This is another from the big cat sanctuary.
This is Freddy. Freddy's a 19 year old male African lion. He's completely docile, however and, while cautious, I was eager to be in the enclosure with him. I ran about 30 frames when he got up and approached me and the keeper (whom Freddy knows well). We were both on our knees. She just kept saying to me "Be calm and don't try to get up."
Freddy sniffed my camera, and then decided to sniff me. He pushed his muzzle against my jaw and breathed in hard, chuffed, spaying his saliva and whatever came out of his nose against the left side of my face.
I honestly, truly thought I was about to die.
I have to tell you, I've been shot at, jumped out of airplanes, driven a race car at Watkins Glen and surfed the North Shore of Oahu in winter.
None of those even come close to matching the exhilaration I felt as Freddy rubbed his muzzle against my neck and, for lack of a better word, purred.
This is Freddy. We buds...
