Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am anything but a Crazy Cat Lady. I'm not a cat person. I've never had a cat, and they don't even particularly like me. If I am to grow up to become any kind of animal-obsessed social deviant, I will most definitely become a Crazy
Dog Lady, adopting every stray dog to be found on the street. If I really lose it, I may even acquire one of those 'my dog is smarter than your honor student' bumper stickers. I promise, however, never to wear those sad shirts with embroidered dogs all over them. I mean, honestly. You have to draw the line somewhere, right?
Well, apparently when on safari, I leave all of that behind. I become THE cat person. I could not stop watching/photographing the cats out on the Mara -- they're so amazing! We did get alarmingly close to them, as you'll see in some of the pictures, but most of the time, they barely seemed to notice. Only a couple of times did we see teeth, which resulted in a quick start of the truck and a slam of the gas pedal. Jonathan apparently had a run-in with a lion when he was in his early 20's which has not been forgotten...and he has the scars to show for it!
Anyway, without further ado, I give you the hauntingly beautiful cats of the Masai Mara -- we were lucky enough to have seen all 3!
Lions...
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| I just really think they're so handsome... |
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| How pretty is this girl? |
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| Until she starts showing her teeth -- Time to go! |
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| This guy had the sparkliest, most magical eyes -- I couldn't stop taking his picture! |
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Proof that these pictures aren't the result of a ridiculous
zoom lens -- We really were that close to them... |
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| Why so sad? |
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| Deceptively sweet-looking faces, huh? |
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| Sleepy girl... |
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| The Three Teenage-Boy-Lion Amigos |
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The top Amigo with his back to you, the one with the mohawk, clearly got
into a rumble with someone. Holy Eye Injury, Batman... |
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| "I said ENOUGH WITH THE PICTURES!" |
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| Just like my dogs. "Scratch my belly..." |
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| Honestly. Boys. Same story, no matter the species... |
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I'll spare you the, umm, frisky lion pictures, but here is the aftermath.
Scenario -- Boy lion has one idea, girl lion has another. She snarls at him.
Naturally, she wins, so she ignores him, while he just lays there and pouts. Hilarious. Sounds about right though, no? |
Cheetahs...
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This was the cheetah we left the rhino-stalking
spot for -- And you can see why. Look how close we got to her! |
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Perhaps my favorite photo of the entire
weekend -- She was a very gracious model :) |
Leopards...
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This is Jonathan's girlfriend, Olive -- She's his most favorite animal in the
entire park. They call her Olive because leopards love to lounge in olive trees.
We never did see one in a tree, but we saw several napping on the ground. |
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| We found her hunting near the tiny airport, literally about 10 minutes before we were supposed to fly out. |
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| I hate that her face is hidden in every picture, but...you get the drift. She's beautiful, eh? |
Okay, now that I have time to sit down and properly comment, let me just tell you that I absolutely LOVE every single one of these pictures. I am so silly for never even imagining that a human could get so close to these beautiful animals in real life. Thanks for opening my naive little eyes. Now I want to go! The cats were by far my favorite. Them and the zebras.
ReplyDeleteI love leopards the print is so pretty. I even like to wear it, FAKE of course. Your photography is awesome, all you have is a regular digital camera? It is fantastic. Ricquel.
ReplyDeleteLoooooovvvveeee the cheetah. The sitting pretty portrait, but also the one with the safari jeeps in the background. I so want to get on a plane, like, tomorrow. At this rate they'll all go extinct before I can get there... -- LoriD
ReplyDeletethese pictures are INSANE! i'm so jealous! i'm so glad you had the chance to do this. that being said, hurry back soon! katie (as if you didn't know it was me, w/ my all lowercase typing!)
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