A leopard shakes his spots

Spent the last couple of days keeping keeping Sophie and Ben entertained, mostly at theme parks, but also rediscovering card games of all things: eights, sequence, slapjacks and whist. At Chessingtons in the zoo whilst preparing to take a picture of a leopard right at the back of a large are, when he started running right at me, then jumped paws outstretched - splat! - right into the glass a few inches from my face. I remember, as he began his gallop, looking quickly out of the corner of my eye, left and right and thinking "is he looking at me?" whilst holding the gaze of this magnificent cat, who was, I suppose, trying to hypnotize me in my tracks to present an easier target for him to knock down. Even though I was always aware the glass was there it did not stop me flinching as he ran full pelt into the glass shaking the wall, then walking off so nonchalantly and cool, that I'm sure he'd done it before: clever bastard.

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