Cheetahs!

Bonjour,

One of my goals this year was to arrange for the kids to meet some cheetahs.

Success.

The pictures above and below show us meeting a two-year old male cheetah, named Phoenix, in South Africa. Phoenix started purring loudly after we began petting him. Really.

We visited both Cheetah Outreach outside of Cape Town (in South Africa) and the Cheetah Conservation Fund near Outjo, Namibia. We are now all cheetah experts.

A few quick facts: There are only between 7500 and 10,000 cheetahs, the fastest land animal, left in the world (the population has fallen by half in the last 20 years). Both Cheetah Outreach and CCF are working hard to save these cats, through educating young South Africans and Namibians about the value of these animals, through breeding large cattle dogs that protect livestock and providing them to farmers/cattle ranchers (and hopefully preventing the farmers and ranchers from killing the cheetahs -- surprisingly enough, donkeys will deter cheetahs too), and traveling outside of southern Africa to raise money and awareness of the cheetahs' plight.

Nearly half of the remaining cheetahs live on Namibian farm and ranch land, and it's safe to say they are viewed as nuisances, much like wolves by cattle ranchers in the American West. Fortunately, the use of the large dogs seems to be working to keep the cheetahs away from the livestock -- and the ranchers' guns.

Here are some more pictures of cheetahs from our visit to CCF in Namibia (and yes, we were right there next to them, just a few feet away sometimes. No fence). They are such beautiful animals.

These two are sisters. Can't you see the resemblance ?

And how did Tommy, long the biggest cheetah lover in a family of cheetah lovers, feel about meeting the cheetahs, especially Phoenix (the cat, not to be confused with Sasha's man friend)...?

Well, does this look like a happy boy?

He reported that it was the best day of the sabbatical so far for him.

A bientot,

Kim