If you want to take a hayride past the lions and tigers at the Garden Patch and Project Noah near Richardsville, youre going to have to follow a few basic rules. Keep your bottom on the bottom, owner Herald Max Maxwell instructed as he lifted third-graders into a hay-covered trailer that he was preparing to pull behind his old pickup truck. Also, Keep your fingers and your toes in the trailer and out of your nose, he warned. Or what? some of the children asked. Let me get my switch, Max joked while holding up a large branch studded with wilted leaves and thorns. The children laughed and Max jumped into the cab of his truck. Theyre wonderful, he said of the children, just before he let out a loud yell. He was keeping secret the fact that the third-graders would be seeing big cats … exotic cats … the kinds of cats that are far from the norm in southcentral Kentucky. When the truck and trailer ascended a bumpy hill and approached the animals cages, a collective ahhh arose from the children. In no time, at least one of Maxs rules was broken. All I can see from here is hands pointing, Max said as he looked in his rearview mirror at the children. Soon, he was out of the truck, hugging and playing with the cats as the children sat protected in the trailer outside the cages. Theyre really big and pretty, Warren Elementary School student Sema Ibisevic said of the cats. But she didnt think her small cat, Toby, would like them so much. Theyre scary or something, she said of what she thought Toby might think of the cats, including a lion that weighs 700 pounds. As the children oohed and ahhed, Max taught them tiger language, which he said is spoken by rolling the tongue and making a kind of soft purring sound. Pffff, he said, as the huge tiger he was petting made a similar noise and moved her head closer to Maxs gentle stroke. That means I love you in tiger language, Max said. Max teaches children such things as part of the Garden Patch, which formerly was Ruwets Pumpkin Patch, but now offers much more than a pumpkin to each child who visits. The Pumpkin Patch was bought by the Maxwells this year to raise money for Project Noah, the non-profit animal sanctuary the Maxwells run to care for abused and neglected animals. The seven-day-a-week job, which includes taking children through a corn maze that leads to the pumpkin patch, is not easy work. The Maxwells are up before the sun every day to care for the animals and prepare for the school groups that visit five days each week. On weekends, they work strictly with Project Noah. They have little time to do things like shop. Im getting tired of wearing (this dress) every day, joked Maxs wife, Marge, as she photographed a group of school children while wearing a black jumper dotted with a colorful pumpkin print. What Marge is not tired of is working with the children, whom she introduces to farm critters and some small exotic animals under a big tent at the Garden Patch. Neither is Max. I love to see it coming together, he said after the last of the school groups pulled away Thursday. Not everybody is able to pursue their dream. The Maxwells dream of someday turning their tiny sanctuary into an educational conservation park. They want to have a dormitory at the park where people can come and stay and learn about the animals. And they want to build a place where the animals can have lots of room to run. Its been a dream of Maxs since he first came in contact with big cats several years ago, when he was working as a professional magician and was trying to find a big cat for his act. The animal that he and Marge found had been abused something the Maxwells wanted to change. It was something that brought back memories from Maxs childhood in China, where his parents were Christian missionaries. Id save my allowance and buy monkeys from restaurants, Max said. Then Id take them out to the country and let them go. Sometimes, Max kept the monkeys for pets, then released them into the wild after a few months. He admits now that he didnt realize he was rescuing animals at the time, but he just couldnt stand to see them served as lunch. I just hated to see those little monkeys being eaten, he said as he wandered through the tent where chickens, a South African turtle and a baby alligator were among the animals that were taking a break from seeing school kids. Kirk Arnold, who volunteers at Project Noah, said Max has an amazingly strong love of animals. I like watching Max with the animals, he said. You can tell he gets such a kick out of being with them. The Garden Patch and Project Noah are located on North Campbell Road in Warren County. To schedule a group visit, or for more information, call the Maxwells at 777-9966.