09_23_2011 Wildlife Sanctuary - Lions, Tigers, Bears and more!
Today's big adventure started in Louisville at a restaurant called Karen's Country Kitchen. It was an exercise in flexibility in that it appears Karen's closed eight (yes, eight) years ago! A new restaurant (it's 7.5 years old) is now there - Huckleberry. It was nice. Good French Toast to prep us for today's adventure.
We headed to the Wildlife Sanctuary. I'd been wanting to go for some time, but had saved it up to see if dad also wanted to go. We made the drive and it was worth it.
The place is full of carnivores that people thought would make good pets. Epic Fail People! Carnivores never make good pets as all these owners discovered. Most animals, when growing up, were then abused or neglected. Authorities often stepped in though in some cases, the owners relinquished the animals to the sanctuary.
All of the animals there were born in captivity so there is no chance they can be released to the wild. Many spent their entire lives in pens so small they couldn't turn around. This includes bears, lions, tigers, cougars, wolves and lots of other exotic animals.
We learned there are now more tigers living in Texas - outside of a zoo - than exist in the wild in the world!
The place is about 340 acres and the animals are brought back to health, socialized with others of their kind then slowly released into larger pens as they can psychologically handle it.
This was no zoo. There is no whistling, yelling or trying to get the animal's attention. No running or screaming. Pure calmness to keep the animals happy.
I worried we'd feel bad seeing a bunch of animals in cages, but it was nothing like that. These were some happy animals!
Do you know what the largest cat that purrs is? A cougar! It's a neat place to learn lots of fun things. They ask a 10$ donation to come in and it's well worth it. The entire place runs on donations. Their annual feeding bill is two million dollars. Wow.
There was even a German Shepherd riding in a four wheeler. Nothing new to my family as Bud does the same at my parent's home. Thought he'd enjoy seeing a blurry photo of his relative doing the same in Colorado. Totally recommended!
Today's big adventure started in Louisville at a restaurant called Karen's Country Kitchen. It was an exercise in flexibility in that it appears Karen's closed eight (yes, eight) years ago! A new restaurant (it's 7.5 years old) is now there - Huckleberry. It was nice. Good French Toast to prep us for today's adventure.
We headed to the Wildlife Sanctuary. I'd been wanting to go for some time, but had saved it up to see if dad also wanted to go. We made the drive and it was worth it.
The place is full of carnivores that people thought would make good pets. Epic Fail People! Carnivores never make good pets as all these owners discovered. Most animals, when growing up, were then abused or neglected. Authorities often stepped in though in some cases, the owners relinquished the animals to the sanctuary.
All of the animals there were born in captivity so there is no chance they can be released to the wild. Many spent their entire lives in pens so small they couldn't turn around. This includes bears, lions, tigers, cougars, wolves and lots of other exotic animals.
We learned there are now more tigers living in Texas - outside of a zoo - than exist in the wild in the world! 
The place is about 340 acres and the animals are brought back to health, socialized with others of their kind then slowly released into larger pens as they can psychologically handle it.
This was no zoo. There is no whistling, yelling or trying to get the animal's attention. No running or screaming. Pure calmness to keep the animals happy.
I worried we'd feel bad seeing a bunch of animals in cages, but it was nothing like that. These were some happy animals!
Do you know what the largest cat that purrs is? A cougar! It's a neat place to learn lots of fun things. They ask a 10$ donation to come in and it's well worth it. The entire place runs on donations. Their annual feeding bill is two million dollars. Wow.
There was even a German Shepherd riding in a four wheeler. Nothing new to my family as Bud does the same at my parent's home. Thought he'd enjoy seeing a blurry photo of his relative doing the same in Colorado. Totally recommended!
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