Continuing on the theme from the past few weeks of massage therapists doing extraordinary things in extraordinary places, today’s entry features a massage therapist from Boulder, Colorado who went to South Africa, visiting a cheetah preserve there.
While touring the preserve with handlers and presumably in relatively little danger, the massage therapist was helped by the fact that her massage therapy techniques helped endear her to the fast cats. Click here to watch a video of the therapist rubbing a cheetah, and here for an account (and pictures) from the therapist of her encounter with the cats.
Taking a massage therapist’s perspective, the therapist examines the cheetah’s anatomy and why it is able to reach such incredible speeds. While examining the features of a cheetah which make it so unique and capable, the therapist stumbles upon something somewhat surprising: that the cheetahs like the touch of a massage therapist!
Apparently most people who touch the cheetahs for the first time don’t get a reaction, but the massage therapist got appreciative purrs from the cheetahs as she rubbed their muscles and joints.
While I can’t imagine a cheetah massage industry springing up anytime soon (although the cat, dog, and horse massage industries are showing signs of life), it’s nice to know that cheetahs may appreciate the therapeutic rub a massage therapist can offer. One never knows when that might come in handy.