“Jake of PrideRock”
It is just after lunch and getting warm. It seems like everybody is taking a nap.
I am at PrideRock Wildlife Refuge just north of Terrell, Texas, taking photos of their lions, tigers, cougars, and wolves. I am getting a little sleepy too and I am considering taking a nap since it looks like the photo session is over until later this afternoon when everybody will be up anticipating being fed.
I am standing near the gate to Jake’s pen watching him lying on one of his raised platforms, on his back, with his feet up in the air sound asleep. He reminded me of one of our housecats, named Simba, that will sleep on his back in the same position. Jake is one of PrideRock's large male African lions.
Everything is just real quiet when suddenly Jake rolls over and his head comes up in full alert. He is looking in the opposite direction from me. I couldn’t see anything that would have awakened him and was wondering what he was looking at. Then I heard the low roar of an approaching large jet airplane.
As the airplane got closer, I could tell it was very low and was coming straight towards us. As it got closer, Jake was standing up and in full alert. When I could see the airplane over the trees, I could tell that it was a large jet airliner, with the its flaps down, going slow just above stalling speed. It was very low and very noisy.
As the plane slowly roared by overhead, Jake followed along the fence, looking up at the airplane, toward the gate where I was standing. When he got to the gate, growling low, he watched, over my shoulder, as the airplane disappear over the trees.
When the sound of the airplane had faded away, he did another deep growl and turned, raised his tail and shot a great big squirt through the gate. I knew what was coming when I saw him raising his tail and quickly started backing up; however, I didn't move out of the way quite fast enough. He got me good and he seemed so satisfied with his accurate aim.
He couldn’t squirt that noisy airplane, but it was easy to show that guy standing at the gate who was boss.
Cheers,
Acree
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