I went to a presentation of live wildcats today given by an organization
called "Leopards, Etc". The company consists of a husband and wife who
have been working with wild cats for more than 20 years and have a large
facility where they keep about 20 animals. Then they have public events
where they show 5 of the cats (different ones each time) and talk about
them. It's definitely a hands-off kind of thing, but I got to see them
up pretty close.

Today's cats included a Canadian lynx, an ocelot, a cheetah, a
caracal, and an African leopard. They were all beautiful, and the
cheetah was especially well-tempered and happy hanging out with his
trainer. The guy just kept feeding him little bits of meat and
petting his face, and the cat would lick his hand and purr -
*loudly*. Yes, cheetahs purr.

But the couple was insistent on telling us that, no matter what it
looked like, these animals don't "love" them. Although they live in
captivity and have formed bonds with humans, they're wild and they
could attack their human caretakers at any time. All the cats have
been bred in captivity (ie, none taken from the wild) and will live
that way for the rest of their lives because they would be unable to
survive in the wild.

Here's a website about what they do and the animals they have:
http://www.leopardsetc.com/

It was a pretty cool event!

Joyce