Lions and Tigers and Ligers????

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I wandered around the grounds At King Richard’s Faire to get familiar with the layout working my way back toward the Tournament Field. Right next to the field was the Tiger Stage. I love this show. They have had it every year that I’ve been to King Richard’s Faire and to me it is the highlight. I love the animals.

Since it was the first show of the day it wasn’t too crowded yet and I was able to get a seat fairly close to the stage. I’ve almost always been in the back before  so this was a treat.

The show is put on by a conservation group. They have been featured on all sorts of shows and provide animals for the movies like Dr. Doolittle and Ace Ventura to name just a couple of fairly well known movies. I’ve seen documentaries  about them on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic.

This year’s show really pushed the conservation angle more than it has in the past. Although I thought it bordered on being “preachy” I happen to agree with what they had to say.

The name of the organization is T.I.G.E.R.S (The Institute of Greatly Endangered  and Rare Species.). They have a web page www.tigerfriends.com and they offer opportunities to get up close and personal with their animals at their facility in Myrtle Beach. www.myrtlebeachsafari.com. I had never heard of this being allowed any place except Tiger Island in Australia so to have a place in the US is awesome!

The show started with film clips on a big screen TV which was very interesting and enjoyable. It centered on a heartwarming story about a 6-year-old orangutan and an old hound dog named Roscoe.

Then out came the parade of cats. Bengal tigers, Royal White Tigers, Snowy White Tigers and a couple of very rare tigers that (shame on me) I forget what they are called.

 You can see the difference in their markings and coat color.

They had a lively little cat that I think was some kind of rare lynx.

It was easy to see why small children are banned from the first 3 rows.

This little cat was really alert and fascinated by any movement from the audience.

Finally the last big cat was introduced.

It was Hercules a world record size cat. He is a Liger. A liger is a hybrid between a Lion and a Tiger. The father is a Lion and the mother a Tiger. If it was the other way around he would have been much smaller and called a tigon. Ligers, unlike many hybrids, are not sterile so Hercules could father a bunch of little ligers.

He is really huge. 900 pounds and eleven feet tall. All the cats have their claws and teeth so must be treated with utmost respect. One swipe with a paw and those handlers would be toast. These are wild animals.

All of these cats  are raised with humans from birth (they are also are well fed) so they have no need to have a human snack, still they have the instincts of a predator so again, small children are not allowed in the front rows where a child’s  quick actions could trigger an attack. You will also see that they are being given a bottle when they are on stage. That is milk and the animals consider it a treat. It keeps their attention centered on the trainers.

The show was narrated by none other than my friend the Falconer.

To raise money for their organization, they had books, stuffed animals and DVD’s for sale after the show. As I was considering the DVD they told me about another option, one I couldn’t refuse. Around to the side of the stage they were bringing out the hawk I’d seen earlier and a European Eagle Owl.

For a fee you could have your picture taken with one of the birds.

It was a hard choice but I decided on the hawk. The Falconer told me it is a Harris’s Hawk. He said it is the only hawk that actually enjoys human company.

As I held out my forearm for the hawk to step on she let out a loud sound similar to a caw. Then hopped on my arm. It was almost like she was saying hello. This was definitely the high point of the day for me. After the picture I was allowed to pet her and she calmly accepted my gentle strokes before the falconer took her back to her post.

I missed most of the Challenge of the Champions that was going on at the Tournament Field but I really didn’t care. This opportunity was well worth it.

Tomorrow’s post will be a little break from King Richard’s Faire but I’ll have the rest of that experience for you next week.

Fair Morn Milady

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The Faire opens at 11:00 . I arrived just as the gates were opening. On the stage outside I saw one of the new additions…bagpipers!

 No mournful wailing for these pipers, the music was lively and the performers even more so as they jumped up and down as if to emphasis what they were playing.

I took my time wandering around outside. I spotted falconer  talking to a group of faire goers. As if on que the bird on his shoulder spread her wings.

 I gasped out “Beautiful” and his reply was “Thanks. The bird’s not bad either.”  Good comeback ! 🙂

Inside the gates it was very shady and dark.

 Just in the door was a young woman with a cage full of rats. The sign on the rats’ cage read Cirque de Sewer. The Cirque de Sewer show was at the “Mud Pit” and she was there to promote it. A lot of people we giving her a wide berth but I thought it was kind of fascinating. There was all this noise and confusion going on around her and the rats seemed to be completely un fazed. There was a little chair in the cage and one of the rats sat there quite calmly.

Only a few steps further 2 entertainers were circling in  a dueling circle.

