Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

The Ozarks are beautiful in the fall

Table Rock Lake view from Pat's house

Near the bear habitats (they have just four bears)

Ringo the tiger

Yesterday I asked Josh if he wanted to go to Eureka Springs, Arkansas and Josh suggested we go see the BIG CATS. So we called up Pat(Grandpa) and Jenn and we followed each other to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. It was the perfect day to go as the leaves are still turning and it was about 72 degrees. Since Pat and Summerwinds have donated money to the refuge for a habitat we got the VIP tour from founder Tanya and her husband Scott. They have a little leopard that was born the same day as Ava and is still being bottle-fed. You could hear little Spyke making the cutest little roars while playing with his toy. It really was amazing seeing all the cats super close. Usually at a zoo they're laying as far away from the people as possible sometimes barely getting a glimpse of them. At the refuge there are some cats that have very large habitats and some smaller. I'm sure as the refuge grows all those other cats will be moved to larger habitats as well. They also have the cutest cabins to stay in. At some point there will be habitats at the back of the cabins and at night one could sit on the back porch and listen to the animals "sing" to each other. After visiting the animals the founders joined us for dinner in downtown Eureka Springs. It's a cute little artsy village.