We begin our articles from my recent trip to New York with a special Weekend Cat Blogging featuring some of the cats I encountered at the Bronx Zoo.

Greeting visitors who arrive at the original Fordham Road entrance are two stone cat sculptures.

While these sculptures have a very contemporary look about them, they actually date back to 1920s. They are the work of famed sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, who donated them to the zoo in 1937, where they have remained on the stairs between Astor Court and the entrance fountain ever since. You can read more about her work with the Bronx Zoo here.

This was a short and very directed visit, focusing on a few specific animals, and especially those with recent offspring. Among those where this adorable snow-leopard cub.

It’s hard not to fall for the cuteness of these cubs. The other one was fast asleep a few feet away.

Mama snow leopard was sleeping nearby as well.

In the next enclosure, we met the proud papa, Leo.

Leo was rescued as an orphaned cub after being found in the mountains of northern Pakistan, and has served as “an ambassador for Pakistan at the zoo since 2006” (read more here).

The Bronx Zoo, along with the neighboring New York Botanical Garden and the large Bronx Park that contains both institutions, is a gem of a borough that gets an unfair rap. We will have more from the Bronx, including art and photography, in upcoming articles.