Tuesday, July 25, 2006
guha's (Post # 2 The Tigers)
The great British leader Winston Churchill once said of Russia that, "Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." I believe this quote best sums of Guha's Big Cats. Where did he get these cats? How does he afford them? How has he not been shut down? Why does he have a harem of mysterious women working for him? I feel like I am being called to do an indepth study on this organization. Guha's tigers might be the biggest attraction to the cat farm. They are celebrities appearing Disney films like "The Jungle Book" (his lions are also famous to with the large male being in both Jumanji and Romancing the Stone featuring Michael Douglas). Guha trains his animals himself. They respond to his voice and quite honestly appear to love him. Here is a couple pics of the beautiful animals.
Talking to Guha I found out that these tigers are much larger than the lions. With the lions weighing in at an impressive 800 pounds these tigers make them look small weighing in at 1200 pounds. One of the more intreging parts to Guha's legend is the stories that he told me that make me gasp and tremble at the same time. According to Guha, these tigers are scared of lightning and thunder. During stormy nites, the tigers call out to him in fear. Guha walks out of his home to their pens and opens the gate. The cats run out to his front door and wait for him to let them in so they can sleep beside his fire place until the storm ends. This was said with sincerity. He also told me that at nite he hops onto his four wheeler and and takes the tiger for a run in the back feilds of his unfenced property. When this was questioned, he claimed that the tigers know that it is their exercise time and that he makes sure they are well fed before going.
The tigers were definately on of the most amazing animals I have laid eyes on. I could not believe that but 3 feet from me were two of the under 100 remaining bengal tigers. It truely is sad and makes me want to start a foundation to save them. Well, I will be continuing my blog series on Guha's for my next couple of posts. Hopefully you find it as interesting as I do, otherwise I look like the biggest geek.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
guha's (Post # 1 The Lions)
In the middle of the Muskoka's lies one of the best kept secrets of the country of Canada. My uncle told me of this place that I needed to check out that is approx. 15 minutes from my cottage. It is a large cat farm run by a man from India. It is a mysterious place that I believe holds many secrets and has so much going on behind the seens. Driving down the road there is a small sign that if you are not looking carefully you will miss (much like I did) that says "Guha's Big Cat's". I turned into the dirt driveway and saw Guha standing there. I got out and talked to him for a bit, payed my $10 and asked him where I should start looking. He guided Tiffany and myself over to a fenced in encloser that was no more than 20 feet from my car and was the kind of fence that was used to keep pre-schoolers from leaving the playground. All of the sudden I noticed I was looking at 2 fully grown lions. One was a male and the other a female. This is a picture I took of them.
At first the lions were just lying there staying out of the sun. Although this was more than enough for me since I was blown away with awe and terror, this was not enough for Guha. He started calling to them although they were his children saying things like, "Common darling. Come down and see your guests". They looked over but nothing more. Then Guha told them that he would feed them and all of the sudden they came charging down toward me causing me to jump back.
Guha threw a couple of frozen chickens to them and they attacked them with such ferosity that I lost feeling in my legs and stomach. I will never forget that. When the female stole the one chicken from the male, it pissed him off royaly (I guess I can say that since he is the king of the jungle). He looked at myself and Tiffany and let out a roar, which caused me to almost faint as again he was only about 4 feet from my face with nothing but that little fence inbetween us. Guha told me to back away and give him some room since he was embarassed that he could not defend his own food. I did not get feeling back in my rubber legs for about half an hour.
I am going to be writing a series on Guha's Big Cats. So look forward to my next post on Tigers.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Wedding #3
A couple of weeks ago I attended what I think is the final wedding of summer 06. My friend Mike Hayden (aka Hayden) married Jill. It was bloody hot that day and I decided to wear a long sleeve dress shirt. It was an outdoor wedding and besides the heat I dont think it could have gone any better. There was a bbq for family and friends that followed the ceremony and I managed to eat 4 burgers. I am a machine.Here are some pics.
I believe this picture could be referred to as a hunk sandwich.
Note the the choice of clothing in 40 degree plus weather. Very smart.
Check out this idoit. Dude...your not in a Coffee Time parking lot on a friday nite at 11:30 in Mississauga.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
The Big "O"
Orillia has a new family. The Shurr family (well Dan Karen and Emma) have moved north to the small town of Orillia. After 10 years in Mississauga Dan felt it was time to move on. Through many tough times attempting to purchase a home this is the house that they have finally moved into. It is very nice and will serve them well.
