Did anyone see this show last night on Animal Planet? This family runs
an animal sanctuary, which has mostly big cats that were rescued after
being kept as "seemed like a good idea at the time" pets. They inherited
a male-female pair of black leopards who had been abused (I missed the
beginning of the show, so I don't know the details), so they weren't
very social toward humans. The sanctuary managers didn't know that the
female was pregnant until she gave birth. They had to remove the cub
right away because in the wild, the male doesn't hang around while the
mother raises her cub - in that situation, the baby was in danger from
the male. So they got him out and hand-raised him. (I'm not sure why
they didn't just separate the male and female adults and let the female
raise the cub, but maybe they explained that before I tuned in.)

The baby was soooooo cute! They had him in the house with them until
he was about 9 months old, and then they had to let him live in their
20-acre enclosure with a couple of other young leopards (after a
careful introduction process). But while he was living with them, he
was like a very rambunctious and extremely affectionate kitten. He
really was adorable.

Joyce