When the wind is right . . .

A number of years ago I was outside doing something, -- what I don't remember -- when I glanced up at the main road and for just an instant, thought I saw a tiger going by, riding in the bed of a pickup truck. It was one of those double-take situations. When I looked again, there was nothing there. The truck had gone by.

Not long after, I was outside doing something -- what I don't remember -- when I glanced up at the main road and just for an instant . . .

I bet you thought I was going to say I thought I saw a tiger going by, riding in the bed of a pickup truck. Nope. This time if was a full grown lion, its mane blowing in the wind.

I hadn't been wearing my glasses either time, but you know. Once could be a mistake. Twice?

It raised one of two possibilities: Either I was having hallucinations and needed immediate hospitalization, or something was going on.

I mentioned it to Da Kid who said, "You haven't heard anything? Anything strange?"

I admitted I had on an occasion or two, but didn't know what it was. It was so far in the distance and so infrequent, I hadn't paid that much attention to it.

"That's a lion, mother. (I hate it when he calls me "mother"!) When the wind is right, you can hear it from here when they roar."

And that's how I discovered that something called Catty Shack Ranch had moved in down the road from us.

They refer to themselves as an animal preserve. I have no idea if they are or aren't and quite frankly don't care as long as they keep whatever they have down there locked in.

"Terry"

Just one of the cuddly "puddy-tats" at Catty Shack Ranch.

They don't.

No, they take their lions, tigers and bears (I think the wolves are gone. Maybe the bears, too, because I haven't seen either listed on the web site for a while.) to fairs and flea markets so that idiots can pay to have their picture taken, cuddling up with them.

I don't know about anybody else, but I think those people are insane. I don't care if the animals have been raised since cub-dom, they are still wild animals that can and will eat you.

Case in point: When I was small my aunt took me to see a tiger in one of those traveling shows, much like this one appears to be. I would not pet the tiger, sit with the tiger, or have my picture taken with it. (Even then I might have been crazy, but I wasn't insane.) The next day, that tiger woke up with a really bad case of the munchies, I guess, and chowed down on its own handler.

So the headline Tiger Injures Handler at Florida Fair didn't surprise me. What did although it shouldn't have, was that it's "my neighbor" who's in the news.

(The animals are tranported in a cage in the back of the pickup trucks. But, if you see what's IN the cage without noticing the cage itself? It sure doesn't help promote a sense of secure containment.)