Before I moved to galveston for school, I volunteered at Insync Exotics in Wylie, TX. It's a big cat sanctuary. I'm not talking obese house cats, I'm talking tigers, lions, cougars, leopards, lynxes, and servals. My previous experience there included going on a rescue of two tigers with me staying in the back of a U-Haul with them in cages ( I had a cage for myself, just in case) and hand feeding a 6 week old tiger cub.
Now that I am back in the Metroplex, I have restarted volunteering there and there is so much improvement from the last time I was there. They have doubled their capacity and cat count! I really love it there. Today, I cleaned cages, which means moving cats from cages and scooping and pressure washing the floors. It's dirty work. I gave meat treats to some of the tigers and it's impressive.
Tigers have a greeting called chuffing. They push air through their noses in short blasts. A few tigers aren't that into people but most greet visitors with this chuff. They will rub their face against the fence as they would rub face to face in greeting other tigers. Kshama, the cub that was there when I was there last, has grown huge and is very people friendly. She loves to lay against the fence so you can scratch between the shoulder blades. One of the cougars spent 5 minutes licking my palm and fingerprints off.
There's just something about that place. It feels good to be back.
Now that I am back in the Metroplex, I have restarted volunteering there and there is so much improvement from the last time I was there. They have doubled their capacity and cat count! I really love it there. Today, I cleaned cages, which means moving cats from cages and scooping and pressure washing the floors. It's dirty work. I gave meat treats to some of the tigers and it's impressive.
Tigers have a greeting called chuffing. They push air through their noses in short blasts. A few tigers aren't that into people but most greet visitors with this chuff. They will rub their face against the fence as they would rub face to face in greeting other tigers. Kshama, the cub that was there when I was there last, has grown huge and is very people friendly. She loves to lay against the fence so you can scratch between the shoulder blades. One of the cougars spent 5 minutes licking my palm and fingerprints off.
There's just something about that place. It feels good to be back.
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