On Tuesday I had my 30th Birthday pressie shadowing a big cat keeper at Paradise Wildlife Park. The keeper in question was a lovely young lady called Jenny (of all things) who looked after me for the day.

The day started saying hello to some of the animals starting with two Wolves, then a beautiful Jaguar, the Tigers, onto the Snow Leopards, the Ocelot, Pallas cats, Geoffrey's cats and the Cheetahs (which we managed not to take any photos of - d'oh!).

After saying hello to the animals it was onto my first job of cleaning out the inside area of the Tigers enclosure. It was just a case of removing the wet straw, washing the floor and tidying the dry straw.

After tidying it was a tea break followed by preparing the cat's food. It's a bit gory so you can skip this paragraph if you like :) The food consisted of 2 rabbits which I had to cut in half and then cut their back half in two, prepare two big cuts of horse meat, de-yolk a number of chicks (you have to rip them open and squeeze a puss coloured sack out of them - very pleasant!), and weigh a horses head that had been cut in two (also very pleasant!). I also had to chop up the meat that I am using in the hand feeding pics.

After the food was sorted (which took a lot longer than I thought) it was time to go and feed some of the animals. Saying another quick hello to the Snow Leopards it was into the actual Ocelot enclosure to feed him some of the chicks. After the Ocelot, Jenny went into feed the Pallas cats (I wasn't allowed in as the male is quite violent and the female pregnant). Finally it was into the Geoffrey's cats enclosure to give them the remaining chicks. They were extrememely cute and smaller than Cassie but are quite vicious so, while I could hold the chick and they would swipe it out my hand, I couldn't stroke them.

After the smaller cats it was onto the Tigers. This was one of the best experiences I have ever had. Jenny explained how to feed them without losing any fingers and said that I could try and hold onto it as long as possible once they got hold - I think about half a second was my record. The sheer size of them was amazing (and they are small tigers) only weighing in around 36 stone.

After the Tigers were fed there was just enough time to go and say hello to the Racoons and feed them before it was time for lunch. After lunch it was onto feeding the Lions. Unlike the Tigers that grabbed the food with their teeth and ripped it out your hands the Lions were a lot gentler and ate more similarly to domestic cats trying to pull the food into their mouth with their tongues.

And that was the end of my shadowing. I had an incredible time - being able to stroke the animals as they brushed up against the bars and putting your hand against the bars so they could lick it was an experience I will never forget. They are such beautiful and graceful animals that you just want to stroke and cuddle - though obviously it would be the last thing you do!

A big thank you to Jen for choosing it and also to everyone that chipped in to get it for me. Also thanks to Jenny who was a pleasure to chat to, didn't take the mickey out of me for wearing latex gloves on the food preparation bit and let me get so close to these incredible creatures.

As you can tell I had a b****y excellent day and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Sorry for the long diatribe - hope you enjoy the pics and there are more in the photos section too :)

                   

Added on 23.03.2006 @ 22:51 by Demoncheese

Have finally got round to adding some more news as Nik & I went to see The Prodigy last night and they were bloody brilliant so I thought I would upload a few pics for everyone.

As they have just released a greatest hits album the concert was made up of all the classics and some of their new ones, including my favourite Breathe.

Thanks to Jen being quick off the mark with the tickets we had the best seats in the house, sat front row and dead centre of the south balcony, so we were about 50 metres from the stage looking over the heads of all the people bouncing up and down in the standing area.

Definately worth going to see if you get the chance, but be warned, as the warnings there said the concert is very loud :)

               

Added on 30.11.2005 @ 19:41 by Demoncheese

For Kit's 30th Birthday a group of us went kayaking on Sunday. Much fun was had by all rowers, especially going down the wooden stairway in the canoe into the river - great fun but v. cold. Still as it was amazingly hot that day it was nice and refreshing.

It was the first time I have done kayaking since I was at school and managed to stay in the boat - only Kit's brother, Bash, had the dubious please of flipping the boat not on purpose (Kit tried to do some eskimo rolls at the end of the session).

                   

Added on 22.06.2005 @ 00:03 by Demoncheese

Saturday saw Jen's Birthday bash at Simon & Tash's. Lot's of people came as did the sun thankfully. A lovely relaxing Saturday afternoon and evening was had by all - and Izzy tried her first ice cream too!!

The slightly older (i.e. those walking) had great fun in the paddling pool while lots of envious adults wished they had brought their cosies so they could go for a dip too.

As soon as I have pilfered the photos from Simon I will try and get them uploaded into an album - but knowing both of us that might be a while :)

                   

Added on 21.06.2005 @ 23:52 by Demoncheese

Saturday was Vanessa and Jake's wedding bash (they got married a week and a half ago). We had a really good time and Emily and Alisha seemed really excited to see each other and were pretty much inseparable for most of the evening.

The do was in a big marquee in Vanessa's Mum and Dad's garden and they were kind enough to let us put Emily to bed in one of the bedrooms so Jen and I could party the night away - plus Paul was kind enough to drive us and pick us up so we could both drink.

               

Added on 06.06.2005 @ 18:40 by Demoncheese