Megan Visit-Monday

Monday Megan, Matt, and I went to visit the Exotic Feline Rescue Center (EFRC) near Brazil, Indiana.  This facility houses big cats that were abused or obtained illegally.  They have over 200 big cats, mostly tigers and lions.  We got to walk around and see nearly 1/2 of the cats on a private 2 hour tour.  It was AMAZING. 

Our tour guide was super nice and knowledgeable.  One big No-No is touching the cats.  You did not have to tell us twice, there is no way we were putting our hands in the cages.

We started out by feeding some of the cats.  This little guy was not interested in sharing his raw steak.  All the food for this facility is donated.  The sheriff’s call when road kill is found and a man working for the group goes to bring it back.  Other people in the area donate dead horses, cows, or deer when they come across them.  Each day they feed 3,000 lbs of meat.  Mmmm…yummy.

Same cat…just different views…one scary, one calm and in control.

This leopard gets fed by having a chunk of food thrown on the roof of the cage.  He jumps up and pulls it through the cage.  They knew food was coming when we arrived and were hissing and growling, after breakfast, they were different cats…content to nap.

 

The lions mostly slept all day.  This one was sleeping like my big girl Allie sleeps on the deck.  Most of the tigers were awake throughout our tour, but the lions were sleeping.

More sleeping…with her tongue sticking out…how precious.  You almost want to cuddle, don’t you.

The tigers were wide awake and ready to talk.  We got sprayed a couple times with cat butt juice.  It was stinky and un-cool.

This is the illusive white tiger.  Completely blind, but able to move around in her cage.  It takes the right combination of recessive genes to have a white tiger.  There is an illegal breeder in the US that is still trying to create one…many of his mis-haps are at the EFRC. 

We got all the way to the end of our tour and Matt realized we had not taken a group picture.  We sat in front of the lion cage, can you find them in the back?