Cat Haven

I decided to go to Cat Haven because one of my dad's patients is part owner of the sanctuary and told him about it. It sounded like an interesting place to go and so I decided to go with my family (my mom, dad, and sisters).

Cat Haven is a big cat sanctuary in the hills of Dunlap on the edge of the King's Canyon National Park down the road from a big sequoia forest. The closest major city is Fresno which is forty-five miles away. I know it is three hours away, but it is worth the drive. It may not be the best view on the freeway or through the towns, but once you hit the hills of Dunlap, you won't believe the beauty of area.

To actually enter the Cat Haven sanctuary, you have to carefully watch for the entrance. There's a sign in town that says that Cat Haven is six miles away but there's no big sign pointing to the entrance like everyone likes. We happened to miss the entrance because the sign was small and it was easy to miss. So we had to drive up the road, carefully since there's major drops on the side of the road, and turn around to actually get to the sanctuary.

there you come upon this tiger statue that looks like it is roaring at you. Since my mom loves to take pictures, she had my sisters and I take a picture in front of the statue.

After you the statue, you see a beautiful shop that looks almost like a log cabin. You have to go in there to pay for a tour of Cat Haven, which is nine dollars, and it is also a souvenir shop where you can buy professional pictures of the big cats that are housed at the sanctuary. Its also where the beginning of the tour starts where one of the guides talks about fellow preservations they help with around the world.

Dale Anderson with one of the Servals.

At this point I learned how and why Cat Haven was started. The founder, Dale Anderson, had had enough of his pilot life and decided that he should start a place where his interest in big cats could be expressed. As a pilot, Anderson was able to see zoos around the world and see what was good and bad. Also, he was able to notice that there was nothing being done to help save the cats in the wild. This was when Dale Anderson got the idea to start a sanctuary to help the public become educated about big cats in the wild. His main purpose of Cat Haven is to have these cats be ambassadors for their cousins out in the wild, and help to create awareness of the preservation of the wild cats.

My sisters and I learn about a recent conservation done by Dale Anderson.

There are many different types of big cats at Cat Haven. The list includes lions, snow leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, servals, lynx, bobcats, tigers, jaguarundis, amur leopards, and clouded leopards. I'm not going talk about them all, just a few of them. And something interesting that we learned was that there isn't actually an animal called a panther, but it's a term to generalize a black big cat that lives out in the wild. It was interesting to hear that.

The first animal we got to see was a two month old spotted jaguar, Jackson. He is the youngest cat that is at Cat Haven and was born at Cat Haven to two other jaguars, one spotted, Juanita, and a black jaguar, Butch. Jackson is the younger sibling of twin jaguars, one spotted and one black. Jaguars, once fully grown, have one of the most powerful jaws of all the big cats there are. Our guide showed us a bowling ball that they gave to some of the jaguars. They chewed on the bowling ball and caused the ball to crack; that is how powerful and strong a jaguar's jaw is. Jaguars are an endangered species and the preservation of the jaguars is important because they are majestic and beautiful cat that deserves to live on.

These are the resident cheetahs at Cat Haven, Tango, Salsa, and Jazz. These cheetahs are separated right now, but they are in the process of building a larger cheetah enclosure and running track for the cheetahs to all enjoy together. Cheetahs, especially Tango, Salsa, and Jazz, are calm enough that they can be brought to schools when they are trying to teach others about animal conservation. Tango is occasionally brought to schools when Cat Haven is teaching students about big cats; he just lays there and looks out at the students. Cheetahs are majestic animals and have long legs that help them to reach 0-40 in about 30 seconds. However, they can only run for about 3 minutes at a time since they run at such a fast rate. Their tails are helpful when they run because they act like rudders and help them to change directions quickly. Cheetahs are also an endangered species, but Cat Haven is helping a cheetah conservation in Africa that is helping to show people how special these animals are.

This is Titan, the newest lion to Cat Haven. He is only a few years old and still growing. He hasn't grown his full mane, and when he does, it will be longer and darker than what it is now. Lions are amazing and majestic animals, as shown to us by Lion King. They are large and powerful animals who are an endangered species due to people who don't know how to properly act around lions killing them, and poachers trying to get the lion fur, mane, and meat.

The reason Titan was recently brought to Cat Haven was because there was an accident with one of the employees, Dianna. She was in the lion enclosure and somehow fell down the stairs and broke her neck which instantly caused her death. They don't know if it was her fault or if the previous lion, Cous Cous, had accidentally knocked her down. Since they didn't know which one it was, they had to put down Cous Cous unfortunately. When Josh Gatkin, part owner and my dad's patient, was telling us about the incident, he was getting choked up because Cous Cous was one of the animals he had gotten close to in the 3 years that he has been there.

And the last one that we saw and I'm going to talk about is Dianna, a 10 month old white Bengal tiger. Dianna is also a recent addition to Cat Haven. She is time sharing with Kong, a Bengal tiger also. (You just have to be careful around Kong because he is moody and likes to roar at people without warning. It's scary.) Right now, they are in the enclosure separately until the employees believe that they can comfortably live in the enclosure together. Bengal tigers are very playful animals and like to have fun. Tigers are endangered because poachers are setting traps and poisoning watering holes to get the pelts and body parts to sell to people for traditional Chinese medicine.

Now that you know about Cat Haven, hopefully you can go and help contribute to the conservations that Cat Haven is working with. Just make sure to put on your walking shoes.