Meeting a Cheetah

[calissa]

As part of his anniversary present to me, Sahaquiel took me out to the zoo yesterday for a special tour to meet a cheetah.


It was a grey afternoon, as it has been so often lately. As instructed, we got there with a bit of time to spare, so we took a few detours on our way to the meeting point.



Bolivian Squirrel Monkey.



Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo eating lunch.



Cheetah, also eating lunch. His name was Dura and he seemed content to eat his lunch and largely ignore us. There were two keepers with us. One was the cheetah's handler. The other took all the photos (and, as you can see, she was really quite good. I guess she gets enough practice). They gave us very specific instructions: stay behind his front shoulder; don't touch his head; kneel or bend over in a position where you can get up quickly; if he gets up, get up; pat him with long strokes and don't ruffle his fur.





The keeper was lovely enough to get a short video of him purring.

Since it had been a couple of years since we'd last visited the zoo, we took the opportunity to wander around after meeting Dura.



Emu.



Penguins. Unfortunately, I didn't note their type.



Meercats.



Koala.



Common marmoset.



Snow leopard.




American alligator.



Again, I didn't note what this beauty was. I suspect it was the boa constrictor.

Once we were done touring the zoo, we headed into town so I could make use of a gift card I'd received for Christmas. Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat came out on Tuesday and I wanted to make sure I snagged a copy.



With my loot secure, it was out to dinner then home. I ended the day a little dehydrated, slightly sunburnt and full of aches. It was perfect.

Comments

[transcendancing]

Looks like a wonderful day!

[calissa]

I had such a lovely time. :)

[darakat]

The meet a cheetah experience is so awesome! Glad you had a great day!

[calissa]

Thank you! I enjoyed it very much.

[sidheblessed]

Oh wow the Meet a Cheetah experience looks amazing! And his purring was freakin' adorable.

Perfect days are the best. ^.^

[calissa]

Wasn't it? He seemed like such a sook, for all that he could swipe my face off.

Here's to more perfect days for all of us.

[umadoshi]

All of the zoo photos are so neat! I had to Google the Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo and get a look from the front--I'd never heard of them, and the coloring is lovely!

How long were you able to hang out with the cheetah? *bounce*

[calissa]

Thank you! My phone's not much good for distance, but I'm still pleased with how the photos turned out.

I'd not heard of Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo either until I saw this one. The colours are truly stunning, aren't they?

I'm afraid my sense of time is not the greatest, but I guess we were in with him for about 15 minutes.

[bunny_m]

Oooh, jealous!


Congrats!

[calissa]

Thank you!

[alee_grrl]

Now that's a kick-ass anniversary present. :D Looks like a phenomenal day was had. Thank you for sharing the photos and video. Too awesome.

[calissa]

My sweetheart knows me well... and it's something he also enjoyed very much. He gets all the credit for the idea.

The video in particular was too good not to share. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[clare_dragonfly]

Ooh, that's so awesome! :D

The penguins are adorable.

[calissa]

Aren't they just? They were making these cute little squeaks.

[onewhitecrow]

I am glad Dura so obviously likes being a visitor attraction. That is an extremely cool thing.

I think those might be Little Penguins, unless they're another sort that lose white patches out of breeding season...were they tiny and blueish in real life?

[calissa]

He reminded me a lot of my dogs, only bigger and more dangerous.

I think you might be right about the penguins, though I don't remember them being blueish. It was quite a grey day, though, and I probably wasn't paying as close attention as I should have. They were certainly on the small side.