tigertoy

For anyone in or near C-U, this weekend coming up is Prairieland Feed's annual Pet Fair. Several groups with cool animals (that you shouldn't have for pets) exhibit, including EFRC. I believe we will have a couple of the tiger cubs from last year, although it's not yet entirely settled. It's also the best prices of the year on dog food, if you have a dog. Stop by Saturday and say hi to me, or if you can't make it, stop by Sunday even though I won't be there.

The annual Pet Fair Extravaganza is next weekend at Prairieland Feeds in Savoy. EFRC will have a booth there and we'll have a cat, I assume a tiger, although as of today the keepers don't know which one. I told Jean I'd be there to help Saturday. So come out and say hi, next weekend, Oct. 6-7, 10 AM-5 PM, and buy a calendar or a T shirt or something else nifty. (I will only be there Saturday, but Jean and the tiger will be there Sunday.) And buy dog food at probably the best price of the year.

I had several places I wanted to be to celebrate the new year, but I decided I would go to spend time with old friends rather than new, so I went to Milwaukee.

The trip up had some minor bits of stress.  I got going almost on time, but not fully mentally functional, as I would discover as I drove past Rantoul on I-57, only realizing at that moment that I was on the wrong road -- I was supposed to have stayed on I-74 to get to I-39, because I was going to VOTK.  Shortly after that, I realized that when I'd put my snacks in the cooler I'd forgotten to put the sandwich I had made (that I didn't eat on Thursday when I didn't go to EFRC because I felt too crappy with my sinus infection and cold), so I was mentally hitting myself with a hammer.  I had just installed my shiny new IPASS tollway transponder, and I drove through the automatic lane at the toll plaza at the Wisconsin border -- and the transponder didn't visibly do anything.  Wait, the papers they sent with it said it's supposed to have blinking lights.  Shit, I said, I guess it didn't work, now I have to deal with a missed toll when I get back.  But I managed to decide that since I couldn't do anything about it then, I wouldn't worry about it.  Made it to VOTK, an hour later than I meant to.  Although it was slightly above freezing, it was very windy and felt miserably cold.  I took a few pictures of Jasmine, and renewed my membership and got a calendar.  Then on to Milwaukee, where I got to filkart and ithiriel's house, and got hit by the tired bus; I got into the living room and collapsed in a chair.  After a bit of vegging and some cheese and crackers I was able to move; we grabbed a bite to eat at Culver's and then drove to Lytheria.  I found myself feeling more like a spectator than usual.  Filk didn't happen until after the toast at midnight, and it was only me, filkart, wyld_dandelyon, and beige_alert; we ran out of steam by about 2.  The filk was nice but less than I expected.  Got home and fell into bed.

Today, after I got up at noon, we determined that Champion Chicken, the restaurant that is a cornerstone of my friendship with Art, was closed for the holiday, so we went to Athens, where they had a prime rib buffet, a little pricey at $15 for a fairly short buffet, but the food was decent and we all had too much.  Then Art and I went for a short trip to the museum, so I could see butterflies in January.  ithiriel stayed home and made us biryani, which seemed unnecessarily generous.  And then I came home, because I needed to get home before the tired found me again.

Here at home, the furnace is still limping along, but it's still keeping the house warm.  The furnace guy told me he'd call me on Friday to set up an appointment, but he didn't, so I have to try to call him and hopefully fit that in real soon.  I did manage to get logged in on the IPASS site (after more swearing than should have been needed), and my account had been charged for the toll on Saturday.  So I guess the thing works after all.

This isn't a very good picture, but it's important, because unless something amazing happens, it's the last one I'll ever take of one of my best tiger friends.

This is Jafar.  I don't know exactly how old he is, but he's pretty old, and he's had cancer twice, but until a few weeks ago, he was doing pretty well.  He would almost always come up to the fence, chuffing excitedly, when I came by.  Then something went wrong in his spine, and he pretty suddenly started wobbling badly on his back legs.  The vet examined him, and can't identify any problem other than arthritis.  He was on medication that helped him some for a while, but then he started getting worse.  As recently as last week, even though he could only walk a couple of wobbly steps before he fell over, he still seemed to have his spirit, and he was getting around his cage.  This week, he can't even take those couple of steps; he can stand up, but when he tries to walk he falls over.  He can move, but only dragging his hindquarters.  And he seems to be suffering.  The vet will be visiting him this week, and unless he suddenly gets better, he'll be put to sleep.

