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“Leila-sama! We got another e-mail question from my super-neat Jessie’s Letters page!”

“It is a question with profound meaning?”

“Uh uh.”

“It is a question that seeks the deepest mysteries of the universe?”

“Nope.”

“It is a question that will challenge our understanding of our existence?”

“It’s a question about being a drummer in marching band.”

“Oh, that’s easy.”

“Sometimes Leila frightens me.”

“Heheee… okay. The question says ‘In your story you said the drummers play a cadence. What’s a cadence?’”

“Cake question.”

“Cadence is when the drum section plays a rythym so the rest of the formation can keep time with their steps. We have four cadences in the Lions Band. The first two are full cadences.”

“That’s the one you start!”

“Yeah. Full Cadence Green starts with a roto-tom solo.”

“The other one is our ‘good morning’ cadence.”

“Full Cadence Gold starts with a full section downbeat and cymbal crash.”

“Good morning cadence?”

“We like to play Full Cadence Gold on Collins Circle over behind the school so if anyone in the neighborhood across the street didn’t hear their alarm clock we help them wake up.”

“Yay! Ohayo minna! It’s a bright sunshiney day!”

“Well, except for that one guy who stood in his driveway yelling at us that one day last year.”

“I think he thought we were trying to annoy everyone. Until we marched past his house in parade formation and played ‘National Emblem’ during after-school practice. His wife baked cookies for all of us the next day and brought them to the band room. She said he was so proud to have a parade in front of his house he almost cried. What a nice old couple too.”

“That’s cool. What are the other two cadences?”

“We have one called a ‘Silent Cadence’ if we’re marching up to a performance area at parades. There’s a couple hundred yards where bands aren’t allowed to make a lot of noise because it disrupts the bands in the performance area, so we play that cadence on the rims of our drums.”

“That’s the tick-tock cadence. All drum rims, traps and glockenspiels.”

“That’s the one that sounds like a carnival! I like the tick-tock cadence best.”

“The fourth one is a simple corps cadence. One snare plays the measure downbeats. We use that for starting formations on the field.”

“Now which one do we play in the tunnel at Brown Stadium?”

“Full Cadence Gold, baby.”

“Yeah!”

“Maximum volume. Maximum power.”

“Yay! Arigato minna-san! If you got a question or a comment or just wanna say ‘hi!’ you can send me e-mail on my Jessie’s Letters page and we might even get to answer your question right here on our site! Ja ne!”

“Konnichi-waaaaa minna san! It’s meeee Jessica Hoshi! Today we got a super treat for everyone. This is our first ever article with a video, because my friend Talitha-chan is super smart and can do anything with computers. This is an article that was written by a guest author and they said we could put in on our site. We love big kitties because Shannon-sama has a big kitty named Kishi that is a magical cat. So we got this article about three cheetahs at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Their names are Majani, Kubali and Karroo! The first two are brother and sister cheetahs. Majani is a Swahili word that means ‘grasslands,’ and Kubali is also a Swahili word that means ‘to accept.’ Swahili is a language that is spoken in Africa, which is where there are lots of cheetahs, but not so many now cause cheetahs are endangered. I’m gonna get Talitha-chan to put links in our Fun Places list about cheetahs so you can get involved and help out just like us! Arigato minna!”

Meet Majani, Kubali and Karroo

Zero to 60 in 3.4 seconds.

No, it isn’t the latest super car or souped up motorcycle. In fact, these “vehicles” have no metal parts, engines or wheels at all. They have names, though. They are Majani and Kubali, brother and sister cheetahs who reside at the San Diego Zoo and are featured every weekend at the San Diego Wild Animal Park’s Animal Shows.

Three cheetah cubs

Photo copyright © Patricia Tricorache/CCF

Majani and Kubali put on speed exhibitions at the new San Diego Wild Animal Park’s “Cheetah Run Safari” where guests line the track and can get an up close, thrilling view of the animals as they dash past, chasing a small mechanical lure at speeds well in excess of 60 miles per hour. Majani, whose name means “grasslands” in Swahili, is the larger brother of Kubali, whose name means “to accept” in Swahili. Majani also holds the distinction of being the largest and heaviest zoo kept cheetah in the country, weighing in at 144 pounds. The largest and heaviest cheetah recorded in the wild was scarcely one pound heavier at 145 pounds.

