LION COUNTRY

NEVER SAY..... "Pick me" for a job no one else wants. Trust that others with experience just may know a bit more than you do. As a meter reader, I had a habit of volunteering for routes that had only one good aspect and nine bad. I guess you could call it tunnel vision. It happened when I wanted to read that horrid route in Jupiter on the vague chance that I might see Burt Reynolds. Did I learn from that day? Nope.

There was another route that was avoided like the plague by the old time meter readers. Lion Country Safari. Lion Country was an early stop on a route that covered maybe eighty miles of impossible to get to ranch meters. I ignored the "impossible-to-get-to" part and zeroed in on the Lion Country part.

"Pick me," I begged.

No one else wanted it, so I found it laying on my desk one morning. Since it was such a monster route, I had to be trained on it first and would keep it for several months. At that time we were not paid hourly. Some days were easy and short, some long and miserable, but they tended to even out on a monthly basis. Lion Country was an overtime route.

The next month when I was on my own, I was really excited. I knew it would be a long day so any extra time I spent at the park would be on me. The cooler was packed and I prepared for a day where the sun would most likely set on my hiney.

I stayed a bit long at the nursery where the babies were and at the chimp area. Then I came to a very large fenced in area that I couldn't remember. I could see the electric drop to a meter that was blocked by a reed fence covering a wire fence. I walked around and found a gate whose chain held one of our company locks among others. Seeing no animals, I used my key and entered.

I located the meter and walked about 200 feet inside to read it. I had my back to the reed fence when I heard a voice behind me that I recognized. It was one of our new construction guys who was there to engineer a new meter location.

"Do you know you are in that pen with 10 leopards?" Jim whispered.

Since Jim was the same guy who had burst my bubble about Burt Reynolds, I laughed loudly thinking he was pulling my leg.

"Shush," he hissed, "look in the tall grass by that tree."


None of the pictures are mine.

Holy crap. By that tree, the ground was littered in spots and fur. Fortunately they appeared to be sleeping.
"Don't run, just walk out slowly and as quietly as possible." said the unfamiliar voice which I later learned was that of a Lion Country worker.
In exaggerated slow motion and a pounding heart, I made it to the gate and let my self out. It was a cool Florida morning, but I was sweating. The leopards never moved. Phew.
Turns out there was a peek thru hole under a flap in the reed fence to observe the meter and I should never have been in that enclosure. It was one meter my trainer had failed to show me. I noticed it hadn't been read in a couple of months. They removed our company lock from the chain that day.
After I emptied my frightened bladder in the proper location, I decided to join the drive thru tour of the lions. I had been warned that they slept a lot and it were not very interesting but I still wanted to see them up close and roaming free. At that time I was living in Loxahatchee which was minutes away and I could usually hear the lions roar all night from my home. Cool. Now I was finally going to visit my nighttime serenaders.
My work truck was a "spicy brown mustard" colored little pickup. I nestled into the line of cars and off we went with our zebra colored LC truck leading us. No, the lions weren't active, in fact they weren't moving. I was beginning to feel that well fed lions and leopards are the laziest animals on earth.
The caravan of cars stopped to observe a pride lazing by the road who were not impressed with us at all.

Slowly however, one large lioness raised her head. She picked me out and her eyes locked on mine. I could not break away from her gaze. She slowly but deliberately raised off the ground and with eyes still locked on mine, she stalked my little truck.
It dawned on me then that lions could easily kill by fear alone. All I could see were those amazing eyes. They mesmerized me. My breath was coming in tiny puffs, like I was afraid to show movement or life. The world only contained two of us at that moment.
I lost sight of her for a instant as she got close to my vehicle, then I felt a huge weight drop into the truck bed, rocking the whole vehicle. Not turning around but watching via the rear view mirror, I saw her press her nose against the back window leaving a smeary smudge print. Her nose was about 10 inches from my neck. I was not sweating this time but freezing cold.
She eventually lost interest and leaped out of my truck. By then I am sure I was on hundreds of feet of 35 mm home movie film. This was pre-video days. How thoughtful of me to make the drive thru interesting for so many. Why she picked me, I don't know. Perhaps because the color of my truck was rather "lion" colored.

I saw Jim before I left and he was still with the maintenance guy. When I told them about my lion adventure, the LC employee informed me that had she wanted to, the lioness could have pushed my rear window in with no problem. Best to know such things only in hindsight.
The sun did set on me that day and my last pump meter in a remote pasture was read by flash light while battling mosquitoes. That was definitely not cool nor fun.
Did I regret the long hard day. Not at all for it gave me a fun memory for my rocking chair and a blog post 30 years later. However, I did start listening more carefully to those with experience from then on. Honest, I really am capable of learning.