30 Before 30 - #13 Complete! (VERY picture heavy!)

 I love herons!  :D
I actually got video of him catching a

fish, but I don't have time to upload it

now so I'll share it later.       

Sorry it took me so long to get these photos ready (was actually waiting on my hubby to give me the ones he took because I had to have them).  Back in April on our five year wedding anniversary we went for a weekend road trip!  We got to go to a big cat sanctuary, a cavern and a petting zoo/drive through safari.  It was so awesome!

First up we have pictures from the big cat sanctuary. Sadly these pictures have bars in the way (I hate taking photos of animals in cages), but these pens were temporary while they were building more large enclosures.  They actually rescue big cats that are kept as pets from all over the U.S.  Most of them have been declawed!!!  Being declawed causes arthritis so a lot of them are on narcotics to keep them comfortable.  It's really sad, but I'm so glad they are saving them and keeping them comfortable and healthy for the remainder of their lives.  This sanctuary is a hands off facility because they don't agree with treating wild animals like pets.  It's not safe.  They told us stories about horrible maulings and fatalities from people going into cages at other facilities.

This guy was enormous! 

 This guy acts practically like a pet (obviously no one

 goes in the cage since this is a hands off facility, but 

you can tell he was handled before he was rescued).

My husband took this picture of the keeper playing with the Grizzly.  

Like I said, he's a total pet.  He loves the interaction.  Also he's only

half grown!!!                                                                    

 I love tigers!  They were loving the weather we had that day.

The lady that gave the tour through the sanctuary said there are more tigers (around five thousand) living in backyards in America than there are living in the wild (around three thousand)!! I was shocked!  I took a bunch more pictures, but like I said I don't like the cages so I didn't pick as many to share.  I was trying to limit how many I put in this post anyway lol.

Next up we went to a cavern.  I don't think I've ever been to one.  If I did it was when I was so little I don't remember it.  So this was sort of like a first for me and it was so cool!

 The bats were still hibernating and they were mere inches

 above our heads.  I could have squished them with my 

head if I stood up straight because I'm tall.

There was a lot of running water in the cavern.  The guide even told

 everyone to go pee before we left because otherwise they would 

have to after hearing the water lol.

 It was so awesome!  And so cool.. literally.  Even though it

 was in the eighties outside the cavern was around sixty.  It 

stays the same temperature all year round!

The next day we went to a drive through safari (that also had a petting zoo).  I hate to say it, but this was my favorite!  I've been on drive through safaris before and they are awesome (seriously go if you get the chance) because there are no cages and I can take all the pictures I want.  I'm telling you I would LOVE to be a wildlife photographer.  It is so fun!

First up I'll share the pictures from the petting zoo.  

 This cute mini foal tried to help me convince hubby

 to let me get a mini hehe. We almost succeeded because 

he was so adorable, but nope hubby has a heart of iron.

 Check out this beautiful girl.

Notice anything?

 See the feet poking out of her pouch?

Sadly their enclosure was locked for some reason.  I learned something about kangaroos though.  Did you know that the male red kangaroo can be almost six feet tall, but the female is only half that size???  I had no idea the females were that small! Lucky for me I got some up close and personal experience in the matter...

 Yes I got to pet a Joey and his mom!!

 Their fur reminded me of the thick cashmere 

coats of my goats in the winter.

 It was sooooo cool!!!!!

 

 Here I'm pointing at her feet because I wanted my hubby to get a picture.

I had never seen kangaroo feet up close lol.  She's staring at my hand hehe.

I also got to pet.....

The giraffe!!!!

That's my umbrella I'm cradling in my arm by the way. I got to feed them lettuce (with permission) and pet them.  In the picture I'm petting his face, but I also got to pet his neck and the little one's nose.  :D  Totally made my day to pet a kangaroo and a giraffe in the same day!!!!  I've fed giraffes before, but never touched one before this.

The keeper that told me I could feed the giraffe had a baby Capuchin monkey!!!!

 LOVE him!!!!!!!!

When I was a kid (before I knew it was illegal) I wanted a pet Capuchin soooo bad!  I blame the movie Monkey Trouble that I watched a million times lol.  We were not allowed to pet the baby Capuchin, but it was still so cool seeing him up close.  You should have seen him hanging onto her hair (he's on her head in these pictures) and poking his fingers in her eyes lol.  My husband took the pictures with me in them and also the pictures of the baby Capuchin.

 He doesn't like men and was glaring at my husband lol!

These are Egyptian Geese!  They are so cool!

 Fancy doves!  I want one!!!!

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it but I love doves!  The sound they make is so soothing and beautiful to me.  I've never had one as a pet before, but I enjoy going into pet stores to the bird rooms just to listen to them (although they are usually drowned out by the parakeets and finches lol).

