jukani cheetahs, snakey snakes, big cats!

Apologies! Sorry i have not updated my blog for afew days, its quite tricky wrighting every single night so i took a little break and now for the update which alot of you will have been wiating for i am sure.

The love for the animals hear imediatley takes over, "the cats eat before we eat" a phrase i was told! Its a 6.30 am start each morning with the same routine. The feeling of walking in with 2 lions and 2 cheetah to take them outside to there enclosures! Incredable! The 4 tigers are then taken out to there enclosures.....the sun comes up into the sky and you stand looking at this as you watch 2 tigers being walked past you....!

Helping with enclosure cleaning, and the morning tasks follow's, including chopping the food for the many rabbits that also live at jukani, feeding the rats to, the chickens, and one duck who thinks its a chicken. Its not just big cats that live hear.

Snakes live hear also.....the second interaction with the snakes! I walked in and looked at the many they have hear yesterday and i went in alone tonight befor dinner to look at them...in there glass cages....made sure none were on the ground...(paranoid) thought there was one huge one at a glance...however it was the peacok that also lives hear at jukani who kept me company as i hesitantly peerd into the snakes...!

So the most important part of jukani, the stunning cats, each with there own personalitys and all have names....im learning there names still! There's so much knowledge hear and pation for there aniamls, i can clearly see why its such an important place. It all about the cats, providing as much imformation as possible as to why they are so important and need protecting...the statistics are ........... no words!

To have a white lion so close to you and to feel its presence as it looks at you, as you stand beside a cheetah and feed it....as you look at a black lepeord....the colour of balck you cant describe.....having a caracol brush past your leg.... experiences i cannot ever forget. These animals are not pets and never will be, you cannot pet a cheetah with out being aware, respecting it for what it is.

Still learning the africans, alot of which i cannot begin to try and spell on this! however a toroise is a skull pat in africans! :)! Ofcoure very interesting facts about the animals hear and about the cultural side also.

On the farm there are houses at the back where many local famillys stay, many to which are extremly poor and the children are being brought up in the growing environment of alcohol abuse. At 5 o-clock jurg the owner, and two member's of staff go jogging, and have managed to get some of the young kids...5 years old and some older boys to go jogging with them. To try and get them into something fun and positive....they have t-shrits and shorts with the jukani cheetah's written on them. On tuesday i went with them, one boy ran in bare feet, but to see the smile from his face as we jogged round, to see them play before we wen,t to see they make a game from nothing! The jogging was good but what made it incredable was just running with them and a smile and thumbs up! Last nyte we ran again and they all had there tshirts and shorts, we ran round and i was running beside one of the wee boys and he was really powering along beside me....i stuck my hand out and he held my hand as we ran....another boy looked and ran beside us so i stuck my other hand out and he took it....just for afew minutes before they powered away! It was undescribable for me... just to see such a happy smile!

If i was to be asked what will you rember most from jukani......... the people i am with.....the pattion.....the incredable animals....and the smile of a jukani cheetah!