Felids & Friends began as a small Florida animal-education effort with a simple idea: get people personal with animals. Its "neighborhood" was home to rescued wild cats and other animals, and its lessons were written for students of all ages — from curious grade-schoolers to lifelong wildlife enthusiasts. This site keeps that educational spirit alive as a free, evergreen resource about the cat family (Felidae) and the creatures who share our world.
Cats have fascinated people for thousands of years, and for good reason. The house cat curled on your sofa shares an astonishing amount of biology and behavior with the tiger, the panther, and the bobcat. Understanding one helps you understand them all — and understanding them all is the first step toward protecting the wild ones.
What You'll Find Here
- Dija Know? — bite-sized felid facts, from why a puma purrs to how a cat's claw works.
- Meet the Residents — the animals who called the Felids & Friends neighborhood home, from Sam the tiger to a pair of wolf hybrids.
- Florida's Wild Cats — how to tell a bobcat from a Florida panther, and why both matter.
- Fables & Lore — traditional animal lessons and poems, from Aesop to William Blake.
- Wildlife & Conservation — the threats facing wild cats and Florida's native animals.
Why Wild Cats?
There are roughly forty species in the cat family, ranging from the 600-pound Siberian tiger to the two-pound rusty-spotted cat. Many are threatened in the wild. Education is one of conservation's quietest but most powerful tools: people protect what they understand and love. That was the founding conviction behind this neighborhood, and it guides every article here. For the latest science on wild cats, the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group is the definitive authority.
Learning That Respects the Animal
Getting "personal" with animals never meant treating wildlife as a novelty. It meant patient observation, honest facts, and respect for what each species needs. Whether you're here to settle a question about your own cat's night vision or to learn how a coatimundi lives, we hope you leave knowing a little more — and caring a little more — than when you arrived. Welcome to the neighborhood.