Small Big Cats

I recently returned from a small road trip that I took for a few days, through northern California and around Oregon. Part of the trip was through the Southern Coast of Oregon, and I and stopped in Bandon for the West Coast Game Park. Though there are nice beaches nearby, the town of Bandon itself is not much to see, but for some reason, all of the hotels, motels and campgrounds are booked and overflowing with guests, who I suppose are all going to this little zoo.

At this game farm, there is an open section full of different deer, goats, sheep and donkeys. When you walk into the initial gates with the purchased animal feed, many of the horned goats go up and stalk you until you are encircled, and one of the girls who works there yells at you to move away from the entrance while shooing the animals away.

I had a cute time of going around and figuring out which goat likes the dried corn out of the bunch, and which sheep likes the dried-out beets. Sometimes one of the animals starts nibbling at the edge of the ice cream cone that the feed is presented in, and then tries to grab it all away at once, spilling all the edible specimens all over the ground.

The highlight of this place is getting to pet the big cats. I waited in line for about half an hour, while families and couples gathered in an enclosed area to play with two baby tigers. These tigers were very frisky, and kept attacking some large, dilapidated stuffed animals and jumping on the people’s laps or behind their shoulders. There was a baby leopard in a separate cage next to them, and I thought it was particularly cute when this elegant, spotted animal would start chasing its tail.

The tigers had to go away by the time I got to go in, but I got the pleasure of petting these two, four-week old, black spotted leopards. They were about the size of small cats, but acted like kittens. Their fur and paws were very soft, from not ever being used before.

They were too young to get up and move from the blanket. We weren’t supposed to touch their faces or mouths, so I kept having to move my hand away when they would grab it and try to take my fingers to their mouths to gnaw on.

I also got to pet a baby caracal, which is a big cat similar to a lynx, found in the Middle East and Africa. A lady had this feline confined on a leash, and would put wood chunks by its face to play with. People would go up and pet this caracal, but every few minutes, she would break out and hiss at them and try to bat at them with her claws. That just reminded me of typical house cat temperament!