That's right people, Tippi Hedren's very own cat preserve, and I don't mean the little cats that chase birds. She has lions and tigers and ligers, oh my!!! There are also some strange looking ducks, leopards... and Tippi Hedren's own house right on the premises.
Check it out and sign up for tours at - http://www.shambala.org/
Tippi is not some flighty old-bird (getting all these "Birds" references!) flirting with a cause celebre. She spends her life working to stop private citizens from owning/procuring/raising exotic animals and has rescued as many big cats as she could afford to from pretty horrible situations.
Patrick, the liger, was rescued from a down and out zoo that kept him in a small box which caused his leg muscles to atrophy. Out at Shambala he has lots of room to bound around and has regained his strength.
This is a picture of Patrick the liger eating his lunch.
They even adopted two tigers that were left behind when Michael Jackson fled the country and abandoned his Neverland Ranch!
If you have the moola, you can rent a $3000 per night tent and stay over night. Tippi will come out and dine with you and take you on a midnight tour of the cats.
The drive out to Shambala is not too bad, towards the end it does get pretty circuitous and the "entrance" comes up at the last second on your left so don't miss it.
Isn't he kingly and beautiful?
It's an interesting tour, you might want to avoid doing it when it's too hot as it is all outside and dusty etc. But if you get a chance you might just find an animal that you want to "adopt" and help care for on an ongoing basis!
2 comments:
Wow! That looks like an amazing place! How did you find out about it? Do the animals have plenty of room to roam?
They have nice BIG fenced in areas (and the animals that can leap have chain fence above them as well.) It's a little ramshackle as it was started as a very amateur thing and they just add fencing and more pens as they can afford it. What's interesting is Tippi (who spoke to us before the tour and then again after) was very dark and depressing and clear that these animals will not live much longer in the wild, they should NOT be born in our country, or bred to be pets - she kept touching on the fact that there is not a single thing that you can give these animals in captivity that mirrors how they should be living their lives in the wild. All that said, you could tell she had a GREAT love for the cats and if they had to be bred for pets and kept alive in captivity she was honored to live among them.
Rene Harnois set up the tour for us, it's $40 a per person and it is done very rarely.
Fun fact, Mickey Dolenz from the Monkees was on the tour with us!
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