Today my husband surprised me by taking me to the Carolina Tiger Rescue in Pittsboro. He had mentioned that he had a surprise for me on Saturday, and I spent all week trying to guess what it was. I was over the moon when he told me this morning where we would be visiting. My husband and I frequently foster animals so this was especially near and dear to my heart. So I wanted to share with you some pics from our adventure as well as some interesting facts I learned.
I hope you enjoy and please pay a visit to the Carolina Tiger Rescue if you can. It truly is a great experience!
This is Sabastian. He is an adult male lion who was used as a prop in a Halloween haunted house for years before being rescued. Can you imagine walking through a dark room and seeing this guy pop out at you? Sabastian had quite the personality, that is for a lion.
Sabastion spends most of his days hanging around with his two lady companions.
He is so cute, but I know given the chance, I would be a nice meal for him.
More Sabastian!
He has just seen the trainer with the food bucket
Meet Sheba. She is an adult female who was featured in Animal Planets "Growing Up Lion". Of the three lions in the pen she is definitely the dominant personality.
Sheba relaxing in the afternoon sun.
This was a rare treat... every year after the Holidays, donated Christmas trees are given to the large cats. We were lucky enough to be there today to see this annual event. The trainer sprayed Obsession perfume on the tree and as you can see the lions loved it. In fact, they all dive bombed the tree when they first entered the pen.
Meet Rajaji. He is an adult male Bengal Tiger who was very friendly, despite his mean scowl in this image. There are only 3200 Bengal Tigers left in the wild today. There are more in captivity in Texas alone than there are in the wild.
Yes, he is actually falling asleep in front of us
Meet Jellybean. He is an adult male white tiger. Gorgeous cat! For all you Star Wars fans, did you know that Chewie's groan is that of a tiger? Jellybean groaned several times for us and I swear, it sounded just like Chewie.
Yawn
I cannot for the life of me remember this Bengal Tiger's name, which is sad because he was my favorite. He came here with his brother Apache who died this past August from a cancerous sore on his mouth. His brother, seen here, was lost without him for weeks. What makes this truly sad is that this little guy is blind and depended greatly on his brother to get around the pen. The trainer explained that he is doing much better now!
Meet Lucky. He is the largest Bengal Tiger on site weighing in at around 500 lbs. He is a gorgeous boy who shares his pen with a female named Carmelita. We didn't see much of her because Lucky gets very aggressive with her when food is around.
At the Carolina Tiger Rescue they rate each animals aggressive eating habits based on a scale from 1 to 4. All large cats are a 4.
Meet Bandit. He is a Caracal and is a funny little guy. He hissed constantly when food was around. Surprisingly though, he is only a level 2 on the aggressive scale.
I can't remember this little guys name either, but he is an Ocelot. Beautiful coat.
Meet Bok. I love this little guy. Very gentle in nature and comes in as a 0 on the aggressive scale. He mostly eats bananas but is considered a carnivore because he has carnivorous teeth.
Meet Elvis. He is a Serval. I can't remember too much right now about this little guy other than his eye lids blink really fast. I was happy I captured a shot with his eyes open.
Meet Colins. You guessed it, he's a bobcat. Most of you probably know that it is illegal to own a wild animal indiginous to North Carolina as a pet. So based on that logic, can I own a Tiger? The answer is yes. Shocking isn't it?
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