FELLOW EARTHLINGS WILDLIFE MEERKAT PRESERVE
The Fellow Earthlings Wildlife Meerkat Preserve (F.E.W.M.P) is the only place in the world where you can truly meet the meerkats, the most social and delightful members of the mongoose family. Although booking a two hour long appointment with them is exhausting and expensive, it is nonetheless worth your troubles.
Upon arriving at the preserve, you will be let in and lead around by Pamela Bennett-Wallberg, owner of the preserve, who, in my humble opinion, is one of the most unpleasant women you'll ever have the misfortune of meeting. Who knows, maybe she was having a bad day when I showed up? But never mind her, that one hundred dollars was for the benefit of her little mongooses, who you are more than anxious to meet.
Walking across the delicate bridge that leads to the cabin that leads to the meerkats, you're bound to experience a startling yet welcome mini-heart attack. To your right, where the meerkats' enclosures stand tall, there is bound to be one, maybe two meerkats with their rough paws and sniffing noses pressed firmly against the wiring, their black-encircled eyes on you. You might be hearing their soft, gentle cooing, now that you're close enough for them to smell how non-threatening you really are.
Now that you, your guests and the meerkats have been let into the largest enclosure together, the twelve-inch tall critters will likely hurry to your side—you have a cub full of mealworms in your hands, after all! As the meerkats approach you and promptly sit on your lap—or shoulder, if you're lucky—you'll really start to learn their personalities. As is true with most meerkats, thoughs of the F.E.W.P.M are likely to have a very (if you'll excuse the Harry Potter reference) “Percy Weasley” kind of personality, nudging their brother meerkats off of you to get first dibs on the worms in your hand, and than feeling free to perch upon your shoulder, very proudly. Who knows why they're like that... maybe it's their horn-rimmed glasses?
At the end of the day, you'll have fed, petted and photographed a number of meerkats—and if you were lucky, even some pups! These memories are likely to last as long as those one-foot-tall mongooses rule their native Kalahari desert.
