2 Women give their lives to caring for lions

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THE STORY OF TAAI, MY LION SON

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Taai A time when my heart used to walk around outside of me. Today is Taai’s 4 th birthday. I actually had to count the years this morning because although I woke up knowing that it is his 4 th birthday, I couldn’t believe it. How have 4 whole years gone by since he came into my life? On the 26 th October 2013 a Lioness called Angel of Fire gave birth to 6 cubs. This is considered a large litter. Lions only have 4 nipples so 4 of the 6 cubs would comfortably suckle at one time whilst two would hungrily root around for a teat but only get to drink if they could nudge another cub off or the other cub had had enough and abandoned her spot.   For the first few days it seemed to be evenly matched with all cubs getting a chance to feed. But as the days progressed, Angel Of Fire would only allow 4 cubs to suckle, with no particular preference, she’d lie still whilst the first 4 cubs latched on but would quickly stand up and shake them all off when the 5...
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INSPIRED BY A LIONESS

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5 YEARS WITH MELA (Lockdown Day 4) “Mela Bella baby lion” I call and wait a few seconds as I do not know where she is in her enclosure. A bush begins to shake and I look towards it as she bursts out of the leaves running to me. She is licking her lips and mewling in short whao whao moans. Mela was born on the 29th March 2015. It was a Sunday and I was in Johannesburg having my broken arm attended to (That is another whole story involving a fractured cheek and other miscellaneous breaks). Taiga phoned me in the morning exclaiming that there was a cub in Ariel’s enclosure. I was concussed and struggled to compute this as there was no way that there could be a cub in Arial’s enclosure, “what?” I asked “there is a cub in Ariel’s enclosure, it is alone, it is just sniffling around in the grass. Thulani called me to come and see it, I had heard what I thought was a cub screaming early this morning but theen I just thought it was impossible, what must I do?” “There can’t be a c...
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5 STARS FELL INTO OUR LIVES

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PART 1 of CUBS THROUGH MY LIFE On the 10th day of December 2011 Five stars fell into my life and my life was changed forever. I had never looked after lions before that time. I had not dreamed of caring for lions, not harboured a desire to do so nor ever planned to try to do so. The birth of the STAR Pride was an unheralded but totally fortuitous event. Nursing Tindra Sienna as a newborn The first 2 STARS where born on the morning of the 10th December to a mother called Shanti. She had been in a fight and was flat on her side, bleeding profusely when she gave birth prematurely to a tiny female cub. The first one had already been birthed when Taiga and I got to Shanti. I had been walking out on the land. I had risen at sunrise with a nagging question eating away at me. Should I stay at the lion farm or should I go home to the Cape as planned? We had only come to the farm to help for 2 weeks and were due to leave the following morning. I would be leaving the farm with...
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