Because of her size and weight advantage, Kubali is slightly faster than her brother. This may also be due to the fact that, like many big cats, female cheetahs must develop better and more effective hunting skills since they are responsible for catching and providing food for their cubs.

But what is probably most charming about these two magnificent animals at the San Diego Wild Animal Park is the fact they have befriended two dogs from the local San Diego Humane Society. That’s right. Cats and dogs, living together. Clifford is a labrador and Bear is a labrador/chow who were “assigned” to Majani and Kubali respectively, and act as a calming influence on the big cats when they are performing for the public. Like all cats, cheetahs can be somewhat reclusive in unfamiliar situations, but with their companions around, it seems the brother and sister team have an easier time of it during the Cheetah Run Safari shows.

Just for fun, the park staff lets Clifford and Bear out on the track for trial runs before the stars of the show take to the starter’s blocks. While they are probably quite capable runners, as some dogs are, labradors don’t quite compare to the fastest land animal on the planet.

After their runs, the big cats are fed and spectators have an opportunity to listen as their loud purring is heard throughout Cheetah Outpost. The Cheetah Run Safari is available on weekends to spectators and guests by reservation and requires an additional fee which does not include admission to the San Diego Wild Animal Park or Zoo. The program includes refreshments and a 5×7 photograph of one of the cheetahs from the show.

The third “dog and cat” team at the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park is also a dog and cheetah team like Majani and Clifford or Kubali and Bear. They are Karroo and Sven, a cheetah and golden retriever team that appears in the “Wild Ones” show in the San Diego Wild Animal Park’s “Cat Canyon” area.

A cheetah running

Photo copyright © Patricia Tricorache/CCF

Karroo and Sven Olaf are the current caretakers of a historical dog and cheetah tradition at the park’s Cheetah Run and Cat Canyon, signified by a plaque commemorating the original team at Wegeforth Bowl in the park. The original team, consisting of a cheetah named Arusha and a golden retriever named Anna, performed and worked at the park together well into their old ages. Chobe and Jessie followed, and now, the featured dog and cat team of Karroo and Sven continue to thrill and delight audiences at the San Diego Wild Animal Park’s many shows and attractions, including the Zoo’s show at the Hunte Ampitheater.

Cheetahs are a unique species, and are among the most specialized creatures in nature. Their bodies are a wonder of aerodynamics, agility, speed and strength, and there is undoubtedly still much to be learned about the way they hunt and survive in the wild. Cheetahs live considerably longer in captivity than in the wild, and this will hopefully provide more opportunties to help this spectacular big cat overcome some of the challenges that are facing the 12,000 remaining cheetahs in the world, including inbreeding, genetic defects and various viruses and infections that cheetahs are susceptible to.

But in the meantime, there’s no reason that people cannot marvel at the incredible abilities of Majani, Kubali and Karroo at the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park. There is no better way to learn to appreciate wild animals, their habitat and humanity’s relationship with nature than to see nature’s strength and dignity in person, and that is precisely the opportunity shows like the Cheetah Run Safari and the Wild Ones provide. Endangered species like the cheetah and many others around the world are everyone’s responsibility, and learning more about both endangered species and species with healthy populations is an excellent way for people to develop a more profound understanding of both the world we live in and the challenges we share in preserving the natural world around us.

Trying again with Safari for Windows, because I like playing with things. This time it took 3 minutes for the upload pictures screen to turn up (just when I'd given up on it).

Here's the tattoo. It's one of the only ones I've ever designed, and my brief from Cat was it had to be Deliriumy. Cat also has a chain of forget-me-nots tattooed around one wrist, and one of the cutest children in the world.



And this is here because it has given everyone who knows me enormous pleasure -- half a school photo from when I was seven. I'm not hard to identify. Look for the slightly creepy kid with enormous ears...

You'll need to click on it to make it larger. Unless you're using Safari for Windows in which case whatever you do to try and open it in a new tab or window it'll download the picture and open an empty window or tab.

I'm typing this on the Windows version of Safari. It seems fast and friendly so far, and much like the Mac version (which truth to tell I rarely use, preferring Camino), although it seems to play better with Blogger.