Saturday, January 2, 2010

Tiger Creek

2010 is off to a good start! We decided today, on a whim, that we could no longer stand being stuck in the house and went to Tiger Creek, a local tiger preserve (you may have seen them on Discovery Channel? No? Well...ok). Luckily, the cold that has invaded all recently-made plans took a hike and allowed us warm enough weather to enjoy the whole thing.

Man, those cats are huge. It was amazing to go around and see these powereful, majestic animals. Of course, Dakin thought they were dogs and kept making an 'oof oof' sound. No amount of "No, baby, those are cats" would convince him. Oh well. So anyway...

Dakin was pretty interested in the cats, and they were equally interested in him...many of them sat and stared him down--I don't know why. Maybe the sound from the ventilator? The fact he was on eye level with most of them? At any rate, this lion, though you can't see it in the pic, was steadily pacing back and forth in front of Dakin. Scary...
This was another one who was pretty agitated by the sight of Dakin. He's special, this one, because his stripes are red instead of black, a recessive genetic trait that only about 100 tigers in the world share. So we know how he feels. He was pacing back and forth too, staring at Dakin.

This white tiger was another one...look at his eyes. Yikes. Ok, these two decided to fight right in front of us. The male evidently bugged the female somehow and they got into it--this pic was taken in the midst of them fighting. They were roaring loudly--I was thinking Dakin might be scared by it, but he was laughing through the whole thing. Yeah, my toes are curling in my shoes from fear, and the kid is laughing. Whatever.Anyway, it was a ton of fun. We also decided to go to Chili's (we don't usually take him out like that during flu season), and of course the staff was more than accomodating and wonderful.

We decided we need more 'Normal People Days'--days where it's just us and we do things that normal people do. It was incredibly refreshing.



10 comments:

Whit, Lindsey, Jonas, and Maggie said...

That sounds like a great outing!! You know me, I'm all about outings. That would totally freak me out..jonas would be smiling too. He loves every Disney villain. So happy for you guys!

Victoria Strong said...

I vividly remember being at the Dallas zoo when I was 5 and a huge tiger doing that exact thing to me -- pacing and licking his chops. Yikes! :)

So glad you guys went on an adventure! What a great way to start the New Year!

Monica said...

Wow, what a fun place to visit. It's always such a balance between keeping our kids healthy and sheltered and feeding their spirit with activities and outings. Sounds like you have a great balance. Happy 2010!

Christie Y Brown said...

Momma, he doesn't want you to know, but he can talk to animals, lol.

Yes, it sounds like you all need more of these "normal people" days... Dakin looks great!

Kristen said...

So glad to hear that you had a nice 'normal people day'. One time at the Winnipeg zoo a snow leopard lay crouching in it's cage just as my mom and I came around the corner. It literally jumped up onto the cage as it attempted to attack us. We screamed and then laughed. The memory will stay with me forever.

Junior said...

wow, what a neat place, sounds like a fantastic day.

Mary said...

Is the only thing between you and the big cats a chain link fence? Now thats a wild experince!

Foster mama K said...

So glad you all got to get out of the house!! Making memories is what its all about!

Kristy said...

I'm glad you all got to get out of the house for awhile. I'm sure that is so refreshing.

Heather said...

What a fun day! The tigers are beautiful. So glad you guys got a day out.