Saturday morning fun

I started a volunteer position this last week. It is located about an hour east of where I live, right next door to the middle of nowhere.


It is a ranch that provides permanent care for cats like this little fella named RJ. He's the newest addition and favorite at the ranch, as he's wildly energetic and playful.



Gizmo, however, is lazy and lethargic most of the time. He just likes to hang out and wait to be fed. Clearly there are worse ways to spend your days.

But those guys don't garner most of the attention.

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These cats do!

"The girls" enjoying their Christmas tree.


The lion and two lionesses lounging around. Apparently they have a fondness for each others' leashes.


The mischief maker. Apparently this leopard gal likes to work herself up sometimes and will run circles in her cage as fast as she can, often running on the chain-link fence walls.


As far as cats go, the ranch is currently a permanent home to 3 lions, 4 tigers, a leopard, a serval, and 3 bobcats. They were all rescued from abusive (typically through negligent domestication attempts) situations, usually while quite young. Due to excessive human handling they are unable to live in the wild again.

In addition to the cats there are horses, two attention craving llamas, two miniature horses, a big pot belly pig (who they had to put on a diet upon rescue due to being approximately 100 pounds overweight), a loud peacock, a turkey that wanders around acting offended, a small horde of chickens, rabbits, goats, and more.

So far I've just helped by doing manual labor and office work, but they quickly contrived a pile of projects for me when they inquired about my employment. It sounds like my Saturday's will be pretty busy for a long while :).

Pond Time

Just a short one.... you know summer is really here when you get to feed Grandpa's fish!

Brazen Mama

We came home from church Sunday, and there was a duck in the pond. I opened the door, expecting her to leave. Well, she did leave --- she jumped out of the pond and headed towards the door at a dead run (as much as a duck can run). Intrigued, I watched to see what she would do.

She got to the bottom of the stairs, then hopped up the bottom two. I thought she'd invite herself into the house. But she chickened out.

Curious, I grabbed the camera and sat on the stairs to see what would happen next. By that time, she was back in the pond. You can see what happened next . . .

Not as cool as Kaylee dancing . . . but it was interesting!!

Kaylee's Dance recital

Kaylee had her dance recital last weekend. She did great, she looked great, and it was a lot of fun to see her on stage. Here are few pictures!