[ubermonkey]

Fun fact for me personally: because I am lucky enough to know a zookeeper who was in charge of the ambassador animal program at a major zoo, I have direct personal experience that cheetahs purr when you pet them.

You're right. They're smaller than you probably imagine (about the weight of an average Labrador). That's still definitely big enough to be a problem if they felt threatened, I'm sure, but the animals my friend was in charge of were raised to be around people for outreach purposes. That particular cheetah, for example, had once been on the Today show.