Our Son Connor has always shown great passion for animals, especially, big cat, tigers in particular and reptiles.
While we were on our family holiday in Cyprus last year, he got to meet a baby tiger. He was absolutely buzzing with excitement, his cheeky grin, lit up the room, I’ve ever seen a face so full of joy.
Afterwards he said that it had been the best day of his life, that nothing could ever beat it.
So we had our work cut out. How on earth were we going to give him something that would give him the same incredible feeling?
Connor has been planning to take a year out and travel to Africa to volunteer at either a big cat sanctuary or on a safari range. It been his dream for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately birthday funds just couldn’t stretch that far, if only we could have sent him on his way to his ultimate dream.
We decided that the next best thing was a good place to start.
Between us all, we brought him a Big cat experience, to be a Ranger for a day at, The Big Cat Sanctuary.
Ranger for a Day ~ Provisional Programme Arrival time 09.30hrs.
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- Coffee and introductions
- Health and Safety briefing
- Briefing including details of our current activities
- In the morning join our staff on cleaning duties and animal husbandry
- You will have an opportunity to hand feed a cat; this is part of our routine to bring the cats close to us to give us the best opportunity to spot any developing health issues they might have
- You are very welcome to take pictures throughout the experience.
- Use your time with our staff to learn some of the detail of keeping big cats in captivity and the reasons why these animals need to be bred in captivity to ensure their survival.
- Tea and coffee served at around 10.00hrs and a light lunch around 12.30hrs
- Guilded tour and feeding the Cats.
Connor absolutely loved his day spent with the Cats and the staff, even cleaning up the poo.
He learnt an incredible amount and is buzzing to go on his travels as soon as he has saved enough to do so.
Here are a few photos from his special day, a day he will remember for a life time.
Doesn’t it look absolutely amazing, I wanna go.
For all of you that may not know anything about The Big Cat Sanctuary, heres a little info for you but please do check out their website for all information and of course to donate.
The peace and tranquility of the site provides a sanctuary and excellent conditions for the successful breeding of the beautiful, yet endangered cats both large and small within the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme.
Their vision –
- To assist in the conservation of the world’s endangered big cats
- To preserve breeding integrity
- To assist the return of big cats to the wild wherever possible
They will achieve this by –
- Providing a research base for people interested in the study of big cats in captivity
- Delivering an education programme that promotes the importance of bio-diversity and the role of the top predators to all our visitors.
You can find out more by visiting their website
https://thebigcatsanctuary.org/
You can donate to this extremely worthy cause here.
Until next time,
Too-da-loo.
https://videopress.com/embed/xtCCuige?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0
Our Son Connor, turned 21 the weekend before last. We as a family wanted to give him something a little extra special, some thing that he could treasure for the rest of his life. But what could we get him, that wouldn’t get lost over time? Connor has always shown great passion for animals, especially, […]
