Big Cats at Cat Haven, and RV Life

When the National Parks have been seen, and we still have days to stay in our spot, then what?

Driving back and forth to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, I noticed a sign for something called Project Survival Cat Haven. Looking online, I saw their mission statement: “…an innovative park dedicated to the preservation of wild cats.” They are not a sanctuary, although some cats have been orphaned in the wild or have needed to be re-homed. Their focus is to “educate people about the plight of endangered cat species, and to raise funds for the conservation project in the wild.” The reviews of the place were good.

The only way to visit Cat Haven is to book a tour, so we did. Below is a picture of our guide and what some of the pathways looked like with the cats’ cages. There are two cats in the cage on the right.

It was morning, and the cats had already had their breakfast and playtime. Most were stretched out for naps in the front of their cages. Although I don’t like seeing them behind bars, the cages for the largest cats stretched back into the hillside.

There are about 25 big cats here. We learned each one’s story as we passed their cages.

The park is the culmination of a dream for Dale Anderson, who became focused on the cats at a young age. Before he could ever start his park, he received hands on experience by working with cats while purchasing the land for his park. The first cats, a pair of Amur Leopards, arrived in 1997. If you are interested in his conservation and education projects, you can look the park up on the Internet.

We saw a lion, a tiger, a lynx, a jaguar, and a Bengal tiger, among others. There was also a mountain lion, a Canada lynx, and this black leopard:

There were also very small cats, such as caracals and a pallas cat.

I learned many things. Leopards have been called black panthers, and they don’t exist. The word “panther” means big cat, and this is an error that goes all the way back to “Jungle Book”. Also, a jaguar has teeth that are very strong. The jaguar in this park chewed through his metal bucket as a play toy!

And , this: small cats purr but big cats don’t. So that jaguar with the strong teeth won’t purr, but a mountain lion does, making it a small cat.

The caracals were sleeping in their little nest, so we couldn’t see them. I purchased this photo postcard in the store, which is a nicer picture than I could have ever gotten of them:

The park covers 93 scenic acres on a hillside covered with live oak and buckeye trees. At this time of year, the blooming manzanitas were spectacular here and also outside of the park.

On another day, we drove back down out of the foothills and towards Fresno to stop at some orchard fruit stands. At the first tiny stand, there were only oranges. I wasn’t really interested, as we’d had plenty of fresh oranges in Arizona. But the old gentleman inside began cutting a large warty looking tangerine just as we were going to leave. He spoke no English, just handed over the freshly cut fruit. Delectable! It was so juicy and sweet and easy to peel, we bought a bag. Just not as big a bag as he would have liked us to purchase.

At another stand, we purchased freshly picked peaches, cherries, and vegetables.

The interesting thing about Sequoia RV park is that sites are not assigned, even though an RV’er or camper has a reservation. There’s no office. Upon arriving, one simply drives through the park and chooses a site. This is an old park, so many sites aren’t level and in some, the utilities are problematic. We arrived early on our first day, tried a couple spots, and finally found one we liked.

The camp host and his wife were wonderful folks, who actually live in the trailer park that fits like a cap over the RV park. He took on the hosting job to clean up the neighborhood in both parks. We enjoyed this view with no RV’s in sight (they were all to one side or behind us) for a few days because he was having issues with the guy who was mowing the grounds. When the sites were finally mowed, they filled in.

Around 5 PM, the show started. Folks would start arriving from either the National Parks or from were they had driven that day, looking for the best site. When the park started filling up, we would see the same RVs circling more than once just to find a place to settle. Many of these were small RV’s rented from Cruise America or El Monte, and most of the people renting them that we talked to were European. I decided this grab-your-own-site deal wasn’t such a fine idea.

At our site, I would sometimes look down on our driveway or on a corner of our mat, and it seemed like the ground was moving. There were tiny little frogs hopping en masse! It wasn’t a constant thing, so it was startling and fascinating when I saw them. What I found on Google is that these frogs lay eggs on land, rather than water, and look like fully grown frogs when they hatch. They prefer to live under leaf and other ground litter, and move quickly when they think they are being detected.

One evening, what should come down our lane but a big fat pig on a harness?

This is Cleopatra and despite her huge size, she is picky about what she eats. Our neighbor had come out with a bag of lettuce and she totally rejected it. Not good enough for her. I’m supposing Cleopatra lives in the mobile home part of the park because I can’t imagine traveling with a pig in an RV.

We also had a goose family that waddled near our site now and again. Their favorite spot was the pond, of course. I took my lawnchair and my cross-stitching under a tree near the pond on a Sunday afternoon and they provided fine entertainment. They swam around the pond, rested on their little island, and got into some squabbles with a pair of ducks.

One of the best things here, though, was a dramatic sky that was ever-changing.

Although we are blessed to travel and see many things, it is the every day experiences in our home that provides the fabric of our current life. Whatever will happen at the next place is a constant gift that is just waiting to be opened.

Next time – Yosemite National Park