I am devastated.

This coming weekend, Oct. 8-9, is the annual Pet Fair at Prairieland Feeds in Savoy.  Among other animal-related attractions, EFRC will have Storm, a white tiger, for you to see.  You'll have the opportunity to buy stuff or donate to EFRC but admission to the event is free.  You'll also have the opportunity to buy dog food at great prices.

A few days ago, seanan_mcguire posted a contest to post pictures of your pet with one of her books.  She specifically mentioned hoping someone would give Feed to a tiger.  I do have a tiger (for certain values of "have", of course, he actually belongs to EFRC), a copy of Feed, and a camera.  I can't actually give him the book, since he might eat it, and no animals are to be harmed in the course of such endeavors as this, but I let him check it out through the fence.  Now, to wander over and see if the contest is still open.  (Even if it isn't, I still want to post the pic.)

The 2011 EFRC calendar is out!

All of the pictures are by Stephen McCloud, who has better cameras than I do and much better getting-things-done skills.  However, the very nice pictures are EFRC cats and the money goes to support them.  I'd like to encourage my friends to buy them as a gesture of support either to me, because I love the cats, and I'd like to encourage the whole world to buy them as a gesture of support for the cats and the work of EFRC.  The best way to get one, of course, is to visit the center in person, but if that's not practical, you should still get one.  You can buy them online, but you have to pay a little more.  Or, if you happen to know you're going to be in the same place as I am sometime soon, you can get one from me, for the same $15 that you'd pay at the center.  I don't make any money on this; I'm just doing it to encourage more people to buy calendars.

Sing out if you'd like to get a calendar from me.

For anyone in the C-U area who might be interested, Max will be at the Pet Fair at Prairieland Feeds this Saturday (and possibly Sunday -- the fair is both days, but I am not positive Max will be there).  I won't be there myself, because the reason they're bringing Max is that he is calm and cooperative about going to these things, but he doesn't like me and if I were there he would probably get stressed out.

Saturday, I went to a meeting of the Midwest Exotic Feline Educational Society in Anderson, IN.  MEFES is mostly people from Indiana, though it has had members from several nearby states as well.  In the past, it has worked to make exotic cat owners in the area aware of each other and help them both to keep their animals in the face of increasing government pressure and to have better husbandry.  In the last couple of years, the active membership has dropped to a handful and we haven't done much beyond meetings, but we have hopes of getting some new people involved.

MEFES pretty much got started because of one man and one amazing serval.  I may have a few details wrong here, but the outline of the story is right.  Somewhere around 1985, a man named Marvin Hierlmeier and his wife got a pet serval they named Hush.  (Hush rhymes with 'bush', not 'gush'.)  Not long after that, Marvin's wife died.  As she was dying, she told Marvin to share Hush with the world, and Marvin carried out her wish to an amazing degree.  He took Hush all over the place and shared him with many people, allowing them to meet and touch him.  In particular, he took Hush to nursing homes in southern Indiana and surrounding areas.  When I say that, you probably think that half a dozen times, he walked through the lobby with the cat on a leash and maybe gave a little talk.  But that's not what I mean at all.  He took Hush to actually visit the patients, in their beds, on thousands of visits to hundreds of nursing homes.  Hush had over ten thousand visits with nursing home patients.  It seems crazy, either that someone would try to bring a 50 lb. wild cat into nursing homes, or that anyone would let him, but he did.  He never hurt anyone, and he made the lives of thousands of people better.  Marvin and Hush have both died of old age in just the last few years, but those of us who got to meet them will never forget.

In addition to the lives of so many nursing home patients, Hush met a whole lot of other people, and some of those people were the ones who were inspired to found MEFES.  That is why the club named their special award for service to exotic felines the Hush award.

For some reason, they saw fit to give me this award this weekend. 

( a footnote about responsible exotic ownership )

I did manage to take a few pictures at EFRC today.  I got a few shots of cats I don't usually photograph.


Here is the required picture of India.  She wasn't posing well today, so you get a closeup of her eye.

( 8 more pictures inside )