Adventures with Diane: Cats

There is no shortage of causes in the world. This is one place I am glad we left a few greenbacks. For a variety of reasons lions have been hunted to near extinction. In 2005 this group started working to repopulate the African lions. Obviously, you can't just raise a lion and turn it loose. It is a multi-generation process to breed a releasable lion. They are creating a breeding stock of sorts, that are comfortable with human interaction. Once this group reaches maturity, they are released into a secure preserve to raise their young in the most natural environment that we can create. It is those youngsters that are released into the national parks. These guys need to have their natural fear of humans. Poachers are their biggest risk. Enough of that, on with the pictures...

These kittens are about 5 months old. And they are just like any kitten you have played with. They will attack anything that makes sounds or swishes around. Is that cute or what?

They gave these sticks to distract the cats if they get too rough with us. Diane figured out pretty quickly you can use the stick as a toy.

Just like those cute little kittens at home.

How could you not love this face.

Or this one. He is a young male. And, you can see that his head is starting to grow.

These guys are about 2.5 years old. At 3 they can't really be trusted anymore and are transferred to the reserve. What you don't see here is that there are 2 lion wranglers and our guide. And every time the cats thought we might be a chew toy, they intervened and fast. This is a white lion. Nearly pure white with blue eyes.

Cats only eat every 2 to 3 days. Between meals they pretty much sleep. I was thankful both that they have been recently fed and that they were sleepy. This group was just learning to hunt and recently killed a baboon.