Lions and tigers and cheetahs–oh my.

We didn’t see any bears, but tigers? Check. Cheetahs? Check. Lions? Check.

We drive to Ukutula Lion Park and are again surprised at how far telling people “it is our honeymoon” will get us. A private tour of the lions? A private lion walk? Marc has already suggested that we keep telling people it is our honeymoon for the rest of our lives.

We arrived and the place was quite full. We didn’t realize that we only have to play our honeymoon card…

We have a tour and meet the countless lions the reserve has. It is full of white lions with ice blue eyes who are not allowed to mate with each other because the probability is very high that they will produce an albino baby. They are stunning.

I am not happy that the females have flies all over their noses and in their eyes. Our guide explains that it is because of the meat they eat.

Felix is the resident male who has fathered most of the offspring. He is a spectacular beast. I want to groom him. Marc says I am not allowed.

This place has a tiger called Raj. He is gorgeous and a rescue. It is beyond amazing to see a lion and a tiger playing and living together.

We go and see the kids. They are too much. Some of them are bit snappy (Marc has learned a few lessons from his leopard encounter) and no one gets bit. Phew. These lions are kids. There is a nice mix of white lions with the standard tan whose legs are really spotted before they reach maturity. None of them have manes yet. We both take our chances and pet a few. Heaven.

We say good-bye and visit the nursery. They are so damn adorable. There are a few cheetahs living in the creche with the lions. They are all too adorable and are showing off their new trick–how to get over the fence. Of course one figured it out and showed everyone else. We couldn’t help but loving these antics.

Then we went on a lion walk. We weren’t too sure what this was, but we definitely wanted to do it and were thrilled when they accommodated us.

We meet Wilson. An older black man who has just started at the reserved. We don’t know what to expect. We go back to the pen where the kids are. He has a bucket with a lid on it. Wilson opens the door and calls out a few of the lions. Five of them to be exact. They start running, pouncing on each other, playing…they are having a marvelous time out of the pen running around with no leashes. We start walking. The lions are stalking each other. They are climbing trees. They are trying to learn how to roar (they haven’t mastered this yet) and are too gorgeous.

In the covered bucket Wilson has a chicken leg with the foot intact. He has a hard time believing that in China, chicken feet are served for breakfast. Mmm…delicious.

We hang out with these beasts for over an hour and then we walk back to their pen. They were tired from all the playing. We now literally know where the expression ‘herding cats’ comes from. They were too much. We love them.

The day isn’t over! We haven’t seen the lion babies. They have just been fed, so they don’t need a bottle yet. They are five weeks old and “adorable” just doesn’t sum it up. They are outside in a coral playpen. There are so many of them. They are smaller than a regular house cat. They don’t have teeth yet. We sit down and they hand us each a baby. We are so happy. We are both madly in love.

My baby crawls away (we were sitting on the ground) and a little Jack Russell dog named Apple climbs into my lap. Really cute–but we are here to see the lions. The stupid volunteer thinks an effective way to get the dog out of my lap would be to put a baby lion in there as well (we heard the story about Apple biting one of the volunteers who tried to remove him from another guest’s lap).

There was a carcuffle. I came out unscathed. I kicked out Apple and got a new baby who promptly peed on me. I didn’t care. A mother doesn’t mind those things. I start trying to plot with Marc on how we were going to get one out. Unfortunately they have the babies all counted. We come away walking on cloud nine and lionless.