Author: Da Goddess (San Diego, CA, USA)
Website: Click here
Categories: [cool]  [fun]  [nature]  

Do you remember the part of "The Wizard of Oz" when Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion? That's how I felt for a moment a couple of months ago. My son and I had traveled up to the hills to a wildlife rehabilitation center where a group was caring for some tigers that had made the local papers. Glorious animals they were.

And then there was this guy. Samson. This regal creature seemed to sing to me. I could almost hear him sing:

"If I were King of the Forest,

Not Queen, not Duke, not Prince

My regal robes of the forest

Would be satin, and not cotton, and not chintz.

I'd command each thing, be it fish or fowl.

With a woof and a woof, and a royal growl.

I'd click my heel

All trees would kneel

And the mountains bow

And the bulls kowtow

And the sparrow would take wing

If...I ...if...I ..were King!"

And so it was that Bert Lahr and his Cowardly Lion weren't far from my thoughts as my son and I stood in front of Samson's enclosure. I could almost picture our new friend in a pink bow and singing to some girl in gingham check.

Samson hasn't had an easy life. That much was obvious by his presence at the wildlife sanctuary. His story was much like the ones we'd heard about all the other big cats there. Samson was the result of inbreeding and malnutrition. Sold to someone who had no idea what raising a lion would entail. No idea that it was illegal - or, at least, not caring.

His jaw is out of alignment from the malnutrition he suffered during the early part of his life. His hind legs are too short and slightly bowed. No more human playmates for this big guy. Not since he's decided that he's the mighty king of his realm. People enter to clean his enclosure and feed him while he's watching the cows in the pasture off to the one side. He allows this. He likes food and is a bit of a neat freak it seems. I guess good housekeepers are hard to find when you're king.

Soon, Samson will have more room. His enclosure was temporarily split in half to accommodate two older tigers. The tigers were to be shipped to Folsom Zoo in a couple of weeks. And, Samson's loving keepers are hoping (though that's not exactly the right word...) that someday, Samson will have a true roommate. A queen to the throne as it were.

The big cat count for the day was 14 tigers, two leopards, two mountain lions, 5 or 6 bobcats, and one lion. One sweet and scruffy lion in need of a gal he can sing his song to.

Other submissions by this author: :  Renewal  ::  Endings and Beginnings  :

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