Curious Fact of the Week: The Fine Felines of the Cat House

North of Los Angeles is a desert oasis just for beautiful exotic cats. EFBC’s Feline Conservation Center, better known as the Cat House, is the home of over 70 cats from an astonishing number of species.

A Manul wild cat (photograph by Hope/Atlas Obscura)

There are tigers, a clouded leopard, snow leopard, jaguars, a petite jaguarundi, pallas’ cat, an ocelot, a bobcat, a Canada lynx, a margay, a jungle cat, a serval, and more fine felines (you can see details on each of the “residents” here). The Cat House was started in 1977 by Joseph and Jeanne Maynard and the nonprofit has been open to the public since 1983, dedicating itself to education on exotic cats, as well as their preservation and protection. 

A tiger in the California sunset (photograph by Sandi Hemmerlein/Avoiding Regret)

As part of its preservation efforts, breeding programs are a major component of the Cat House, so on any visit you’re likely to see some fuzzy little kittens, such as the four fishing cats that were just born this September. Unlike a zoo, the Cat House is set up more like a park, and even offers periodic twilight tours for when the cats are most active. 

And for those cats who finally go up to the Heaviside Layer, are some preserved in taxidermy in the Cat House’s museum. 

A cat with a frozen mouse treat (photograph by Hope/Atlas Obscura)

THE CAT HOUSE, Rosamond, California

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