This 24-acre animal preserve bordering the Yellow River offers close encounters of the 4-legged kind--a chance to view, pet, feed, and generally mingle with some 600 animals (always including quite a few babies) living in open enclosures, or right out in the open, along a 1-mile oak- and hickory-shaded forest trail. Owner Art Rilling knows every animal on the ranch by name and can give you chapter and verse on each one's personality, preferences, and in some cases, romantic history. The animals know they're among friends here and are highly socialized, so you have a unique chance to study them up close. Keep in mind before you visit that all these animals smell like, well, animals. If a barnyard atmosphere bothers you, don't visit.

Inhabitants include donkeys named Rhett and Scarlett, Georgia black bears that stand up and beg for marshmallows, goats, dozens of rabbits in Bunny Burrows (kids can pet the bunnies), an assortment of interesting-looking chickens, a herd of buffalo, sheep, burros, goats, ponies, a skunk named General Sherman (we are in Atlanta, after all), and a groundhog named General Beauregard Lee who lives in a white colonnaded Southern mansion complete with miniature satellite dish.

Consider packing a picnic lunch. There are tables throughout the property, and one especially nice picnic area overlooks the river.