The Trip Begins

Last Saturday we headed out at 10am for our long awaited Disneyland Vacation.  Each of the girls got a CD player (thank you Grandma) and checked out some books from the library and that was the prime source of entertainment all the way down and back. They were able to draw and play with pipe cleaners (thank you for the idea Leann!!), and watch out the window while listening to their books. It was perfect!

 
 We didn't have to check into our hotel in Anaheim until 3pm on Sunday the 6th, so we took our time heading down there. On our way we stopped at the Great Cats World Park in Cave Junction, OR.

It is home to big cats that are unable to be released back into the wild for one reason or another. We learned some very interesting facts about a bunch of different cats.

This is Sugar, she looks all white, but if you look closely she has very light tan tiger striping. She and her brothers (one of them is in the picture below her) have brown stripes, as opposed to black.

This Bengal tiger is names Samson. He is about 10 years old and 500 pounds, on his back legs like this he is 9 feet tall!

 This is a jaguar. He was one of  two that they had. They are brothers and were wrestling around and growling at each other, it was really creepy listening to them, but really neat. One interesting fact I remember about them is that they have a bite that is 2000 pounds of pressure!

Some of the enclosures had a short rail that went around them, but the jaguars, tigers, and lions did not, as you can see from this picture of Hazel in front of the jaguar cage. We were just constantly reminded to stay back.

 

This big guy is Shaka, we were his 4th or 5th tour of the day so he was done "performing" and refused to even stand up. Even still, he was really impressive to be that close to.

His friend, Zulu, came out to visit too. She can, amazingly, see. Her retinas have just detatched, making her look a little scary to look at. 

Here are a couple more.....

Twister is a Caracal. She has only 3 legs, she had to have one amputated due to cancer.

And here is Voltar. He is a black leopard. He is one of the older cats here, he is 17. Great cats actually only live about 5-7 years in the wild, but in captivity they can live up to 20 years.

Look at these teeth!!

 

It was so interesting find out that almost all of these cats are endangered, with most of their population in captivity because they are poached for their skins. Some of these cats only have a couple of hundred actually in the wild.

Also, the guy who founded and runs the park is known as The Cat Man. He has imprinted with most of these cats, meaning they treat him as one of them. He is able to go into the pins and play and feed them, the other people that work there do note. Imprinting happens when the cats are just 2-4 months old, and from that point on the person (or animal) they imprint on is their "person", fascinating really. They only ones he cannot go in with are the jaguar brothers, because they came to the park when they were a couple of years old. 

Anyway, we left about 4pm and headed about 4 more hours south to Willows, CA where we spent the night.  

Next is DISNEYLAND!!