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| Hello sweet Saber! |
As we come to the end of year 2011, we cannot help look back and marvel at what we accomplished in just 12 months!
We are so grateful for the many memorable events we were able to share with you this year.
We welcomed home some amazing animals to the In-Sync Exotics family: Lydia (bobcat) arrived in January; Aasha (tiger cub) in March; Sabu (senior lion) in May, Isaac (bobcat) in June; the Poetry cats, Chloe, Howard, Kane, Spike, Aramis, Aurora, Eve, and Layla; Okemo (senior tiger) in August, Sam and Kodi (cheetahs) in September; and Chance (bobcat cub) in December! Welcome home, our new friends!
We shed tearful goodbyes to exceptional animals who called In-Sync Exotics their final home: Gypsy (serval) in January; Brooks (tiger) in February, Midas (tiger) in April, Dinari (lion) in May; Grumpy (tiger) and Kane (cougar) in August; Howard (cougar) in September; and Raja (tiger) in October. We will forever be grateful that we were given the opportunity to know and adore each one of these precious wild cats whom passed through our lives—they will always hold a special place within our hearts.
We started the In-Sync Exotics Cat Tales blog on July 20th with our opening story titled “Poetry in Motion—Saving 20 Big Cats!” It’s hard to believe that it was more than five months ago we started this blog with the desire to give our fans a “behind the scenes look” at our sanctuary. 123 blog postings later we continue to shared some amazing happenings at In-Sync Exotics with our readers. Here are just a few memorable postings for 2011:
· In June, Team In-Sync was called on to rescued and cared for 20 big cats that were living in deplorable conditions in Poetry Texas. After providing the cats with food and medical care for about three weeks, we were able to place 12 big cats and bring home 8 cats back to In-Sync Exotics;
· The Leona 6 tigers enjoying their new pool, built thanks to some very kind donors, at the end of July;
· We were selected as a “Top-Rated Animal Welfare Non-profit” by our supporters for the 2nd Annual Great Nonprofits and Guidestar Animal Welfare Campaign in August. Check out our reviews from donors, visitors, and volunteers at Great Nonprofit;
· The blog introduced the popular and fun “Who Am I” picture contest featuring some of our most adorable residents in unusual background situations;
· We welcomed to new unique cats to In-Sync Exotics--two cheetahs named Sam and Kodi!
· Sabu was caught on video tape running by our lead keeper, Mak Ledbetter, in September. The reason why this is a huge milestone for Sabu is because when he first arrived, he was unable to walk a few steps without falling down due to a severe Vitamin A deficiency;
· In September, we paired Sabu and Jynxie together. Unfortunately, we had to separate Sabu and Jynxie because Jynxie played too rough with Sabu. After a several nips on Sabu’s hind quarters and tail, it became obvious that Jynxie was too rambunctious for the older male lion;
· We held our 1st Annual “Putting for Paws” golf tournament in October (Columbus Day). We were able to raise a little over $7,035 for the animals thanks to the golfers, our kind sponsors and donors!
· Eve and Layla, former Poetry lions, received life-saving surgeries when they went to the vet to be spayed. Had they not been spayed, we would have learned too late that both cats had serious health issues with their reproductive organs;
· Our pumpkin bash was a huge success as 80 pumpkins were given out to our cats for their playing pleasure—and played they did!
· We learned all about Harley’s visit with his Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine dentist where he underwent dental surgery on November 1st;
· In November we reintroduced two former Poetry lions, Aramis and Aurora, together with success!
· Crimson, our cougar, took ill and was transported her vet’s office. We feared she had Chronic Renal Failure—a devastating kidney disease. Thankfully, her vet now believes Crimson may have had acute renal failure, possibly from a kidney infection! Crimson is doing much better now;
· Our volunteers shared with us what they are thankful for this year in a really cute video produced by Robert Saucedo!
· Thanks to our wonderful Facebook supporters, In-Sync Exotics placed in the top 100 of non-profits eligible to receive $25k from the Chase Community Giving Program! We are so grateful for everyone’s support—thank you!!
· Our 3rd Annual 5k and 1-mile Tiger Trot event was great this year! We had a lot of participants and their dogs this year raising about $8,490 for the animals!
· We also held our first-ever Turkey Toss! 42 turkeys, donated by our local Wal-mart, were prepared and “tossed” to our tigers! The cats had a wonderful time with their Thanksgiving treats and our guests were amazed by the big cats' powerful jaws as they were able to crunch down on their tasty turkeys;
· We moved Okemo, former WAO tiger, to Aladdin's Castle at the end of November, so he could be closer to Jasmine. Both cats are still in the “getting to know you” stage;
· We tried to integrate Aramis and Aurora with Eve and Layla into a lion pride. Unfortunately, we were not successful in forming a lion pride as Eve displayed some aggression towards Aramis. We decided it would be in the best interest of the lions if we paired Aramis and Aurora together and Eve and Layla would be housed together in separate quarters. So far, all the lions seem happy with this new arrangement;
· A fantastic bake sale was held in December raising $4,155 for the animals! We cannot thank Corby and her baking crew enough for creating and selling so many delectable treats, benefiting the cats of In-Sync Exotics!
