It doesn't get much better than this...

I was at EFBC this weekend for the last Twilight Tour of the year. I also went out for the entire day, including cleaning...and got to hold Pancho, Annie and Nacon's son! He weighs a ton - this little guy is pure muscle.






Rosa, his sister, is much shyer. She'll come up to the fence to say hi, but has no desire to be picked up by anyone but her mom.



Annie was locked in the denbox while these pictures were taken. Because she was hand-raised herself, she's fairly mellow about the keepers and volunteers playing with the babies...being able to interact with mother-raised cubs or kittens is very unusual, btw! But she's still a very protective mother. Normally when shes out with the cubs, she growls at anyone who comes too near the bars of the enclosure. So I was completely bowled over and honored when she not only came up to visit me and let me pet her (through the bars, mind you), but let me pet the babies as they climbed all over her and stuck their paws and noses through the mesh to check me out. Pancho stretched out upside down full length on Annie's back while I was petting her...then fell off with a thump as she walked off. They are so cute it should be illegal...