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A trek on the wild side
A nighttime tour gives you the chance to see exotic cats both large and small in action. It's also a fundraiser for Wild Life on Easy Street, a sanctuary for these abandoned animals.
By JENNIFER CONWAY
© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 26, 2001
Easy Street is a bumpy dirt road, lined with small trailers and covered by a canopy of overgrown trees and Spanish moss. And at its end is Wild Life on Easy Street, a sanctuary for 200 exotic big and small cats.
At night, their roars, chuffs and meows pierce the darkness. It's in this darkness that I recently ventured on a tour with other visitors and sanctuary volunteers armed with bug repellent, flashlights and raw chicken meat.
The night tours are part of a competition between volunteers to raise $8,000 for the sanctuary and to allow the visitors to see the animals in action at night, some cats being nocturnal.
The tours cost $20 and last about an hour and a half. No one under 18 is permitted because the animals can be easily distracted by younger visitors.
Cats here range from tigers and lions to swimming cats and golden teminick cats. There are jaguars, cheetahs, bobcats, ocelots, margay, Asian leopard cats, Bengal cats, lemurs, panthers, Siberian lynx and snow leopards.
My night tour began at 8:30 p.m. Led by sanctuary volunteer Jessica Hosford, a vibrant computer engineer who spends more than 20 hours a week with the cats, our trek into the wild began with a ration for ourselves, a Nestle Drumstick.
Stop number one: the first tigers' cage. Spanning three acres of land, this "Cat-A-Tat" allows for two tigers to roam, play and rest almost as if in the wild. Hosford noted that the weight of a tiger alone could crush a person, even if the tiger is playing or being affectionate.
Beckoned by a chicken thigh, China Doll is the first tiger to approach the cage. Although I was amazed by her size and apparent strength, I was shocked to see how docile she appeared, almost like a domestic cat merely reaching out for a treat. But this notion was quickly shot down with a reminder from Hosford that these are wild cats, not domestic. They can kill you.
That is the reason most of Wild Life on Easy Streets cats are here. The people who thought their cuddly, young bobcat was so cute when they brought him home are the same people who abandoned him when he matured.
Most cats come here malnourished or disfigured. Some cats, mostly tigers, arrive as retirees from circuses. One cougar was captured during a drug bust. Many of the smaller cats were found roaming around neighborhoods, probably because their owners were unable to domesticate them.
As darkness took over, we ventured on. Like the tigers, other large cats approached the cage after being beckoned by a treat or a toy. Most remained quiet; the larger cats chuffed in affection, the smaller ones meowed with curiosity.
Domestic cats ran between our feet, wanting to play, ignoring their larger relatives peering through the holes of wire cages.
With a flashlight, Hosford and her husband Jason, a volunteer whose day job is in home repair, tried to get the cats to come out of hiding. Their eyes glistened from behind tall grass and shrubbery.
They were all cute, and all carnivorous. Some were fed with chicken parts or whole chicks, others played with pieces of corn.
As the tour concluded, it began to rain. We walked back discussing our favorite cats. Hosford handed out souvenir prints and picked the winner of the evening's door prize -- a framed photo of Jumanji, a black cougar.
I traveled back down Easy Street and into the city lights. I took with me a greater appreciation of exotic cats and a few mosquito bites.
- WHAT: Night Tours
- WHERE: Wild Life on Easy Street, 12802 Easy Street (behind the Citrus Park Mall)
- WHEN: Every Friday night into September
- COST: $20-$25, depending on the night
- CALL: (813) 920-4130 for reservations and information; www.wildlifeoneasystreet.com
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