I MET A CHEETAH. . . When the Bronx Zoo sent out an email saying they were selling experiences and one of those was a meet-n-greet with a cheetah, I immediately scooped up tickets. We were led by one of the zoo’s staff to the “educational house” where they work with animals like tiger cubs and also house abandoned pets (like parrots). We were explained that were at no point meant to make eye contact with the cheetah’s, Triton’s, dog companion and also to silence our cameras and cell phones because is just a big cat who will be alert all the little sounds that he hears. One of the animal caretakers brought out a porcupine and he was adorable. I don’t remember much of the facts about him except that he liked banana a lot. . . Then the handlers brought out the main event. The dog came out first and once Triton could sense that the dog was calm, he stepped out of his holding room wearing two harnesses that were carried by two Zoo caretakers. It was SO cool to see a wild predator who is really just a big kitty so close. And man, did he have some PURR. One if his handlers kept his attention by giving him treats (what I’m assuming were chunks of red meat). . . Triton and his brother (who was still asleep somewhere) were born in a litter of four at the San Diego Zoo and they reached out to the Bronx Zoo to see if they wanted to raise them. They were matched with their canine companions pretty soon after arriving and upon their first meeting, they were immediately cleaning each other and cuddling. They said if they go of Triton’s leashes he would likely just be excited and want to walk around and smell everyone but they unfortunately weren’t allowed to let him do that in case he were to accidentally eat someone. . – Apparently cheetahs are very much like dogs so they’re often smuggled into the country to be pets and a lot of zoos get cheetahs after they’ve rescued from a situation like that. . – There are about 6500 cheetah left in the wild – a combination of poaching and deforestation. . . He laid around during our meeting just like a cat would and it was so adorable. I loved this and would totally do it again.