Being a canine (dog) lover, I always seem to find myself in the company of the big felines (cats).
Since then, I’ve grown quite fond of these fur balls.
My first face-to-face, no-fence-in-between meeting was with a tame lion cub a few years ago, although nothing of note happened as he was in a deep slumber on a chair.
I still risked a few pats on the head and walked away feeling very chuffed with myself, because I have now touched an extremely dangerous predator (pun intended).
My second confrontation with the big feline species was posing for a photo while stroking a fully-grown tamed cheetah with a cute game ranger standing by.
Needless to say, I had a very big smile on my face.
The sad part is, I lost the photo a while back, before this digital era where a photo can be stored for eternity in the blink of an eye.
The good part is, the cute game ranger forever lives on in my memory.
My third meeting with big cats was with two leopards and a cheetah that grew up together, which was a little more intimidating as they were a little bigger than the lion cub and there were three of them trotting around my legs.
Point made.
I braved the natural human instinct to stay away from razor sharp claws and very pointy teeth and fought against the urge to retreat.
Because I have dealt with a dangerous predator before have I not?
So I allowed the two leopards to chew on my favourite pair of boots and nibble on my fingers.
For some reason, one leopard was very partial to the boot on my right foot.
I later realised that the reason for this favouritism of the right-footed boot, was because I had stepped in a piece of gum a few days before and he desperately wanted a taste.
A leopard with a sweet tooth, definitely my kind of cat, but not something you come across every day.
When my boot was finally out of harm’s way, he spotted my camera that probably looked just as tasty as he tried reaching that camera for dear life.
Luckily, this photo was not lost (see inserted photo).
I then faced a snarling cheetah, who was not as delighted with the foreign sweet-smelling scent of gum.
When I attempted patting the eight-month-old cheetah, I was rewarded with a hissing sound that would make any snake proud.
Backing off.
My apologies little one.
On the same day I met a jaguar that probably thought itself to be of the canine race as it befriended a Jack Russell named Bullet.
Growing up together, these two forged a strong bond.
In theory, cats and dogs should be mortal enemies, right?
No, these two are defying every myth ever made about cats and dogs.
Big cat and small dog, not big dog and small cat.
So a series of events brought me to meet another jaguar quite recently.
I was entranced with the beauty of this animal as I found him absolutely majestic, and in the same breath, very mischievous.
Long story short, each encounter was a great experience and I really enjoyed it as I learned a lot about these animals.
I realised, upon meeting these various breeds of big cats, they each have a personality of their own, as well as their own individual beauty.
So at the age of 22, I consider myself very fortunate to have experienced all this exposure to so many fantastic animals.
But, I am not done with the big cats yet.
Keep an eye out for my next adventures with majestic felines.
Who knows, it might be tigers next…
