Cat Land...

Spring break 2011 sure flew by!!! We'd planned to go to the beach and possibly the zoo, up in Santa Barbara. However, we ran into cold and rainy days... not very beachy!! So I logged on to see what else we might be able to do... found two big cat rescues relatively close. Shambala is one that has TONS of cats!! They even have a Liger- which I really have always wanted to see (thank you National Geographic for peaking my interest there!!). Problem... to enter Shambala (which is not cheap, about $40/person) you have to be 18 years old or older. Matthew and I have that totally covered! ... not so much the kids. So we opted for the smaller rescue that touted having 80 or so cats. It's just the other side of Palmdale/Lancaster, so not a bad drive at all. And the kids were really excited. Here is a black jaguar. He was sure anxious about something. He seemed tense and ready to pounce, as he paced this side of the enclosure... I don't know what was on the other side (nothing we could SEE) but certainly there was something that he knew was there and wanted. Interesting thing about this guy, in the sun you can see his spots! I'll have to google jaguars and be sure he wasn't some kind of black leopard. Jocilyn got a better pic with the smaller camera, it was really cool, there was a reddish tint and he definitely had a spotted coat. I was thankful he was behind the cage because he really wasn't very happy about something.

I know you can't see this guys face... but it just shows what a gorgeous coat these guys and gals have. It was really cool to be so close to them also. It isn't a zoo, so there aren't the same requirements about distance between visitors and animals. We were about 4-5 feet from each of these cats.

Anna and Zach are the cougars on the property. Here is Anna, she was just pacing back and forth. Maesyn just kept calling her a Puma (which is also correct)... "scary pew-ma!" (phonetically) she loves her Diego animal adventures and she really loved these cats.

This is a serval cat. They are sure tiny in comparison to most of the others on the property. I liked this one because a couple of years ago I helped Jocilyn with a report on this cat.... very, very, pretty. I remember reading that some people have domesticated them (as with larger cats I think this isn't easy) but this one I could see just walking around the house- petite little thing! (about the size of a medium dog)

There were several peacocks just roaming around. In fact, when we first entered we saw one on top of the vending machines and two more on the roof! DANG!!! These guys are LOUD! Apparently they are always in "mating season"... or at least they were when we were there.

Their colors are so vibrant... the pictures are amazing, but still don't quite do them justice.

Poor girl... this is a "Pea-hen"... not a "Pea-cock"... why are the little girlie birds so lack luster in comparison to their male counter parts?

The wind was blowing and their plumage just follows!

These two males were duking it out! It was cool to watch them try to one up each other...

This is the smallest cat at the rescue. He's called a "Fisher Cat." I'm serious when I tell you that this one looks like one you'd see on someones couch!! But no... they eat small cows and other fairly large prey... he'd probably shred a couch!

This one put on a little show for us. He/she posed and pranced... here we got to see a little glimpse of those teeth that you wouldn't like to get much closer to!

They have tigers also. We could make them out in the cages at the rear of the property, but their "visitor friendly (safe)" enclosure is under construction. So we'll have to wait until next time to see those big cats. The girls, Matthew and I all enjoyed it a lot. Great little find... and for a $3 admission? Seriously? That's awesome!! Spring break went too fast... but ended on a great note.... (cue purring noises!)