I Shall Call Him Spotty and He Shall Be Mine and He Shall Be My Spotty

Owwwe bad Spotty, bad Spotty.  Sorry, I just wanted to complete that movie quote.  I happen to remember this quote from the day I heard it basically because it was so off the wall stupid – note, I did modify it slightly to fit the post topic.  Tonight I finished another project (foreshadowing) and decided to relax with a little Winter X Games.  Of course, just sitting and watching the boob tube is a colossal waste of time so I’m going to crank out a post at the same time.  Eeeeeshh – sorry, some dude just about killed himself on snowmobile jumping.  He had a whopping 4 hours of practice on the machine and figured that was all it would take.  Gravity says… NOPE.  He flew off at the top, snowmobile lands hard sticking the throttle, nearly hits the former rider and then flies off into the parking lot.  I predict a rule change coming.

Back on task.  Today’s focus is somewhat of a mascot for all us runners out there.  More for the sprinters, but I don’t know a distance runner who wouldn’t at least once go the speed of this animal.  Yes, I am talking about the Cheetah.  The gold medal champion of the plains track and field games clocking in at the 65 mph mark.  Say it with me .. Sixty Five Miles Per Hour.  I am not aware of any way to tell the sex of this specific specimen (well, from the picture angles I have) so let’s just go with a female.

Clipped a little bit of her tail but you can see some of the stripes that circle the tip of the tail.  Other than that, it’s all spots.   There was a slight confusion while prepping for this post.  While doing the customary research on the animal, it mentioned that the Cheetah is sometimes confused with the Leopard.  That actually resulted in some second guessing which required a little deeper dive into the description.  But, all for not.  I do indeed have a Cheetah.  although they have the same basic coloring, the Cheetah can be distinguished by the black eye-line from the edge of the eye down to the mouth.  According to Wikipedia, this allows them to cut the sun glare down and improve their vision – same principle for athletes putting black smudges under their eyes.  The other easy way to tell them apart is the spot coloring.  Cheetahs have solid black spots where Leopards are more like irregular circles.  Oh, and Leopards have the fuller facial features more like their bigger brothers (tiger, lions, jaguars).

Hit the jump to see a couple more super fantastic shots and one other (hehehe)

There seems to be some differing opinions on this across the web, but one thing is for sure, their speed is in burst form.  Sure, they can outrun just about anything that stays on the ground, but if their prey manages to keep the chase up for a few minutes, this king of the sprint is going to have to throw in the towel.  Somewhere along the way I was told or read that they have to spend the rest of the day resting.  Now Wikipedia claims it is more like a half hour.  In honor of that fact I give you this shot.

Cats (big cats, not those puny house cats) obviously know they are cool.  Those eyes are gorgeous – the eyes of a cold hearted killer, but gorgeous none the less.  She was probably doing some quick math – guessing annoying human is in the 8 minutes mile range, carry a big lens like that will cut that down considerably, I’ll hit 60 mph is about 5 seconds  … distance to the fence… oh yeah, he would be one tasty dinner.  Unless of course he kneecaps the chick with him in which case he’ll survive but doesn’t matter, I still eat like a queen.

Now be gone human, I need my rest

You can tell I had the aperture wide open – the head is nice and crisp along with the weeds, but the focus was c0nstrained too much for the tail.  From the pictures it looks like she was flicking it back and forth but guessing my shutter speed was through the roof with the harsh lighting.  By the way, here’s another interesting thing about the Cheetah.  They are one of the few cats with semi-retractable claws.  Basically it has built in cleats – maybe this is why the other predators call them CHE[A]TAHS.  (I think I just heard the Internet groan).

okay, time for some head to head competition.  A certain someone happen to take the following shot while we were there – honing in on my shot.  Anyone brave enough out there to judge between it and the fine specimens above?  Anyone, anyone?

For the record, the default is “the last shot is sadly inferior” if there are no comments to refute that position.  So if you agree with that (and I know you will), there is really no need to comment on it.

That’s all for tonight folks – Shaun White just took another gold which means it’s time to hit the sack! May the Cheetah purr you to sleep tonight (yes, they actually purr).