Tiger Day!

So my dad is in town this weekend which is always enjoyable. We didn't have any plans this weekend, but Brad and I had been wanting to go back to the Exotic Cat Refuge here in Wylie. Brad, his mom, and I went back in April after we moved out to "Wide Awake Wylie", but it was so hot and the animals were kind of hidden for the most part. We decided that we would take Dad and show him the cats as well. This round, the cats were much more active and it wasn't nearly as hot! It was a decent day and not too hot or humid.

Of course, the grounds of the place aren't as "nice" as you would imagine from the greatness the place is, but that's not their initiative! They just want to give the animals care and a safe place to live. The enclosures the tigers live in are very nice and it allows visitors to get within 3 feet of the cats which can be great but also scary! (I'll hit on that in a minute.)

The first cat you come up to is a White Bengal Tiger named Kiro. He is so beautiful and huge! We was laying by the fence when we showed up, then he got up and talked to us a little bit!

Most of the cats were adopted by In Sync because of people who thought it would be cool to have a "pet" tiger and then were unable to take care of them for some reason, or they were sent from other animal refuges that were shut down or didn't have the facilities to keep them. There are about 25 tigers out there, 2 lions, 10 or so cougars, and a few other types of cats. It's so great!

After looking through most of my pictures, I see we saw a lot of sleeping cats, but at least we saw more movement and heard some other voices. There are a few cats that aren't real fond of people. The last visit we made one of the trainers kind of talked to us about a few tigers that she knew. One of them in particular doesn't like people and will just hiss at you when you walk by.

If you look very closely, you can see his face inside. (His name is Mohan)

Later on, after we had walked around, we came back to the same cage, and there was a very nervous cat it seemed that was not having a good day. Brad kept trying to get pictures of her but she kept coming and hissing. (The signs around say that it is a sign of not being happy and to kindly move on) So finally the cat had enough and decided to voice her opinion at Brad and jumped on the fence in front of Brad. The only picture Brad got was while he was quickly backing up!

The coolest thing we saw right as we were leaving was the owner, Vicky, go in to Kiro's cage and let him go into the play in his play yard. She gave that huge cat a huge hug and got in there and dragged his toys around! It was crazy!

We had a great time! If you want to come out and see them, let us know! It's so great! It costs $10 for adults and are only open on Sat. and Sun. Here's the address: InSync Exotics, 3430 Skyview Dr, Wylie, TX, http://www.insyncexotics.com