My favorite animals are cats -- all cats, but especially big cats (except lions, the only cats that are not loners.)
The ancient Egyptians worshipped cats because they considered them mystical creatures. I think the Egyptians were onto something. Cats seem to exist in a different realm. And notice how cautiously and gracefully they move in our realm.
Outside of zoos, I have only seen big cats twice "in person." One was a pet ocelot in a Florida shop I used to frequent. Native to South America, he was a German shepard-size cat who used to maul me playfully, not realizing his own strength or the sharpness of his claws.
The other big cat was a Florida panther in the Everglades. He looked exactly like a western cougar and luckily he was caged. It's illegal to keep Florida panthers as pets since they are an endangered species, but I was grateful I didn't encounter this huge cat in the wild.
In Costa Rica I searched the rainforest for margeys, which are slightly smaller than ocelots. Unfortunately, margeys are mainly nocturnal and I never found one because I wasn't up to tramping through the venomous snake-filled jungle at night.
When I was in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), I heard horror stories about leopards dragging children into the bush from remote villages, but the only leopard I saw was in a zoo in the capital of Colombo.
Some day I hope to see the biggest cat of all, a Bengal tiger. But only if I have a rifle in my hand. They eat people in India and Bangladesh on a regular basis.
