Here's mud in your eye.... and your mouth, up your nose, in your hair and all over your shirt!



I was playing with Tequila yesterday. It didn't start out that way, I was actually filling her water dish when she decided to have a bit of a play in it, kind of unusual for a leopard to enjoy water, the tigers love it, but I've never seen any of the leopards take such an interest. Maybe she was feeling frisky in the cool morning and thinking of the heat that would come later in the day.

I would add water with the hose, then she would get both paws into the bucket and swish it around until most of it flew out and combined with the dirt on the bottom of her cage making a LOT of glorious mud! Then she would push her face in the spray and let that water add to the mud too. Occassionally she would open her mouth and let me spray the water inside. She was being so cute in her game, I have to admit, I did nothing to discourage her. Little did I realize she had a plan, a devious and evil one at that.

Then the site manager came along, not as impressed by the mess as Tequila and I were, well, not exactly in the same way. She emptied the water bucket and told me to clean it, then removed the sprayer on the hose to elimiate further temptation. I noticed that she put the sprayer in her pocket, so I think it wasn't just Tequila that she was saving from temptation.

Poor Tequila, I thought, her fun little project ruined.

However..... all this time she had been dragging her long tail through the mud. Just at the right time, she whipped her tail up, saturated in mud and sprayed us both. Before either of us could react, she flicked the tail the other way and did it again. The site manager actually got it worse than I did, she spent the next few minutes rinsing her mouth with the hose, all I got was a light spray over my face and hair.




Time for a rest after all that fun!