The Meerkat Cafe!

 I cannot for the life of me remember what order everything in Seoul happened in. I think this came shortly after the trip up N Tower, but I don't remember for sure.

Anyway, my dear friend Adrienne loves small, furry critters. While we have petting zoos in America, in Asia, they have animal cafes, and Adrienne really wanted to go to one of them. (Not that I minded, either.) The one in Seoul we went to--a meerkat cafe!

For those of you who've never been, an animal cafe is similar to a petting zoo, but it's all inside, much more comfortable for you, and full of animals that petting zoos probably wouldn't let you hold. I've read that some of them are called animal cruelty, but for this one, I'm pretty sure the animals couldn't possibly survive in the wild (you'll see the raccoon, for example). I don't recall any of these animals being especially friendly unless you had food, but they were adorable and not afraid of people. 

Now, I'd never seen a meerkat up close before, but I have to say--as cute as they can be...

...they can also be rather vicious! 

And then be cute again. 

Now, this particular place had more than just meerkats. It had a tailless raccoon, rock hyrax (which I had never heard of before) and a wallaby, among other adorable animals. 

That's my hand. 

I have completely forgotten what the mini-cheetah-thing is.

He liked to bounce up and down. Here, I think he's begging me for a treat. 

This animal on my knee is the rock hyrax. 

This next picture is very blurry, but it makes sense if you know the backstory. I had run out of treats, so the rock hyrax apparently decided to find someone else. As you can see in that last picture, he prepared to hop off my knee. Then, the wallaby hopped by and stopped right in front of me. The hyrax decided that his best course of action was to hop from my knee onto the wallaby's back! 

As you can see, the wallaby was a little startled. 

My friend was definitely the animals' favorite--she got them onto her lap without any treats in her hand. But it's a sweet way to spend an afternoon, so if you're ever in South Korea or Japan, definitely check the area and see if there's anything like this near you.