Maya the Jaguar and the Big Cats Open Day

Every year the Wildlife Heritage Foundation's Big Cats Sanctuary has four open days. Last year I was laid up after my surgery and had to give away my ticket. All I asked for was lots of pictures and all I got was almost none.

This year I was determined to make it, so I bought my ticket as soon as I received email notification of their going on sale. This turned out to be fortunate - later there was a 4-episode documentary about the place which featured a tiny black jaguar from a neighbouring park that had been rejected by her mother that was being raised there, and suddenly the open days were fully booked, the website crashed, and they had to add an extra day to cope with demand.

The day arrived in the middle of  a horrendous energy-sapping heatwave.

The sanctuary manager Giles Clark raised the cub, called Maya. During filming a young cheetah called Willow, who had a broken leg, was added to his care. One of my first encounters on Thursday was with Giles, seen here putting back his shades after posing for a photo with a little girl.

Compared to the really big cats, the serval looked tiny.

The Amur leopard is severely endangered, but numbers are recovering thanks to serious intervention by Russia, where their range lies, and they are just back into triple figures.

The North Chinese leopard is redder in colour than other leopards and is a very shy and secretive animal.

Maya stayed in the shade on this roasting hot day. Who can blame her?  These were my best two pictures of her.

Willow's keeper played with her till they were both exhausted, then got her reward. Cheetahs are probably the closest big cats to being able to be trained and trusted in human company.

If only trophy hunters, sadly most of them American, would shoot big game with cameras instead of guns. I can assure them it would make their dicks feel really big.

The Whole Wide World in an instant

The happiness before the tragedy.



I'm having fun - and geting very annoyed - following Twitter these days. The selection of people who post against Trump is impressive - George Takei, Ron Perlman, Michael Moore to name but a few of the more famous ones - and I retweet lots of lost pets, pets looking for homes, and I sign many petitions for good causes, especially animal and environmental ones.

Just to add to the Ahh factor, the ultimate in relaxation is a cat, and this is the ultimate in cat.

Aye-aye, what have we here? Slothful tigers

A little bit of Vincent to get you going.



I have been desperate to get a photo of London Zoo's aye-aye, but they are nocturnal, and so eve when they are visible in the nighttime world, getting a picture is almost impossible. This is the best I've managed.

Aye-ayes are a nocturnal type of lemur. They are persecuted because they look like little demons, with wide stary eyes and an elongated finger to tap bark to find insects, and then fish them out. They are bigger than you think with grey shaggy fur. I love them.

The sloths have a baby. They snuggled up in branches just above the walkway in the rainforest zone.

Dad JaeJae was relaxed as usual even though they've taken his daughter off to Heidelberg Zoo.

Meanwhile mum Melati, having given son Achilles a good wash, rested her head on him.He'll soon be off to Howlett's one of the Kent animal parks I visit, so I'll still be able to see him.

The Dangers of Twitter on iPad and Other Nonsense

First a sweet memory from Thumbsucker. I have Photobucket and Blogger on my iPad but can't make them do what I want, so I only post on here. But I haven't been here since February. Once I check my emails and read an online newspaper, it's on to Twitter, and I'm stuck there for hours.

Following Trump's latest insanity and pretty kitty pictures. Signing petitions and retweeting lost pet tweets.

My laptop is terminally slow, so I don't often feel like waiting for it to go through its motions. One of my favourites on Twitter continues to be the black jaguar cub Maya.She's getting so big.

I'm still waiting for a date for my next shoulder replacement. I'm getting scared it may interfere with my activities this late spring and summer. Should be off to see May on July 26th.

Brooklyn's Finest with Zoo Angels

We always used to complain that Vincent's character was dead by the end of a film. In this one he was dead within minutes!



Yesterday I managed to get to the zoo for the first time in ages. Apart from meeting up with the other regulars, Chris, Tina and the other Val (who's Australian and relays news of the female tiger and her cubs to her friend Kath, who knew Melati and her father in Perth Zoo) It was great catching up with the animals.

Achilles' favourite keeper Katie was on hand to feed him directly through the back gate to the enclosure. I wonder if his adoring look is for her or for his food?

After their feed the twins had a sleep in their den. Sibling love.

Before his nap Achilles had a game retrieving a log from the pool. Like any cat, he then ost interest in it.

Bhanu has at last laid cliam to the covered den with the heated rocks. But he doesn't seem to be making much headway with the sisters. He went off roaring impressively to find them, They lined up one by one to face him off.

The meerkats found a perfect way to enjoy the sun on what was quite a chilly day, with a cold wind.

Marilyn the sloth had found a comfy perch above the human walkway in the rainforest zone.

These pictures have uploaded in a different order from the one I expected. This was my last visit of the day, to one-month-old Megan (or maybe Meghan after Ms Markle?) the baby okapi.

Tiger mum Melati was in the heated den with her (very large) babies. At 19 months they are now both bigger than her petite self.

Back in the rainforest, the tamandua, or tree anteater, was doing a monorail impersonation.

