ZOO REVIEW 1- Cat Tales Wildlife Center

Animals are our son’s passion and at 12-years-old, he insists he wants to be a professional zookeeper when he grows up. In addition to driving him to his position as a volunteer animal caretaker at the local museum multiple times each week, my husband and I enjoy taking him to zoos, aquariums, sanctuaries, etc. Besides making memories for our little family, each experience provides new educational opportunities for our son and seems to cement his career choice even further. My professor-by-trade husband calls it “research”. I just call it fun! 

We visited this zoo on a recent trip to see my brother and his wife on their new farm in Cheney, Washington. While there, my sister-in-law suggested we visit Cat Tales Wildlife Center so we spent part of an afternoon exploring this little gem…

NAME: Cat Tales Wildlife Center {also listed as Cat Tales Zoological Park}

LOCATION: Mead, WA {close to Spokane}

HOURS: {Summer} 10am-5PM,  {Winter} 10am-4pm, closed Mondays

ADMSSION RATES:  {​Adults} $10.00;    {Seniors/Students} $8.00;    {Children 3-12} $5.00; {senior citizens on Sundays, handicapped always, active duty military/veterans/law enforcement/firefighters with ID} FREE 

DESCRIPTION: Cat Tales is a small nonprofit sanctuary for rescued big cats and other wildlife.  The animals have been rescued from unfortunate “pet” situations, retired from the entertainment industry and rehabilitated after unfortunate injuries in the wild.  Current animals include: two American Black Bears, four North American Bobcats, three coyotes, one Red Fox, one African Lion, one Canadian Lynx, two North American Pumas, several tigers and a wolf-hybrid. 

SIZE: This is a very small zoo, which makes it ideal for quick visits. You could easily do the entire zoo {and still  be very thorough} in an hour. If we lived in the area, we could definitely get a membership and visit frequently.

ACCESS: Super duper uber easy to get around. It’s all flat and involves no stairs at all. There is a ramp that leads into the gift shop, but other than that, the grounds are as flat as can be. Strollers, walkers and wheelchairs would be easily managed. There are also lots of places to sit along the way.

PARKING: Free, plentiful and close to the entrance!

FOOD/DRINKS: There are no snack shops or restaurants of any sort but there are a few food/drink items available in the gift shop. My husband bought a candy bar and soda and didn’t grumble about the price so it must’ve been on some sort of reasonable level. 

GIFT SHOP:  As would be expected at a small zoo, the gift shop is also rather small BUT besides the obligatory stuffed toys and souvenir mugs, it does hold some fun surprises. The nursery is adjacent to and totally viewable from inside the gift shop. During our visit, they had Red Fox kits in the nursery which were adorable to see! There is also a small museum of sorts that includes some full size taxidermied animals. 

SPECIAL EXPERIENCE: {Big Cat and Bear Adventures} Doing one of these is a must! The cost of $10 to feed a bear, lion or tiger is totally worth it! The Kid fed grapes to a black bear and we both fed meat to a tiger (we paid for a total of three “adventures”.) The bear was hilariously excited about his grapes….like, hopping on his feet in happy anticipation of each grape. Because the kid is only 12 years old, an adult was expected to participate as well (bummer for me, ha ha!) So, I had a front row view of the grateful bear! That experience left me wanting to hug the big fuzzy guy and feed him grapes by the boatload. {But, of course I have a healthy respect for wild animals and would never do such a thing!} The tiger was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more intimidating and serious and did not greet each bite with glee like the bear. Rather, he paced between bites and eyeballed the food as it went from the zookeeper to me and finally through the hole. The experience definitely left me in awe of its intimidating size, amazing strength and natural ferocity. Both experiences were totally 100% safe because the animals are securely contained behind a fence with an extra barrier of something (plexiglass maybe). And you use a funny looking stick to put each piece of food through a hole that the animal grabs with its mouth. Each “adventure” consists of feeding an animal probably 6-8 pieces of food so it’s well worth the price. If you are interested in participating in an adventure, the gift shop sells the passes and also provides a cute magnet to memorialize the adventure.

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ENJOYMENT RATING: ♥♥♥♥♥ Though this is a small zoo with a very limited number of animals, it was highly enjoyable for our family. The size lends itself to easily viewable enclosures and creates a feeling of being unusually close to the animals. And the experience of feeding a bear and tiger was uniquely enjoyable for sure!

EDUCATION RATING: ♥♥♥♥♥  1. All enclosures were marked with the animal’s name and species and some included the story of how they ended up at Cat Tales. There’s the bear who was being raised in a bath tub and the wolf-hybrid who was found injured with a metal chain trailing behind him. 2. While we participated in the Big Cat and Bear Adventures, the zookeeper provided a lot of interesting info and answered our dozens of questions. He seemed very engaged in the process of educating us about the animals in his care.  3. While in the gift shop, we also met a couple of other keepers, one an intern and the other a student. Both were very willing to chat with us, not only about the animals, but also their experience in the field. It turns out that Cat Tales offers a Zookeeper program on-site, which we will keep in mind for our son in the future.

ENCLOSURE RATING: ♥♥♥♥_  It’s a small zoo with small enclosures and while that creates a very engaging viewing experience, it does make one wonder if the animals are “happy” in their space. But, each enclosure did include some sort of private area for the animal to escape to, though most were out and about while we were there {so maybe they are, in fact, happy to see guests.} And when you consider the fact that these animals were all rescued from bad situations and are now obviously being well cared for, things seem to even out. Plus, I saw on their website that they are in the middle of creating a new space for the wolf, foxes and coyotes so it seems they have the right idea. 

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS: If you’ve never heard of Cat Tales Zoological Park, you’re in good company because we hadn’t either. But I’m so glad we were able to experience this little gem.  Not only do we want to take every opportunity to take our zoologist-in-training to a new zoo, we want to have him experience a variety of types and sizes of zoos. Don’t come to Cat Tales expecting the San Diego Zoo or anything remotely similar. It is small. But it is enjoyable, educational and endearing. Each animal there has a tale to tell…a tale of survival. 

CONTACT INFO:

www.cattales.org~(509) 238-4126~17020 N Newport Hwy Mead, WA 99021