Posts tagged "big-cats"

Woman Shares Home With Lions, Tigers and Cheetahs - Oh My!

by Kristen Seymour (Subscribe to Kristen Seymour's posts): Jul 2nd 2009 12:00PM Filed Under: Exotic Pets

Photo: BARM / Fame Pictures

How many times have you watched wildlife documentary footage of sleeping lions and dreamt of snuggling up with one of them? Of course, all it takes is a scene of the same big cats ripping apart a water buffalo and that desire tends to disappear. But it sure hasn't deterred one woman in South Africa, who disregards any concerns about living amongst the ferocious felines and lets 11 big cats live in her home.

Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen shares her living space with four orphaned cheetahs, five lions and two tigers. And when we say share, we mean share: They climb in bed with her, prowl on her countertops, steal table scraps, and do many of the other things a typical house cat would do. In fact, they even play with her (small) dogs, and curl up with the pooches when it's time to snooze.

Van Nieuwenhuizen didn't just start bringing big cats into her home for fun -- she's working to prevent the extinction of these animals through Fiela's Fund Cheetah Breeding Project after being involved in "Friends of the Zoo" for over a decade. Van Nieuwenhuizen's first tame cheetah Fiela (born in January 2006) acts as a sort of animal ambassador to educate people about the endangered animals.

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