Sunday, January 4, 2009

A lion roared really loudly at me and Kathy

So, when Kathy came to visit, we ventured down a gravel road to see exotic cats in chain link cages eating horse legs and rib cages. It was muddy, our tour guide was a cross between hippie and teenaged boy (in demeanor, not age, if that can happen), who constantly was trying to draw the animals out, presumably to give us a show.
These were the disturbing things that happened:

1. We saw a full-grown lioness fall off of the giant equivalent of a kitty condo, hitting her back on one level and then landing sprawled on her side--because the dude was in a prohibited part of the cage.

2. He petted (pet?) a cougar. Around the ears. Like it was a harmless kitten.

3. A lion growled loudly at him ("He doesn't like me."), and then we all had to walk past the clearly very angry lion that was eating a huge bloody piece of meat with nothing but chain link separating us. He lunged a couple of times at other patrons, but not at us.

4. He was always ripping sticks out of the ground and pushing them through the fencing to poke at the lions and tigers and stuff.

5. He encouraged a stalking game with a tiger that culminated in the tiger lunging at full height, with all of his weight, against the chain link fence, multiple times.

I sort of loved it.

4 comments:

Kathryn said...

it was so awesome. when are you taking abby? are you two going to freQUENT it?

Anonymous said...

But of course. If I like to go somewhere, I freQUENT that place.

As soon as it stops ice-storming, we're going straight there.

Megan said...

Ugh, he's timothy treadwell, part two, only wussier! this sounds horrible. kathy, it did not sound quite as horrible when you described it to me. sarah, do you hang out here every day like the zoo? can you take this man's job?

Anonymous said...

It's too far away to hang out at like the zoo. Also they don't let you wander around. I would have to enjoy mucking, I think, to take this man's job.