Cats and Burgers

  Hello everyone, it has been a while since my last post on New Years Day. We left Orange Lake and came back to the campground on Jan. 3. The weather has been a roller coaster ride; a few days in the high seventies and now back to lows in the thirties coming up this week. The good thing is we will be in our new house tomorrow so I don't have to worry about burning through another tank of propane on those cold nights approaching. We will leave the trailer parked here for the rest of the month. I don't have a choice anyway since my awning got damaged a few weeks ago during a drenching rain storm and can't retract it. We are waiting to hear if the warranty will cover the repairs. The water pooled on the awning and there are arms that are supposed to retract to dump the water but that didn't happen and the arm bent and broke away from the trailer.
  Our only sightseeing trip was to Big Cat Rescue in Tampa. It is a sanctuary for rescued lions, tigers, leopards, and other wild cats that were either privately owned as pets, or from circuses.

The sanctuary is impressive and the cats are amazing. The tour starts with some bobcats.

 

Bobcats were rescued by the sanctuary's founder back in the early 90's. She then expanded the place for other big cats rescued by her.

Oh wait, that's not a big cat. That's our tiny tiger that thinks she is a big cat!

Here is a real big cat. A tiger. They are not sure if he is a Bengal or Asian because they were rescued and do not know his lineage.

 

 

 

Together in one enclosure is a male lion and female white tiger. They think they are a couple. An interesting fact: white tigers are not rare. There is a one in four chance that a tiger will be white. Unfortunately most white tigers are not perfect with the stripes actually brown like this girl.

 

 

Unfortunately the male lion would not look at the camera.

 

And here we have a leopard

 

Leopards are probably the strongest of the big cats. They can carry prey twice their body weight up in a tree.

 

 

Here we have Nikita. A 500 lb. lioness. She was found by police protecting a drug dealers stash.

 

She is a regal lady but has her moments of playfulness:

 

Sadly she was declawed by her owner and the experience has left her in chronic pain. She cannot stand for long on her paws because of her immense size causing pressure on those amputated toes.

 

Here we have an African Serval I believe:

 

There were many cougars/ panthers/ mountain lions which are all one and the same.

 

 

Then we have some jaguars: black, golden, and striped. Once again they are all the same. All three color combinations can occur in the same litter

 

The Big Cat Rescue is a noble cause and all proceeds go to taking care of the cats. It is hard to imagine people wanting to make a wild cat a pet but it happens all the time. I wouldn't want to feed one as a pet. An adult lion costs $10,000 a year to feed.

 

Our last memorable stop recently was an eatery featured on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins, and dives. A place called Danny's All American Diner.

 

It is just a roadside diner for burgers and dogs. I had the Guy Fieri designed burger that had a burger, corned beef, and pulled pork. Doreen had the Cuban Sandwich which I just polished off for lunch today. This is the only place where a $10 burger is worth it. We washed it all down with an old fashioned bottle of strawberry pop. Yes pop, not soda.