Rhino & Lion Reserve

You might think that you're the kind of person that would keep his/her cool when a cheetah approaches his/her newly-rented Chevy Sonic and appears to be preparing to jump on its hood (see cheetah video). I'll admit--I'm not that person. I kind of lost it. I may have used some profanity. It's possible that Peter had to remind me to roll up my window. I may have actually addressed the cheetah and said, "You are so magical." I didn't handle the situation in a particularly expert manner but, hell, there was a cheetah next to the car and I feel like that gives a person a little leeway.

Anyway, the pictures in this post should reflect that the park contained more than just cheetahs. Lions! Lions eating things! Wild dogs! Wild dogs eating things! Each corner of the park featured another animal, eating yet another animal. The circle of life, I'm telling you.

Some interesting things observed at the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve include: people (not us) will get out of their car in order to take pictures of wild and savage predators even after being told not to get out of the car in order to do same; one man (not Peter) thought that allowing his young child to stray too close to the electrified fence was one way to "teach him a lesson;" wild dogs are just as ugly as you think they would be; there was a bird that I-swear-to-God was wearing a mask (aka "Bane of the Bird World"); and the adorable lion cub cuddled around Peter's foot appeared to have an adorable penchant for eating shoe materials, discovered only after Peter had to retrieve the better part of a shoelace from its adorable jaws.

Also noted is that I'm terrible at spotting animals, while Peter is like an expert tracker. If that's not evidence I wouldn't have survived as a cavewoman, I don't know what is. P.s. it occurs to me only now that crawling around on all fours (see last picture here) next to the tiger cage probably fell within the "don't tease the animals" limitation on visitors' behavior in the park--Oops! More to come soon!