Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome. It's time for our community connection. We have Cheryl King from Turpentine Greek Wildlife Refuge, the place where big cats call home. I hope I got that right, Cheryl.
You certainly did. Tom.
Good morning, well good marketing, because I remembered that. Now. What's happening at Turpentine Creek these days?
Well spring is springing, and Saturday we will be hosting our thirty third annual Kite Fest sponsored by Colido Kites. Out of your week at springs.
My goodness sakes, you couldn't have time it any better. It's that time of year where there's a lot of wind about.
And the wind is blowing, but it looks like it's going to be perfect on Saturday. Just the right amount, not too much, yeah, just what we.
Need, just enough to lift those kites and have some fun. And this is a big family to do.
Isn't it It is? It is? It's free. You can amount make a kite. Collido Kites will have kite making. They'll also have kites for sale or bring your kite, and it's just really a lot of fun when you start seeing all these kites up in the air over the refuge. The cats enjoy it, and of course the kids and the people. We're going to have a lot of vendors this year, and we've got a special guest that's going to be making an appearance.
You tell we do.
It's going to be Strike, the mascot for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.
Wow.
So yeah, what's better than a cat but a sasquatch.
This is going to be so much fun. You know, your Turpetite Creek is right there in Eureka Springs.
Right, Yes, we are. We're seven miles south on a Highway twenty three.
There you go. So all you got to do if you're coming in from Bartlesville is hit Eureka Springs, take a right, and then you'll be there. Just follow the signs because they're all over the place too. You know, the kite flying event is going to be a lot of fun for the whole family. But the refuge itself is something that families would want to maybe think about taking in to just see what it's all about. What can you see there? I guess the shorter list is what you can't see.
This is true, this is true. Coming in you should be able to see our grizzly bear bam bam. Now it is spring and so he's probably he still is very much in his torpor state. They're starting to wake up, you know. We've just come out of some cold weather here at the beginning of the month. But things are warming up and the bears are waking up. You'll also get to see our tigers, lions, leopard. We have cougars, servis, and bobcats among others.
My goodness sakes, that's amazing. Now, how did we all get started here with turpe and tig Creek has been around a while. Some people kind of forget in the beginning.
As they say, this is true in nineteen ninety two, So thirty three years ago we started. And it began with a woman that had thirty three animals that were crammed into two cattle cars, and it was obvious that something was needed to take care of those animals. And the Jackson family sold everything, bought this property and created Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. And who knew that thirty three years later we would still be filling this need, that
there was such a need. You know, these animals, Tom, they're not household pets. You can't take a tiger or a lion or a bobcat and turn them into a pet. They're a wild animal, they're a predator. They just don't belong in their homes, and sadly people find that out. It's heartbreaking for everybody involved. But we're happy to provide them or forever home.
And sometimes there are cases where people will attempt to maybe even showcase these big cats and I think that they can take care of them, and they find out as they kind of age, they can't. And this is a place where I know some have come from, like Florida, in place like that.
Yes they have. We've actually taken in cats all over the country now, from upstate New York to California, all the way down to Florida. You're right, Carol Baskins, we all know that name. She sold Big Cat Rescue earlier this year and in twenty twenty three we relocated all of her animals. They are now here at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. We have over one hundred animals and a
good many of those did come from Tiger King. We've got twenty tigers and lions that were part of confiscations related to them, and.
You give them a great place to live out Their life is about as close to naturally as possible.
Absolutely, that is our commitment to them. Our vision is to educate and have people come in and learn so that we can put an end. You know, we are a nonprofit that is trying to work itself out of business. It's hard to believe we keep taking in more animals, but that is our goal. And yes, we give them all a natural habitat. They have their nighthouses and then their big grassy habitats that allow them to live as close as they could to life in the wild. These
animals could never survive in the wild. They would be a danger to any human and they likely wouldn't survive. They don't know how to hunt. They were never taught, so they just it would be tragic to try to release them into the wild. So we give them the best life possible.
That brings the next question, how do you feed all those cats?
Thank you to Tysons, big shout out to Tysons, and also a shout out to Walmart. You know, Tom, we're feeding hundreds of pounds of meat a day. Each of these animals is on a unique individualized diet based on their particular needs. But it's anywhere from ten to fifteen pounds of meat per cat per day. And then our bears, oh my goodness, don't get me started. We need all kinds of food for bears, the produce and the you know, they need fresh veggies. So that stuff's got to be
turned around pretty quickly. And it's not cheap.
Yeah, and those bears will eat dart near anything.
They sure will. Bambam's favorite is a peanut butter sandwich.
I'll be darn, I had no idea. Let's get back to the kite thing here. It's coming up this weekend, right.
Yes, sir, it will be on Saturday, March twenty second. The fun will start at ten o'clock. Vendors will start packing up at about three. But if you've got a kite in the air, you're welcome to stay as long as you'd like.
And that is that Turpentine Creek, and that is in Eureka Springs. Hey, if some folks might not be able to get away to enjoy the park this weekend, but if say they got a thousand dollars bill in their pocket, is just burn in a hole and they're thinking, well, this sounds like a pretty good outfit to support. How do they go about making a donation?
Yes, go check us out on our website www Dot TCWR dot org. Do's www dot TCWR dot org. And there are lots of ways that you can help support the animals from just a straight donation, purchasing a membership. You can adopt or sponsor one of our animals, and each of those comes with its own you know, you get your individual packages that come with a membership for example, or an adoption or a sponsorship. All of that is on our website.
Very good, Thank you very much for being with us today.
Such a pleasure, Tom, Thank you for having me