Vine

Hello everyone!!

Tonight it's going to be all the app Vine, which I'm sure most of you know what it is but just in case you don't, it's a mobile device app that enables people to record and post short looping videos. The reason I'm writing a whole post about this is because Vine is a big part of advertising the CARE facility to people and letting those people see our cats through the eyes of the dedicated workers.

My boss, Derek, is BigCatDerek on Vine and he has almost 200,000 followers who get to experience many of our cats through how they act towards him. It's funny because some cats don't particularly like Derek and past interns and volunteers who come to visit and vine while here will get completely different reactions from the cats. Example: Ace and Eerie. They are both male black leopards who growl and snarl at Derek...but for Jade, a past intern and Jamie, one of the senior volunteers here, they are all love and cuteness. Just seeing how they act towards different people really shows how their personalities differ and how their moods can switch quite quickly.

If you're interested in the other vine accounts that showcase CARE cats and other animals, there is CARE Jamie and Jade Olivia. Jamie vines the big cats as well as the lemurs while Jade gets a lot of the big cats for the most part.

The good thing about having vine showcase the facility is that it brings in people from everywhere who already know some of the cats. Unfortunately, this can be a bad thing because the cats don't always want to "perform" for the people as they expect them to. Cassie the mountain lion is "vine famous" and she squeaks for Derek all the time but for others Cassie doesn't always want to squeak and say hi. We're doing Spring Break tours this week and next so every day at 1pm, I'm giving a tour. So far Cassie has not felt like squeaking for the people so I'm thinking in the early afternoon she just is a little tired, and just doesn't want to squeak. In the mornings and night she is full of happy squeaks for us, but on my tours, she isn't having any of it.

Another good quality of vine is how it can educate people. Derek can show people how the cats act during feeding, during cleaning, or just being lazy, etc. There was one vine of me dropping a horse leg into Serena's enclosure from the tractor bucket and there was such a discrepancy over whether it was a horse or cow leg and how it was such a bad thing for us to feed the tigers this way. But through the comments, Derek was able to explain to people that the only animals we use to feed are those that have been donated from farmers/ranches and the animals are old, sick, dying, and they need to be put down if they haven't died already. These big cats need red meat in their diet...it's what they eat. They can't survive off just chicken, it makes them go a little loopy. Through vines like this, it shows people what is necessary to keep these big cats healthy and happy.

It also helps us get out quick messages to a lot of people if necessary. That's how my current intern partner was found. Derek made a vine asking for interested parties to send their resume to so and so with a few parameters and that's how Candice came to be with us! So yay for that! It is in fact, quite useful.

Feel free to follow BigCatDerek, CARE Jamie, and Jade Olivia on Vine, they make awesome videos. Seriously.

Have a great day! Here are some phone pictures:

Archie

 

Noel in her tree

 

Bindi trying to nap before we cleaned her cage this morning