Into the Cougar's Pen!

I had a very interesting day at the animal house last Saturday.
First, I think Spec (the leopard) is slowly getting use to me being around. He was sitting on a table against the fence in his pen, and when Shelby and I walked over there, he hissed at her. He didn't even look at me, even though I kept walking closer and closer to him. He just kept his eye on Shelby. We will see if he is more calm when I approach him by myself.
Before we started to clean the cougar's pen, Joel had to had to do something very dangerous, or what he called "an adventure". In Red Man's pen (the mean cougar) there was a broken table. Red Man was injured on his back leg, and Joel suspected it was from the table, so he decided to get it out of the pen. Now, in the cougars' pens there are no traps except for the one that separates Red Man and Flip Flop, so we had to trap Red Man in his house with a handmade trap. Since cougars hate water, I took the hose and started spraying just behind Red to move him into his house. When he went in, Shelby held a plastic board across the door. (FYI we are on the other side of the fence. We are NOT in the pen.) When she had it in place, I sprayed the board with the hose so Red would move to the second compartment of his house. While we kept Red away from the door, Joel went in and got the broken table out. Success!
When all the cleaning was done, and it was about time for me to go, I decided to go say "Hi" to flip Flop, the female cougar. She is sweet and gentle and LOVES to be petted! I started petting her on her back, and then she rubbed against the fence, begging me to pet her head. I think her favorite spots are on her head and neck. the more I petted her, the more she acted like a domesticated house cat.
I just love the feel of a cougar's fur. Even though it is short and kind of prickly, it is the softest fur I have ever touched. I could pet Flip Flop all day long.

Photo: Flip Flop