 Before they got down to serious business they rounded up the kids in the audience to be their “seconds”.

 The costumes of the faire goers rivaled some of the actors.

This section of the grounds has a lot of shops.

 People were renting costumes and souvenir shopping as the made their way over toward the tournament field.

 The first show of the day would be at 12:00. It’s important to get to each of the shows at the tournament field as they tell a story that continues through the day. If you miss one of the shows you won’t fully understand what’s going on in the next show.

I had been stalling by the duels but they were still just warming up  their audience. I decided I’d seen enough of that and began to move on.

King Richard’s Faire

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It’s that time of year again or rather it’s been that time of year for a few weeks. Every fall for the last 30 years Carver, Ma has been the place to go for Knights and Pages, Royal Maidens and Wenches, Acrobats and Beggars, Kings and Queens.

So…..Hear Ye, Hear Ye

All ye Lords and Ladies of the Realm.

We are about to embark on a journey to the medieval past where knights are jousting, beggars begging and the Court Jester entertains us all!

King Richard’s Faire started running weekends September 3rd and as I work weekends I usually miss it. But I do get one chance and that is on the long holiday weekend of Columbus Day. The Faire is open on that Monday. I have been several times over the years and always enjoy myself but I’m not as dedicated as some folks are.

The Renaissance themes are popular all over the country. In Boston we have a year round restaurant called Medieval Manor. If you enjoy eating in a rowdy atmosphere with your hands you can have a great time watching the actors and performers…just don’t leave for the restroom without asking the King for permission…just a hint.

 Almost every place I’ve visited has a Faire or a Restaurant or some other attraction. It seems that jousting and medieval hijinks doth capture the mind of the masses. 🙂

Florida has one that I’ve been curious about for quite awhile called Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament, Orlando Castle. Maybe I should include that on my next trip to Orlando. But today I am still in the northeast, in Massachusetts, just down the road from Carver, Ma.

Me thinks I’m about ready to step into my time machine and go back….back….back…….

Stay tuned for the next installment of Back to the Dark Ages

Sure Fire Way to Lose Weight

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As a weight challenged individual I am always on the lookout for hints to help me win the battle if the bulge. So far, the bulge is winning but as we walked around Salem we spotted on fellow who seems to have a sure-fire method to lose weight.

Sorry..I couldn’t resist a little Pirate/Gallows humor. 🙂

Columbus Day

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I thought it would be easy to come up with a short little post about Columbus Day. I remember learning a poem in about 5th grade and thought I’d use that. It was not to be. I can only remember bits and pieces . I tried to google it and found lots of Columbus Day poems but not the one I’m looking for. It had a line Sailing West to Find The East and another line about The Nina, The Pinta and the Santa Maria and the refrain referred to the date…1492.

So with no poem to share I thought that instead I would share some Columbus Day Facts that I ran across.

  1. Columbus Day is not an American Holiday but is a New World Holiday.
  2. Spain celebrates Columbus Day as Fiesta Nacional or “National Day”.
  3. Hawaii and South Dakota do not celebrate Columbus Day.
  4. Columbus Day first became an official State holiday in Colorado in 1906.
  5. It became a Federal Holiday in 1937.
  6. Many Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage, the first occasion being in New York City on October 12, 1866.
  7. San Francisco claims the nation’s oldest continuously existing celebration with the Italian-American community’s annual Columbus Day Parade.
  8. New York City boasts the largest celebration.
  9. In 2007, Dane County Wisconsin Supervisor Ashok Kumar replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day.
  10. South Dakota renamed the holiday “Native American Day”.
  11. Hawaii celebrates Discoverers’ Day, the day the Polynesians arrived in Hawaii.

Columbus Day is not without opposition by factions who feel that the day is being used to expand the Catholic influence. This opposition dates back to at least the 19th century.

A 2nd wave of opposition is based on the man himself and his character. Columbus has been described as a social climber and self promoter who would stop at nothing to advance his ambitions .

The Niña and Pinta

As more and more historians dig into the past, more facts seem to emerge and more of the myths are being dispelled. It remains to be seen if the weight of this growing body of evidence will eventually sway public opinion to the point that Columbus Day becomes just a quaint footnote or continues as a viable holiday. In the meantime, I will raise a cup of grog to the intrepid mariners of the day that dared to sail away to unknown seas and new lands.

(Photo courtesy of the Columbus Foundation and their two Columbus replica ships – their original Niña, the most historically accurate replica of a Columbus Ship ever built, and their recently built Pinta.)