Yesterday we spent a couple of hours at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation's Kent base to support their breeding program for some of the most rare and endangered big cats in the world. It's an amazing place and does really excellent work; added to this as a member of sponsor you can participate in an experience that is much more intimate than any you'd get at a zoo - plus for the cats it's better as it's not open to the public and is a less stressful existence for them, which helps with breeding success rates. We got to stroke a tiger and I got to feed him a chicken drumstick through the bars (carefully I might add, keeping thumbs out of harm's way). We saw a European lynx, snow leopards (my personal all time favourite big cat), amur leopards, a number of tiger sub-species, a couple of pumas and a caracal. They also have pallas cats there but they were tucked out of sight.
It's such a mix of emotions going to a place like that. On the one hand, the staggeringly awesome beauty of these animals and the privilege of being near them; on the other, the overwhelming sadness of seeing such perfect wild beauty enclosed in a cage because that is the only way their species can be protected from us.
I particularly loved the fact that we could take my mum and that she loved it so much. In fact we joked that we probably should have put some sort of harness on her, so intent was she on getting up close and personal with these beautiful cats.
Sid's got some amazing photos. Meanwhile here's the site link for anyone interested:
http://www.whf.org.uk/
We finished the afternoon off with our first meal outdoors at the new house, which was fab. OK it was a bit later than planned and we all had to wear fleeces but that's not the point, dammit.
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