During the night this glorious, dominant lion had been doing what males do. He traveled miles patrolling the edges of his territory, marking the boundaries along the way as a strong, and severe warning for other nearby males. After a long night’s patrol, he returned to the pride before dawn. Once he was back the lionesses did what lionesses do and left on the morning hunt.
By the time we came upon the pride the sun was climbing in the sky, but the lionesses had not returned. It was clear they had not been successful and were still on the hunt. Like any father who works the night shift, Dad was tired and wanted to sleep. Unfortunately for him there were a bunch of very active and hungry cubs running interference between him and nap time. The cubs were from different litters and split between two age groups, each with its own challenges for their beleaguered father.
First up to irritate Dad were the playful younger group who wanted to wrestle and tumble.
But siblings get boring after a while and what boy doesn’t want to play with his daddy? So, this little guy did just that, and dug his claws right into Dad’s behind.
It did not go well and was a lesson quickly learned.
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After putting the youngsters in their place, Dad moved on, only to face the grumpy, sassy teenagers.
Their primary focus seemed to be doing whatever they wanted and backtalking Dad when he told them to knock it off.
Eventually he lost all tolerance with the cubs and the lionesses, stalked off to the other side of the road, settled in and voiced his displeasure in loud, guttural calls for those women to get back to the pride and take care of these damn kids.
I’m not sure the girls ever came home. I would like to think they were headed to the spa with a bottle of wine while stating unequivocally that it was his turn with the kids and he needed to step up his game.
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