“We’ll let you get back to work. Send me the weekend letter tonight. I’ll look it over,” Jake said and once again steered me back out toward the ATV. I felt I had been running around with him all day, seeing habitats and meeting his staff, but really, it had only been about two hours. The day was still young and I was somehow still awake.
After we climbed back onto the ATV, he took off and told me about a few more of the animals as we passed them. Each of the habitats had an indoor and outdoor area, with a customized environment that the animal would expect based on where it originated. We passed the wallaby area, and I kid you not, that little asshat Dundee gave me the death look. He wanted to finish the job of taking off my finger. I looked up at the Spanish moss-covered oak trees and marveled at how peaceful it was out here. Until I heard a loud roar.
My fingers gripped onto Jake’s side a little harder.
“We’re coming up on the larger habitats back here.” Larger? Goodness, did he really have big lions, tigers, and bears back here? So far we had seen plenty of animals, but other than the horse and the wolves, nothing was huge.
We drove by tall fences that surrounded a couple acres of mostly fields. I saw a lion get swatted at by a lady lion. He backed away and lay down next to her. Maybe she had a headache.
There were a few other lady lions in there as well. I felt like I was inThe Lion King.
“That’s Talib and Subira. She’s his number one. They were brought to us from a drug bust. The owners were using them as guard dogs for their drugs, giving them a status of power. They were chained and had maybe a fifteen-foot radius to move around in.” He was calm telling me their story, but I could tell it made him unhappy. I looked at them now and they looked to be enjoying themselves. They had a big space to run around in, a little play area where they could climb on stuff and a small pool with giant balls scattered around the field. They were living a good life now. I felt myself snuggle in a little bit closer to Jake. What he did here was starting to pull at my heartstrings a little.
