THE LION WHO HAD BEEN HIT ON THE HEAD

Let me tell you about Carl...

On a walk in the mountain

Looking out over the valley

Would I be prepared to take a lion cub of approximately 7 weeks of age who was a pet to a woman who could not deal with this lion as it turned out that he scratched and he bit?

On July 12th 2016 he was transported to a farm an hour away from me and 3 hours away from where he lived. He traveled in a cat box (domestic cat size). I arrived at the meeting point and lifted him out of his box, I snuggled him into my arms and told him, 'don't you worry little one, I've got you'.

I asked the lady why he was so pale, she replied in an incredulous tone that it was because he was a white lion...Dha, how could I not know that, but the thing was, he was so dirty I had honestly not been able to tell that he was white, I had questioned his lack of cub spots and stripes, but thought him to be tawny. Later that day I began washing him with warm water as I held him closely in my lap.

It was the middle of winter, we sat next to a boulder in the dry sunlit corner which my team had quickly fenced off with chicken mesh as we hadn't been prepared to house a cub at the sanctuary. Liesbet a Dutch volunteer had to help me as I had to use one hand to securely hold Carl and more hands were needed to gently wash away the grime. Sophie a Swedish volunteer heated up water and provided bowls and clothes. I had not planned to take in a wounded orphan that day and so all rules of not allowing any outsiders to touch a cub vanished. Instead, the volunteers around me transformed into insiders as needs had to be met and they quietly and superbly stepped in and met them.

Holding Carl securely while he took in his new surroundings

Time passed and the cold twilight drove my helpers down the mountain to their rooms. Carl and I snuggled each other in the grey grass. He had a dent in is forehead, a swollen bulge on the top of his head, a misshapen jaw and blood running from his tear ducts like tears. His inner eyelids kept shutting and he toppled over when he tried to walk. I judged that Carl was brain damaged but decided that he would simply be my brain damaged lion. I loved him already. 

Carl a few weeks after he arrived, still showing signs of the mistreatment

Cubs cannot retract their claws when very young and Carl's claws had become caked in dirt to such a degree that even though old enough to retract them (though not yet at will), he could not retract them due to the casing of dirt. I actually thought they were broken black stumps until the vet came to check him the following day and picked away a piece of the resin like substance to reveal a normal little cub claw within. I soaked his paws and slowly worked away at 

the casing over many days. Dr Johan Pretorius also found 5 different types of worm in Carl's faeces. He administered vaccines, antibiotics, antiparasitics and booster vitamin shots.

At that time I had been living in the caravan for 9 months. Mela who used to live in the camp with me had moved into an enclosure a week or so before Carl's arrival. After sleeping in the open with Carl in his corner enclosure the first night, I decided to have a tent pitched inside the enclosure so that we could have a little more shelter the following night. Although Carl was a cuddly snuggler who slept on my face or curled up on my neck and shoulder, he as all cubs do, required attention every few hours during the night. It was hopelessly dark and ridiculously cold even in the tent. So on day 3 he started sleeping with me inside the caravan and I applied for a permit to take him to Leon's house so that the two of us could have a night in a warm house with running water, electricity and space to move every now and then.

This meant that Carl had to drive with me in my car. He loved that. He would run to the car the moment I told Micah, 'let's go'. He'd sit down next to the back door and wait for me to lift him in, he'd then position himself on the central console box and lean into my shoulder. When he grew larger he'd stand with his hind feet on the back seat, his front feet on the box and rest his chin on my shoulder pushing his cheek against my cheek. He stood still like that for the entire drive. When he was too old to go to Leon's house anymore, he'd still drive around the sanctuary with me.

One day Carl and I went for a walk into one of the large enclosures to check on the pool my volunteers had just finished damming up for the lions who were soon to live there. The new pool was full to overflowing with the excess water flowing over the spill way creating muddy puddles in the grass. Carl stumbled across a puddle and tentatively tested the water before shaking the offending substance of with a grimace of distaste. I had seen former versions of the same story with Mela and Taai as cubs. But as his curiosity turned into courage, he ventured deeper and deeper into the experience until he discovered that he could swim. And that was that, the swimming, water loving lion had emerged.

He loves playing in pools. He will take a large intake of breath before submerging his head in one of his pools trying to catch the bubbles he blows from his nose. He repeatedly throws toys or bones into the water to then fish them out. He has worked out the difference between items which sink and those like balls which float and can be drifted around at will. He gets ready to move out of the way after pushing a ball down under water before releasing it to pop up into the air where he is ready to hit at at. Carl is not brain damaged, he is the cleverest lion I have ever worked with. But he does have issues.

Carl now knows to sit down so that I can give him that scratch he so wants. Until we get another lion in to LLA who can live with him, I am the only living being who can offer him the physical acknowledgement he desires.

Carl is a special needs lion who I believe has a sensory defensive condition. He wants to be touched and loves a good scratch, but he can't help but nip at the arm belonging to the hand touching him. The word nip might in this case not quite accurately describe the severity of the action. It is however not an actual bite, he uses his front teeth only, but as a human I reached a point where I struggled to take the resultant pain. He has always done this, he did it to Mela on all our walks with her when he was still a little cub who came everywhere with me. He had no fear of her, he would run along beside her and then nip her really hard, pinching her skin so that she jumped away in alarm. 

The moment before the nip. Carl and Mela.

Carl keeps himself entertained which is a sign of intelligence. He plays with his floating and sinking toys, he hits a rugby ball around the enclosure without missing a beat, he suspends his rope toys from threes and he blows into the end of a piece of 30mm water pipe to make didgeridoo sounds. He makes my heart happy everyday as he bounds around from boulder to boulder, pool to pool. One day when we take in a rescue lion who fits Carl, he will have a lion friend to play with.

Chasing after his ball in one of his pools