On Saturday, I went to Big Cat Rescue in Tampa for the Keeper Tour. Big Cat Rescue is a sanctuary for exotic cats who have been abused, orphaned, rescued from fur farms or simply abandoned because their owners didn’t understand the realities of owning a large cat as a “pet”. Each cat at BCR has a story. There is Nikita the lioness who was used as a guard in a drug house and was found chained in the basement. Hoover the tiger was the sole big cat survivor of an illegal zoo in Peru. Moses the bobcat was four weeks old and almost dead when someone dumped him in front of BCR’s gates. Kricket the serval was raised as a house cat until her owners divorced and decided they didn’t have time for her anymore. At Big Cat Rescue, these cats are given a chance to live out the rest of the lives in peace.