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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 2080997" data-attributes="member: 3649">This weekend I went to our local zoo for the first time in years and years. I was there soon after it first opened and haven't been back since then. They've expanded a great deal and they have several cool exhibits. We've been having very nice mild weather, so it was time for a walk. I spent more than two hours there. They have this black leopard exhibit. All the other great cats; the lions, tigers, cheetahs, ocelots, mountain lions, and lynx were all pudding-like mounds of fur as they soaked up the first real warm weekend we've had in a while. They were full, sacked out and obviously in kitty-dreamland. Not the black leopards. They were awake, aware, and full of vigor in their shadowy enclosure. They were right against the bars more often than not, watching people and then going to play with their giant cat toy thingie or trot around the enclosure or lick each other. They were active while the others were not, so they had a nice crowd around them. I think they might think of that as ironic. So you've also got small kids there, getting their look at the animals. Cute kids, mostly well-behaved and such. There was this one little little girl, though, who while also well-behaved was also very hyper. She waved her hands, she squealed, she loved the big kitties. The big kitties loved her, too. They fixated on her right away as the small quick-moving prey animal she was and they followed every move she made. Maybe no-one else really realized this? Anyway, I watch them watching her. They are some seriously scary big kitties. You can practically see the male working out pounce distances and weight-to-frame ratios in his head. He butts his head, house-cat-like, against the bars and that gets a reaction. Everyone's seen cats do this, marking something with their forehead scent glands. He does it again and little miss meatpie gets really squeaky at that and waves both arms at the big kitty. One big kitty has had all the temptation he can take. He bears those big antelope neck-snapping fangs and tries to get his paw through the bars at her, affirming the 'danger, do not approach' part of the signs placed every five feet around the bar-part of the enclosure.  Everyone gasps and jumps back. Little miss snackcake doesn't cry or scream. She gets really quiet and clings to momma. She does not move for the rest of their time there, which is short. The knot of people drift away even though the cats are still active, really remembering that those bars are the only thing that keeps that cat from pouncing their suburban behinds and dragging them up in that tree to ripen. They drifted away and the cats went back to playing. But they were still watching everyone that approached their enclosure, I'm sure keeping track in their heads of where everyone was just in case someday someone made a mistake.</blockquote>

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