My friend Eileen – another photographer – and I toured the Exotic Feline Rescue Center near Center Point, IN, about 65 miles southwest of Indianapolis.  I have to say that I have never been that excited about cats, large or small, until we went to this place.

But to see them up close and focusing on their eyes, one begins to sense a story here.  This story tells of cruelty in the past in many cases, care in the present for all of them and, unfortunately, little chance of release to the wild in the future.  They just aren’t equipped to handle life in the wild.  They have a permanent home here.

They are well fed, the Center depending in part on fresh road kill, sick cows and other animals.  Farmers are required to put down diseased livestock and they are an important source of food.  The diseases do not transmit to the cats.

Here is a ‘designer’ tiger, one that was bred to produce a white coat with black stripes.  It didn’t work out.  Furthermore the tiger is blind. At least it wasn’t put down.  Even if the eyes are blind they tell a story.

Some people bought large cats to be pets.  Uh huh.  Who could possibly have known it wasn’t going to work out?  Again, uh huh.  These animals are not clothing accessories.

The Center relies a lot on volunteers.  Some people drive an hour and a half or two hours to do what they are asked to do.

A quick note on photographing these animals.  They are all behind strong fences and the fencing is likely to be part of the picture.  You can reduce the impact of the fence by getting as close as permissible and using a shallow depth of field – in many of these shots the aperture was at most f/5.6 and in some cases down to f/2.8.  Do you see the fence in this next shot?

Somewhat visible but even less visible in the next shot.

Going to the Exotic Feline Rescue Center is a trip well worth taking.   The cats will tell you a story.

There is a bed and breakfast nearby and apparently guests there will often hear the animals roaring at night.

And as Ogden Nash recommends, ‘If you are called by a panther, don’t anther.’   Except when it is on the other side of the fence.