More Of Our Favorites . . .
In our travels over the years we always make a habit of visiting the small zoos and animal rescue exhibits we come across, and this one near Spokane was one of our favorites.
July 14, 2011
Cat Tales and Good Pizza . . .
After coffee this morning, Jan and I left about 12:15 to head into Spokane for the rest of the day.
Our first stop was Shakey’s Pizza for their lunch buffet. We really like their food and always stop by when there’s one in the area. The last time we ate at one was in Lancaster, CA last year.
And there’s another reason we really like them. Jan and I went there on our first date in Orlando, FL in July of 1967, about 43 years ago. So a lot of good things come from Shakey’s.
Shakey’s has a great buffet, consisting of pizza, spaghetti, fried chicken, battered, fried potato slices, salad bar, and dessert pizza. Really, really good.
Leaving Shakey’s we drove up the road about 5 miles to the Cat Tales Zoological Park. We had noticed the place when we came through town this past Monday and wanted to check it out.
Turns out that Cat Tails is a Big Cat rescue zoo that began in 1991, starting with 4 cats, and has been growing ever since.
They have a number of beautiful Royal White Bengal Tigers.
They also have number of these signs around. So we have a choice: Run and LOOK like food, or stand still and BE food.
Not much of a choice, if you ask me.
This is a mountain lion, a puma, panther, catamount, or a cougar. Take your pick.
These are Serval cats. A little bigger than a domestic house cat, they can run 45 mph and jump 12 feet in the air and catch birds in mid-air.
I never knew that leopards had green eyes. The info sign says a leopard can jump 20 feet straight up and 35 feet straight out from a sitting position. WOW!
They have a number of both male and female lions, but I could only get a good photo of this female.
They also have two tigers and a lioness that have been raised together since they were cubs, and all three are in the same cage.
And of course, a lot of tigers.
This is 14 month old Amura, being taken for a walk and moved to a new cage.
Still a youngster who likes to play with her ball, she also likes to splash in her pond,
and even take a bath.
Being raised as a single cub, the zoo decided Amura needed a companion. So they got Sage, 4 month old Great Pyrenees, from the local Humane Society.
They were kept together for almost a year until Amura got too big, and the zoo was worried that Amura might not know her own strength.
But they regularly put them together in adjacent cages so they can play. It was easy to see how excited they got when they saw each other.
We really enjoyed Cat Tails and thought it was a great bargain. At only $8.00 it’s much cheaper than some other similar attractions, and we really had a great time.
Well recommended if you’re in the area.
Leaving the zoo we headed into downtown Spokane as Jan wanted to drive through the South Hill District and check out some of the old homes in the area.
After that we headed back north for a for a few stops before heading home. First up was a Bed, Bath & Beyond for Jan to get some soaps.
Then it was back to Wal-Mart for more ‘stuff’. Apparently we left some ‘stuff’ there the other day, so Jan wanted to go back and get it all.
We got back home about 6:30, to find that unlike last night, when we got back to find a note on our RV saying the park water would be off until this morning, but found it was working fine, tonight we got back to find no note, but the water was off anyway.
No problem as we have plenty in our tank.
We’ll leave here tomorrow about 8 am, heading for Columbia Falls, MT and Glacier National Park. It’ll be about 225 miles and since we’ll also lose an hour moving into Mountain Daylight Time, we want to get an early start.
We also want to top off our diesel before we leave Newport, and that also takes a while.
Thought for the Day:
A journey of a thousand miles usually begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire.
