CAT AND PONY SHOW; BIG FELINES MAKE PRESENCE KNOWN AT FAIR.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer Natasha and Tigger chase each other around the ring like 650-pound kittens, playfully play·ful adj. 1. Full of fun and high spirits; frolicsome or sportive: a playful kitten. 2. swatting at each other, then stopping to bat at a tarp lying outside the cage. Still inside the cage, trainer Yaro Hoffmann chats with a visitor, standing with his back to the tigers but seems to keep one eye on them: Natasha swerves at him, as if she intends to include him in their game. ``No, no, no. Stay over there,'' Hoffmann scolds. He explains, ``Humans are to love and work with. (Fellow) tigers are to play with.'' For 13 years, Hoffmann, his wife, Barbara, and their daughter have traveled the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , Canada and Asia with their tigers, leopards and other big cats, putting on shows like the ones they perform two and three times daily at the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley Fair and Alfalfa alfalfa (ălfăl`fə) or lucern (l  sûn`), perennial leguminous plant (Medicago sativa Festival. ``The Exotic Endangered en·dan·ger tr.v. en·dan·gered, en·dan·ger·ing, en·dan·gers 1. To expose to harm or danger; imperil. 2. To threaten with extinction. Cats of the World'' show will go on today at 5:30, 8 and 9:30 p.m. on the fairgrounds' East Lawn. To get them to walk across beams, sit side by side on stools or kiss their trainer on the face, the cats are trained with rewards - strips of raw sirloin - not punishment, Yaro Hoffmann says. If a cat balks at a particular activity, the trainer doesn't force it. Barbara Hoffman does the training of the cats, all of which were born in captivity. The 13 cats eat $1,200 to $1,500 worth of food a week: 100 pounds of chicken and 75 pounds of red meat a day. ``We get them at five and 10 days old and it takes three to five years to get them ready for the show,'' said Yaro Hoffmann, whose father worked in circuses and whose own family now spends 10 months a year on the road. ``They start off wearing diapers, sleeping in our bed and getting used to being with us. Once they get too big to go in the house we transfer them outside.'' CAPTION(S): Photo: (1 -- color) At the Antelope Valley Fair, Barbara Hoffman hol ds a piece of meat over her head and gets a kiss from Cassandra, a Bengal tiger. (2 -- color) A leopard leopard, large carnivore of the cat family, Panthera pardus, widely distributed in Africa and Asia. It is commonly yellow, buff, or gray, patterned with black spots and rings. The rings, unlike those of the New World jaguar, never have spots inside them. scratches its head Sunday at the ``The Exotic, Endangered Cats of the World'' show at the A.V. Fair. Michael Owen
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