Carolina Tiger Rescue

Photos

I'm still operating in World Cruise cancellation recovery mode somehow. So, we bought tickets for Friday morning's tour at the Carolina Tiger Rescue. This place has been over by Pittsboro for decades with a couple of different names and missions, but we'd never been before. After the birds on Monday, it felt like the right time. Clay had been scheduled to go into work on Friday, but when that got cancelled, he suggested this and went online and bought tickets. The weather was predicted to be sunny and cold, and so it was. It was in the teens overnight. It was 27F when we got there and 30F when we left almost 2 hours later. We were bundled up though and the tour guides tried to keep us in the sun most of the time, so it wasn't uncomfortable. There were only 8 of us on tour with 2 guides and only 1 of us was a miserable child. So, it was assuredly better than a group of 25 on a summer weekend. As Clay said, it wasn't like finding a tiger in the wild in India though. I'm sure it wasn't, but at least we were guaranteed to find a tiger! That's the good news. The bad news was that while I am sure the rescued cats are happier and better off here than where they all were before, it was still a sad place to me. I'm glad we went, but we wouldn't go back.

We saw caracals, a bobcat, servals, tigers, a white tiger, a lioness and some lions, ocelots, black vultures, and a cougar. We did not get a useable photo of caracals. I guess they have small quick paws and a long front leg, so their fences were doubled and small gauge. While all the photos have the chain link, it was hard to even see the caracals, much less photograph them. Sorry.

We did get reminded by Carolina Tiger Rescue's website that there was somewhere else we've known about for decades and need to visit now. We are missing lemurs in Madagascar since the world cruise cancellation. But, we can see them here at the Duke Lemur Center. Stay tuned. I'm sure we'll schedule a visit soon.

After the Carolina Tiger Rescue tour, we drove on into Pittsboro for lunch. We had a few choices and chose wrong. We went to Pittsboro Roadhouse. Another place that we would not return to. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't all that good. We both left wishing we chosen a different restaurant. Clay had a local beer flight and was able to customize it without the IPA. He liked that. He got L to R, Angry Angel Kolsch (OK), White Rabbit Belgian Dubbel Ale (he called it weird), and 2 White Rabbit Red Ales (he really liked). He had a short rib sandwich with fries. I ordered a half grill chicken sandwich with a cup of cheddar broccoli soup. But it turned out the waiter told me the wrong soup and it was cream of mushroom. No! They substituted local bison chili. Clay ate it but neither of us liked it. We passed on dessert without seeing a menu.

Photos