On Saturday, 10/24/09, My wife and I rode out to Dunlap, CA to check out the Cat Haven. Ewa took beautiful photos of the magnificent cats (all photos in this post were taken by Ewa. She's an amazing photographer).
The ride to Dunlap was wonderful. It was only about 40 miles from Fresno, toward Kings Canyon National Park. The weather was gorgeous (sunny, 70 degrees F). On the way, we stopped at several fruit stands and an art gallery. The art gallery was kind of out of place, but was really cool.
The Cat Haven was interesting. They had about 8 or 10 cats on display including leopards, Lions, Tigers, etc. They even had a snow leopard.
I was a little disappointed the lions wouldn't move around or make any sounds (I was hoping the male lion would roar really loud). While most of them were really sleepy and lazy, some of the animals put on a nice show for us. The black leopard pounced at the tour guide. I was impressed with the grace and power that animal has. I was also impressed with how effortlessly a leopard jumped from the ground into a tree stand that was at least 20 feet high. We enjoyed watching the bob cat play with the tour guide. They were hiding from each other and the bob cat played with a toy on a string. Looked like a really big house cat....
It cost us $9 per person to get in, and I would say it was worth it, although the stuff in the gift shop was over priced.
We had lunch at a little restaurant called Gena's Place. The place was so small, the owner was our waitress. I enjoyed my cheese burger and Ewa had a mushroom sandwich.
We had a real nice day. I do recommend both Cat Haven and Gena's Place.