 White peacock!  So beautiful!  

Now on to the drive through safari pictures!

Hubby took this one.  I LOVE zebras!

Are we beginning to notice a theme?  I think I love all animals lol!  All of the pictures below here are ones I took.

 Babies!!!

The way some of them acted made me wonder

 if people have broken the no feeding rule.

 Shh don't tell anyone we had the windows down!   Taking pictures through windows is almost as bad as cages hehe.

 Does anyone know what this is?  The antlers remind me of a Fallow deer, 

but the coloring doesn't seem right.. can they be this color?

 Babies!!!!!

 Ever seen a white American Bison??

 I think that was a first for me.

 Isn't he cool??

 This curious Muscovy drake heard we have some cute 

Muscovy hens and wanted to come home with us hehehe!

 Ankole-Watusi have impressive horns!

 The Emu was very curious!  It's like they had radars for open windows lol!

 A Yak!  This is the picture I wanted to

 share when I did my Yak post for A to Z.

 Another baby!!!!  This is a Yak calf.  :D

 The emu again (or may be a different one, there were a bunch).

Don't they have gorgeous eyes??

 Zebra!!!

I wanted to take her home!

My mom saw a Zonkey on T.V. for the first time while we were gone and she wanted us to sneak a Zebra in the car to bring home to Zep (my donkey) LOL!  This is a joke obviously.  When we were at the safari we saw a Zonkey too!

A Zonkey (Zebra/Donkey cross)

This is my donkey Led Zeppelin.  He'd make cute Zonkey babies huh?

Anyway, back to the safari.

A picture of my hubby taking a picture of the zebra.  :D

 Don't you just want to take her home??

By the way when the animals came up to our windows we rolled them up.  Some of the zebra pictures and almost all of the Emu pictures are taken with the window up.  I did not pet any of them.  I pet a zebra at a petting zoo when I was a little kid, but I didn't mess with these since we were already breaking the rules having the windows down.  I won't pet or feed them though.  No matter how cute and hard to resist hehe.

 This adorable camel was watching us take pictures of the zebras.

 The Eland are so cool!  I love their horns.

 Momma did not want this big baby nursing, but she finally gave in. 

We also saw one of the Eland about to give birth!!  I got pictures, but I didn't want to share them unless you want me to.  Some people are freaked out about baby hooves sticking out of momma Elands lol.  We didn't watch her give birth because she was nervous having a car there so we moved on and left her in private.  Luckily it was really quiet that day because of the threatening rain, so there weren't a lot of people.  It would have been cool to see a newborn, but we didn't want to stress her out.

 Hubby calls this cutie Bacon Bit!  Hehe, he has a weird sense of humor.

They didn't have very many predators at the safari since

 they can't be loose in the drive through, but there was

 this gorgeous white tiger.  I love this shot, but I really, 

really wish the fence wasn't in the way!

 The wildlife was cooperating for photos too! 

What kind of bird is this?  I thought I knew, but

I'm drawing a blank now...

 Another Ankole-Watusi.  

 OMG someone has to tell me what this is!!!!!  So cute!!!!!!!

 It's some kind of antelope, but I've never see one before!  

Check this awesome dude out!!!!  I had never seen one of these either.  This is a Black Wildebeest (or White-tailed Gnu).  It is much smaller than the regular wildebeest (Blue Wildebeest or Brindled Gnu) you see on T.V.  They are so cute!!!  Seriously they are cuter than the miniature cows that people are breeding nowadays.  I had never seen such a small wildebeest so when I got home I looked it up, so now I know the difference between the two.  Somehow in all the years that I've watched T.V. shows about wildlife I never knew they were actually called Gnu either since almost everyone calls them wildebeest.  You learn something new everyday.  :D

 Pretty gazelle.

 Prairie dog!  

We didn't even see these at first because we were watching the gazelle run around and play.  I wish I hadn't dropped my stupid camera.  I'm getting so tired of them all being blurry.  :(

Last photo for now.  What is this bird????  I've never seen one before.
It doesn't look like a crow to me....

Well that's all for now.  I hope I haven't locked up all of your computers with pictures.  If you want to see anymore of anything let me know.  I needed a break from putting watermarks on photos.  That's an all day job sometimes!

So I'm happy we got to do something so fun for our anniversary.  My husband completely surprised me with the trip.  He knows me so well!!!  It's funny because when it was finally time to tell me what we were doing he gave me a huge handful of brochures and told me to pick out what I would want to do.  I picked the big cat sanctuary (big cats are probably my favorite wild animals along with otters, Capuchins and wolves lol) as my number one pick and the drive through safari as my number two pick.  Those are the two things he had planned on doing with me!!!  So I picked the caverns as my third thing.  It was the best weekend ever!