Tiger Creek is a forty acre wildlife refuge 90 miles south of Dallas. Most of their efforts go into rescuing, rehabilitating, and providing a safe haven for large cats. The non profit currently houses twenty-five tigers, five lions, three pumas, two leopards and two bobcats.

The long story is that it took us nine years to make it to Tiger Creek. We’d made plans to go back when we were dating, but you know how it goes. Things get in the way, and nine years later we finally went.

Visitors to Tiger Creek are separated from the cats by a double line of defense: two sets of fences keep fingers and faces away from the massive animals, who’s bite measures at more than 900 PPI – that’s pounds per inch. That’s strong enough to bite into a bowling ball!

Katrina is the matron of tigers. That’s the polite way of saying that she’s the oldest. At 22 years old she’s just four years shy of the record life span of 26 years in captivity. She’s a beauty, isn’t she?

Sierra (pictured above) used to live with Michael Jackson.

Another interesting fact: Tiger Creek was home to the first tiger, named Karma, to undergo open heart surgery. Maybe my 13 years of experience in veterinary medicine make me a little more interested in those kind of facts, but I think that’s really interesting.

Judah is the most recent addition to the large cat rescue. Isn’t he beautiful? I think he’s channeling Aslan, what do you think?

And this beauty was enjoying laying out, even though it wasn’t sunny!

It was an incredible experience, one I can’t wait to experience again. Our tour guide, Alyssa, was super friendly and answered all of our questions. And we had a lot. The rest of our group eventually headed for their cars, and The Professor and I were still snapping pictures and asking questions!

If you want to follow the tiger’s story you can find them on facebook. Their caretakers share gorgeous pictures!

Last year we went to Sea World for our anniversary, and this year we went to Tiger Creek. I wonder where we’ll go next year!  What do you think? Will it be time for a romantic getaway, or should we go out in search of another adventure?

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