Week in Review!

What an exciting week we had at In-Sync Exotics!  Here's a quick recap of what our week was like! 

Jasmine

On Monday, we reported some wonderful news that Jasmine is no longer living alone in Aladdin's Castle!  Okemo moved in the quarters next to Jasmine and now both senior tigers are getting to know each other.  It's great to see these two older cats getting along together so well this week, spending quality nose-to-nose time together through their vet chute and chuffing up a storm! Jasmine's cries have finally deceased thanks to Okemo!

Our Tuesday posting covered the terrific turnout of the 3rd Annual Tiger Trot with lots of great pictures and a wonderful video highlighting our special event.  Jodi Payson gave us some great behind-the-scene information about the Tiger Trot event that raised $8,490.00 for the animals!  Thank you everyone for your participation and/or volunteerism in this special memorable run/walk!  Our Facebook page has additional pictures of the Tiger Trot that you just have to see!

Did you catch our Wednesday posting of In-Sync Exotics' Turkey Toss?  Our local Wal-Mart donated 42 turkeys which the cats absolutely loved!  Needless to say, we had no turkey leftovers the next day.  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.

Even our guests enjoyed tasty treats--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, folks were able to decorate their own cookies and eat them while watching the cats chomp on their birds.  Thank you Albertsons for your generous and tasty contribution to our event this year!

On Thursday, we reported on Chloe's trip to the vet.  You may recall Chloe is one of the former Poetry cougars that was rescued from Poetry, Texas back in July of this year.

Chloe went to the vet Wednesday for possible surgery because earlier in the week our lead keeper, Mak, noticed her right ear was swollen due to a hematoma.  How did her trip to the vet go?  Well, you'll just have to read the posting to learn how this story ended!

Special Updates:

On Monday we'll give you instructions on how you can pre-order your very own 2012 In-Sync Exotics calendar!!  You may want to order more than one to give as gifts seeing how they are absolutely gorgeous!

If you haven't visited the In-Sync Exotics on-line Gift Shop, well you don't know what you are missing!  Not only do we have gift cards, ornaments, mugs, and Christmas stockings (which are all fabulous by the way!!), but we also have kitchen/project aprons, stadium blankets, remembrance necklaces of Raja & Jasmine, pillows, cuddly teddy bears, "Kashama" pajamas, and special on-line tee shirts.  New products are added almost every day, so check back often for specials and new gift ideas for your family, friends, and of course, for yourself!  Proceeds from the Gift Shop goes towards the care and feeding of our exotic wild ones; thank you very much from the animals of In-Sync Exotics!

As a reminder, there will be fabulous tasty treats up for grabs December 12th, thanks to "Big Sis and Lil Sis!"

We are very fortunate this year because "Big Sis and Lil Sis" selected In-Sync Exotics as their fundraiser of choice for their Christmas Bake Sale!  Last year, "Big Sis and Lil Sis" raised more than $3,200 for their charity of choice. 

This year, the ladies would like to raise $4,000 for In-Sync Exotics! Read all about this upcoming event here and be prepare to be dazzled by their tasty holiday treats!

So until next week, we hope you have a wonderful weekend and we hope to see you at our special Christmas Lights with the Cats tours!
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Chloe's Trip to the Vet!

About a week and a half ago, Mak, our lead keeper, noticed Chloe’s right ear was swollen.  So we notified our vet, Dr. Kerin and he came out to examine Chloe's ear.  During the exam, Dr. Kerin heard wheezing-like breathing sounds coming from Chloe, so he prescribed antibiotics to fight the infection in her chest.

As for her ear, Dr. Kerin determined the swelling was caused by a hematoma.  A hematoma is a collection of blood outside a blood vessel.  This occurs when the blood vessel wall, artery, vein or capillary is damaged and blood leaks into tissues where it does not belong.  A hematoma may be tiny or large, causing significant swelling.

We are not exactly sure why the ear hematoma developed, but the treatment was obvious—the blood needed to be removed so the ear could heal.  Since the ear gets its blood supply directly from the overlying skin, a hematoma could decrease the blood flow, and thereby cause part of Chloe’s ear to shrivel.  So surgery was scheduled for November 30^th. 

Before Chloe could see the vet, her hematoma burst on Friday (day after Thanksgiving). Even though the swelling decreased, our vet recommended she still come in on Wednesday for surgery, just in case additional fluid required extraction. 

Can you see her floppy looking ear?

So, yesterday we were off to see the vet.  Excellent news!  The vet told us all the fluid drained from Chloe's ear on its own.  He thinks the hemotoma may have been caused by some sort of trauma to the ear since it was not infected.

Chloe’s wheezing has improved since taking her medicine and she will continue on her antibiotic regimen for several more days.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to report very soon that Chloe is breathing normally once again.

So bless Chloe’s heart; she now has one lazy looking eye (which our vet believes may be non-functinal) and one floppy-looking cougar ear.

Our vet told us today that “not only does she [Chloe] have a crazy right eye, but she now has a crazy right ear.”  That’s our Chloe girl—she’s the “right” wild cat for In-Sync Exotics!

Photo taken before her ear hematoma

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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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