Winner is Keira Schmitt (5 years old)!

2nd Place Winner is Ashley Schmitt (10 years old)!!

And our 1st Place Winner is  Maxwell Voegeli (8 years old)!!!

Congratulations Maxwell, Ashley, and Keira for submitting the winning entries!  We'd also like to thank all the children who entered in the coloring contest--it was truly a tough decision for Vicky to select just three winners! 

Our Turkey Toss was featured on the MyFoxDFW, Channel 4!  Did you happen to see us on the evening news?

We'd like to thank everyone (especially our volunteers) who helped make this a successful event; you truly helped us create special memories for our guests and our wild ones! 

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