Free Part of the Pride by Kevin Richardson Page A

overweight, or out of shape. He asked me if I would be interested in going on the payroll, working part of my day as a private trainer for him and his staff, with the rest of the day free for me to spend at the Lion Park.
    I didn’t particularly like private training and had deliberately shied away from working in that field when I was England, but the arrangement Rodney proposed was interesting. For a start, it would allow me to give him something back, and to formalize my by now daily visits to his lions. I was spending more and more time with Tau and Napoleon. I now realized I was developing a close relationship with the fast-growing cubs, one of whom I had named. I had also named the two females I’d seen on the day I first met my boys. I called them Maditau and Tabby.
    After Tau and Napoleon had tired of biting and scratching me, I would sit in the enclosure with them for two or three hours a day, just watching them. I didn’t set out to break the accepted rules of lion keeping, but I found that the rule about not sitting or crouching around the lions was causing problems, not least of all with my wardrobe. It seemed to me that when they jumped up and started clawing me, they were trying to drag me down to their level. After some play closer to the ground they would eventually tire of attacking me and we’d sit calmly in the grass near each other, but not touching.
    As we sat there, I began to think about them, how they were alike and how they were different. Napoleon seemed like a long-lost brother trapped in a lion’s body, my soul mate. He’s regal, confident, and ruggedly good-looking with an extremely compassionate disposition. He’s the kind of lion who will do things without putting too much thought into it. Sound familiar? Tau was also a soul mate of a different sort. He’s a lion who was not as well liked by people in his younger years because of his tricky personality. I knew that all he needed was some understanding, patience, and love. Tau is a lion unsure of people’s intentions, and therefore always a little more reserved. He won’t just jump into the fire. His shy nature, contrasted with his crystal clear eyes, is what intrigues people about him. When Tau’s in a bad mood, unlike Napeoleon, you can change it. He needs time, just like I do when I’m in a bad mood; I hate nothing more than someone thinking they can fix it for me. Tau takes a while to get his temper up, but when he does, don’t get in his way. He’ll kill you now and ask questions later.
    When Rodney found out exactly how much time I was spending at the park, he offered to pay me for my time there as well as the private training. There were management changes happening at the same time and I think he also needed someone on the staff that he knew. I was employed as an animal welfare and animal enrichment worker, which basically meant my job was to help manage theanimals, as well as look for ways to keep them occupied and content in captivity. To be honest, I wasn’t totally sure what my job title meant, but I knew it included being around Tau and Napoleon, so I was happy. I’d still been working with my other clients at the gym in the afternoons, but the new arrangement meant I was training Rodney’s staff in the mornings and then spending my afternoons at the Lion Park.
    I believed then, as I still do today, that it’s important to keep animals in captivity stimulated and engaged, and the same thing went for me. I’m an active person and I need to keep myself busy. I could never be a keeper who stood outside an enclosure and opened the gate only when the food truck arrived. I visited all the animals in the park on a daily basis and checked out their enclosures and food and water supplies, and looked for ways that I thought things could be improved.
    By the time I started working at the park officially, Richard had left and a new manager, Ian Melass, was settling in at