I didn't manage to get any film of the emperor tamarin Marcel chasing the red titi monkeys. I never knew a tree branch could bend so far without breaking.

Counterfire and Maya

Such a mean young thug in The Equaliser.


Much more recently Maya the Jaguar has been delighting the world. This should be a link to a video of her trying to decide which of her new toys to play with, but it may not work. Maybe you can copy and paste. It's worth it.

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/945649901660200963

She's simply the cutest, sweetest future murderer in the world!

The Mighty Thor and More

Who wouldn't want to be rescued by this god?



I was surprised the other day to discover that my neighbours have put out a bird feeder. Just the one. No competition for my multiple and various feeders. But interestingly they have attracted an exotic non-native, the ring-neck parakeet.

As one of my foxes trotted towards me the other day, I decided to take a photo. He stopped in his tracks as he spotted me. This is not a still photo, it is a photo of a still fox.

I retreated for a minute, and when I returned he was outside the door waiting for supper.

18 Wheels with cats

I think Vincent has just done another show at Joe's Pub. Just remembering George Geronimo Gerkie...

Now that I only have two cats, I am ever more indulgent. They are both getting on. Twiglet is over 18 and  is beginning to show her age.

Mackie is 14 and is a glossy mini panther.

There's another mini panther on the block. She's called Maya, and she was rejected by her mother at a wild animal park. She was transferred to a big cat sanctuary where she is being raised. I challenge you to find anything cuter in the world.

Guy Fawkes, Tigers and Mini Murmurations with Parakeets

Till Halloween encroached on British culture from the US, autumn had its own fun-filled ritual in the UK. Parents would build bonfires in their gardens and buy boxes of fireworks. Children would stuff newspaper into dad's old clothes, make a head out of one of mum's old stockings, and buy a pressed cardboard mask of Guy Fawkes to put on it. They would then wheel it in an old push chair (buggy) to a corner near the local shops and ask for a "penny for the Guy". This would go towards the firework fund.

Our house was the site of a bonfire party for friends and family. Year after year safe fun was had, with my father in charge of fireworks, which were kept in the outside toilet, away from potential accidents. The bonfire was built on a brick paved area and Guy was put on top to be incinerated. All this to commemorate the attempt by Guy Fawkes and his buddies in a Catholic plot to blow up the protestant king during the opening of Parliament by King James I in 1605. One of the conspirators sent a letter warning a relation to keep away for the Opening, and in gratitude the suspicious recipient turned him in. Fawkes was found in the cellar of the Houses of Parliament with barrels of explosive, and he and his mates were tortured and executed. Fawkes was burnt at the stake. Of course the Houses of Parliament were not in the building we know today, which was built in the 19th century after a fire destroyed the old one. The event was captured by the world's greatest artist, J M W Turner. You can see the towers of Westminster Abbey in the background of this particular rendering (he did several).

 

Meanwhile another zoo visit gave me the chance to take a few more pictures of tigers. Melati was in the little shelter, with her son in front of her and her daughter in front of him. Difficult to tell the difference these days, they are so well grown.



Achilles is such a handsome boy.



When he got bored, he went over to the gate where he sometimes gets given treats by the keepers, then when none appeared he climbed on to the wall next to the gate to await any change in the situation.






Finally his sister Karis decided she couldn't resist joining him on the off chance.



Achilles was interested in the activity on the netted roof of the enclosure where a large number of noisy starlings came close to forming a murmuration. They were joined by some even louder parakeets, escapees whose ancestors come from India. The long-tailed bird to the left of the central pole is one of them.

Household Saints with Animals

I could say that my continued absences are down to health issues, and it would be partly true. But I live on my iPad these days and don't yet know how to post pictures from Photobucket on to Blogger. I can't load up photos from my camera either, so unless I took a picture on the iPad I can't use it on there. My camera has outstanding zoom, so using it is a no-brainer. There should be a way of emailing pictures from it to somewhere or other but I've never found out how!

Latest hospital treatment has been camera up, camera down. All because my GP wanted to check out possible causes for my anaemia. Which seems to have been caused by the simple fact of having had surgery! Good thing health care is free in the UK. So far, anyway.

Meanwhile I'm going to post out of sequence because Vincent's co-star in Household Saints, UK comedian Tracey Ullman, has a new TV series in which she mimics people in the public eye. Angela Merkel and Theresa May are regular victims, as is Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. She's surpassed herself this time though with an impression of Labour leader and leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn.

Here she is with Vincent in the film:



So talented. I can't actually find my copy of the film, but luckily I have plenty of stills!

 I've also managed to make a couple of zoo visits, to London and to Howlett's in Kent.

Achilles was trying so hard to tempt his sister to play, we all thought he'd end up falling off the climbing frame!





Karis wasn't having any.



Dad JaeJae was having 40 winks, several times over.



The lionesses were also enjoying a snooze.




At Howlett's the young female Siberian tiger Amina was hoping for a snack. She has bone problems and walks with a limp. Raised by humans, the presence of people doesn't worry her at all.

This baby langur was tormenting its parents.

One of the lemurs in the walk-through garden was feeling very friendly.