· Every year our volunteers celebrate Christmas with the cats and each other—and this year was no exception! Everyone had a wonderful time at this year’s Christmas Party with the Cats!
· Our guests enjoyed strolling around our grounds, watching the antics of our wild ones as they play under the illumination of the Christmas lights; and
· We received accreditation from American Sanctuary Association and verification status from Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries this year.
You may recall that we were really concerned about the drop in contributions earlier this year. For the first time ever we issued an emergency appeal in August to our supporters. Thankfully, you responded and we were able to finish this year on a positive note! Thank you so much for your support!! We could not continue or mission of accepting and caring for exotic wild cats that no one can or will care, for the rest of their lives.
By the way, tomorrow is the last day to make a gift towards our young and young-at-heart cats' care and enrichment programs--please consider making an end-of-year contribution today! Thank you again on behalf of our wonderful animals!
We also added a few new ways to contribute gifts towards the animals’ care: Razoo, Leave a Legacy, Albertsons’ Community Partner Cards, and our on-line Gift Shop!
Below are three successful Razoo projects where the funds raised went directly towards their respective project:
Give a Special Gift to Save a Life of a Big Cat! – Benefited our Poetry cats as you may recall they required extensive medical treatment (raised $2300);
Get In-Sync with our Big Cats’ Needs by Donating to Our Hungry Carnivore Cats! – Provided 194 meals for our big cats (raised $1,940);
Cheetah Home Improvement Project! We raised $6,651 towards our cheetahs’ new habitat! Thanks to our awesome donors and the monies received from the Chase Community Giving Campaign, we raised enough money to break ground on Kodi and Sam’s new home—construction begins next year!!! On behalf of Sam and Kodi, we extend our heart felt thanks to our 29 generous donors for helping us make the cheetahs' habitat a reality!
And last, but not least, we held our 2011 "Roar Off" competition!
You watched the videos of Sabu, White Boys, and Kahn as they roared their hearts out vying for top honor as the "Loudest Roarer," and then you voted!
There was a clear winner!!
With 63% of the vote…the "Loudest Roarer" at In-Sync Exotics was…Kahn! The White Boys came in second with 25.9% of the vote, and cute adorable Sabu came in third with 11.1% of the vote.
Here’s what some of you had to say about this epic competition!
They are so loud!
He has a great roar. White boys were good but there are two of them. Hey, he's an old man and he holds his own with the young kids.
Sounds loud and strong - amazing! But then they all did really!
loved the ending. *gruffy* ....*lick* hehe
So loud I actually jumped when the sound started.
Seemed consistently loud...he was really working for it.
Kahn was the loudest and most talented, but Sabu had the most endearing and meaningful song
Kahn is just so musical, plus I gotta vote for the guy who sprayed my son! He's family now.
HOLY COW!! I had to turn it off they were so loud :)
The White Boys keep going, and going, and.... But they're all superb!
Because his gal pal is Sheila.....we Sheilas have to stick up for our men! ~Sheila F.
Not only is he extremely talented, he's also freakin' adorable!!!
He's as loud as the White Boys together..!
My handsome Sabu is always "tops" in my book!
Exciting News! We prepared Kahn's "song" into a Ringtone! If you would like to add Kahn's "song" to your cell phone, contact us now and we will email you three different versions of the winner's song! Next year we will be adding additional Ringtones to our main website, so you can enjoy all the "Roar Off" competitors' songs. Meantime, be the first to have Kahn's mighty roar on your phone today!
Yesterday, we shared a story about some of our beautiful geriatric wild cats and asked the question "Who is the oldest exotic wild cat living at In-Sync Exotics"? 1.8% of our voters said Java and Duchess are our oldest cats. 18.2% of our voters said Okemo and Sabu are our oldest cats. However, with a whopping 60%, our voters guessed correctly that Mercedes is our oldest wild cat living at In-Sync Exotics!
Mercedes is a 24-year old cougar and she still has a lot of spunk in her. If you have not met Mercedes, you have to come out for a tour and greet our grand lady cougar--she is truly special!
Mercedes is a 24-year old cougar and she still has a lot of spunk in her. If you have not met Mercedes, you have to come out for a tour and greet our grand lady cougar--she is truly special!
Happy New Year, Everyone!
We hope you enjoyed this year's blog postings. We shall resume our postings on January 3rd, 2012…so until next year, be safe, hug your cats and/or dogs, and enjoy your family time together!
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