06/29/2025
We attended the Cat Tales Wildlife Wild Things Family Reunion (fundraiser) last night! What a blast! I signed up my niece for summer camp last year here but never went myself. This year, I was determined to actually go in! I wasn't disappointed! In fact I was humbled at the amount of work they put into making our experience worthwhile. It was truly awesome to see the animals but what made it really worthwhile is the after hours experience. The staff and volunteers were beyond accommodating, friendly and knowledgeable. The best was a volunteer (whom I forget her name, but she's been there for 6 years) talked to us and let us watch her interaction with her favorite tiger. She didn't have to do that. Her enthusiasm was contagious. We met Randy (owner I think) and honestly? He seemed like one of the genuinely nicest people I've met! He really cares about the animals. Hands down, one of the best things we've done, 10/10 experience.
Now let's be honest. I've heard people talk very badly about this organization. "The enclosures are too small. They don't feed them enough. It's dirty. They don't clean the enclosures"..on and on and on. I can honestly say I didn't experience any of that. Does it smell a little bit like a wildlife center? Absolutely!! It's a small space with big animals. What do you expect? Did it stink the high heaven? Absolutely not! The enclosures were clean. The employees were taking really good safety precautions in terms of locking the gates behind them, communicating on the radio etc. They were generous with their time (I mean geez, we were the last ones out of there and yet didn't feel rushed).
In a perfect world, this park wouldn't exist. We all want wildlife to live in the wild. But we live in reality. And the fact is, almost all of these animals ended up in this situation because of humans. Outright neglect, irresponsibility and frankly downright stupidity of humans. And these people are doing the best they can with the resources they have. So for those haters out there that want to complain about them? S**U. Because if you aren't helping or contributing to any solutions, then you have no right to say a word.
We had a blast and now that we've seen things first hand, we are sold. We will continue supporting this organization because you can tell they want to do right by the animals. They do the best they can with what they have. And we, at Speedy Tail Acres, are fans for life. We look forward to more visits. Thank you, Cat Tales, Bless you and the work you do.
