Relaxing at the Zoo

[Chops]

As the title says, today, my partner Leeanne and myself had a relaxing day at the Werribee Zoo,, obviously, at Werriby, just out of Melbourne. Since Easter, we have worked long hours averaging one week a month off, but often Leeanne has to work her second job, so that then wrecks our time together. Leeanne's just quit her second job finally,, thank God, so she was supposed to finish up a couple of weeks ago, but alas, they needed her to do extra,, as per usual.

We were fairly lucky this last Xmas, when family members decided we needed some "experience's" to enhance our live's.
One of these, was an experience for the Serval African Cat. We first saw these a couple of years ago when we last visited the zoo. So, this weekend was the first time we could essentially organise one of these experiences.

A few pics of the cats,,, of which they have two. [smilebigeye]

[Chops]

So, in this little lot, what you see is what you get to see and do, so to speak.
Here we are sitting, and preparing to accept the cat standing on our knees, using treats to entice her onto us so we could give her a rub under her chin with the back of our hands,,, ok, not true, we just wanted to feel her licking our fingers [biggrin]

Here is where I start to feel good about the day. Leeanne works harder than I do, hours wise, and basically suffers just as bad as myself with physical pain,, bad backs and shoulders etc,,, so its good to see her excited and smiling.

So here we are with "cream cheese" as the treat. Put it on our finger tips and then she will lick it off. Good fun.
Leeanne was ecstatic as the cat stood on her knee and she fed her. Their fur is quite roughish which was a bit of a surprise. But they are just gorgeous.

[Chops]

Feeding,, they are in actual fact, quite gentle. I guess having being hand reared the whole way, they'd be pretty used to people, however, due to the wild windy weather we had, they were quite skittish all the time we were with them.
But still rather like the "wild cats" they are,,, they are hunters, and very very good at it. They have about an 80% kill/strike rate, as opposed to lions etc which only have about a 20% kill/strike rate.

[Chops]

Up close and personal,,,
You'll see in the fifth pic, there's some cheese on her nose,,, placed there specifically so she'll wipe it off with her tongue.

[Chops]

Any more Dad?

I'll climb for you [biggrin]

[Chops]

And at last,,, what its all about.
Seeing my little girl in the thick of it, participating in something that she really likes, smiling and relaxing immersed in it all.
And then the excited trip home in the limmo [biggrin]

We've got a couple more of these to do in the very near future [biggrin].
Experiences like these help bring certain things to life for the animals concerned, and the learning for the participants is awesome, bringing "usually" endangered species to the forefront to help bring them back on track.

[Homestar]

That looks awesome! How long did you get with them?

[Chops]

Probably about an hour and fifteen Leeanne thinks. Only supposed to be around fourty five mins,,,

[DieselDan]

Very cute (the cat, not you [wink11])
Looks like a great experience, glad you and Leeanne had a good time!

[Bytemrk]

Looks terrific Marcus - thanks for sharing.