Gallery: in praise of cats

In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.

Terry Pratchett

So, the big question, are you a cat person or a dog person? I am very much the former. I admire the independent spirit of cats. They can be affectionate but always on their own terms, and unlike dogs, don’t constantly seek attention. Their behaviour can be quixotic, their thoughts hard to fathom, whereas most dogs are open books. And I find cats really beautiful to look at: elegant, with expressive eyes and distinctive colours and patterns on their fur.

And even more than domestic cats I love to see the big cats. To me, lions, tigers and other wild cats are among the most beautiful animals in the world.

So for this week’s Lens Artist challenge led by Tina , in which she asks us to share photos of cats and dogs, I’ve compiled a few galleries. One is of domestic cats encountered close to home or on our travels. And a few feature wild cats, some seen in the wild and some in sanctuaries. But I hope Tina will forgive me if I skip over the dogs part of the challenge because, while I do have some photos, there seem to be more than enough cat ones here!

Domestic cats

We don’t own a cat and never have, as we don’t feel it’s fair when we travel so much. The poor thing would be in and out of catteries! But we love to interact with all the local cats (when they’ll let us!) and with any we meet on our travels.

You can click any image in all the galleries on this page to see a captioned slideshow of the whole gallery (you’ll need to click on the ‘i’, bottom right, if viewing on a phone)

Big cats in the wild

I’ve been fortunate to see lions quite a few times in the wild, most recently in Botswana. And I’ve seen tigers in Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan, India. Also in Rajasthan we had a distant sighting of a leopard and cub near Narlai, although shooting on full zoom at dusk doesn’t give the greatest results!

Protecting big cats

I’m yet to get a close look at cheetahs or leopards in their natural surroundings but have seen them in reserves. I’m not a fan of large animals like these in zoos. However I do admire the work many sanctuaries do, including Kent’s Big Cats sanctuary where we once spent a memorable night with special access to the animals (feeding tigers, even petting a cheetah!) And more recently we saw Scottish wildcats at the British Wildlife Centre in Surrey. My feature photo is of a couple of these beautiful animals, so like our domestic tabbies and yet not …

Walking with lions

Some years ago in Senegal we had a very special experience. We stayed at Fathala Lodge which has its own wildlife reserve. This includes a small group of lions who were adopted as cubs. Now, lions are of course not native to Senegal, and I’ve read concerns online about their presence here. But these babies weren’t taken from the wild, far from it. They were born in captivity in South Africa, on a lion farm, and were destined to be sold for so-called ‘canned hunting’. They had been hand-reared and bottle-fed, so aren’t naturally fearful of people as they should be, and cannot be released into the wild.

These lions may not be living their most natural life at Fathala. But they are surely much better off here than being hunted and killed for ‘fun’. And because they are partly adapted to the presence of people (but still most definitely wild), the reserve offers the opportunity to walk with them. If you do this you must accept certain rules and sign a waiver, which was slightly unnerving. After the first few minutes however I never felt unsafe. And it was a privilege to be so close to these magnificent beasts.

But would I do it again? I’m not sure, as I’ve since had some reservations about the practice. Some commentators online have suggested that the lions are drugged to keep them docile. I don’t believe from what I saw that this is the case. But I do think they have learned to be nervous of the big sticks that their keepers and all visitors must carry, and I worry that they learned this nervousness the hard way. So on balance, although it was an amazing experience, my great memories, and my photos, hold some discomfort too.

So, would I do it again? Probably not, but I have to confess to being glad to have done so.