We are covering the bears nicely. I honestly forget if I have ever told my tiger story, and it even includes lions in order to complete the triad.
Lions and tigers and bears!
Edit:
Oh, my!
"Cheesey" wrote:
I DO have a Lions story.
This is a true story, believe it or not.
When i was a kid, my family went to the Milwaukee County Zoo. It was just as they opened, and there was no one there but us in the lion house. One of the zoo keepers asked us if we wanted to play with the lions. I was like, "Sure!" thinking it was a joke. Well, he locked the doors so no one else could come in, and opened up a door and let out two 4 moth old lion cubs! All he said was "Don't get your face down by theirs, they may bite you while playing." So we got to play with them for a good half hour! It was something i never thought i would get to do!
"dfosterf" wrote:
F#cka bunch of lions, I say. OK - Completing the triad of lions and tiger and bears, oh, my!
I'm going to squeeze in a life experience that I believe I briefly mentioned once.
My dad took me to India and Pakistan when I was a kid. Nowadays you would have India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Back then you had East Pakistan in lieu of Bangladesh. It is where he worked at the time. It was either on a trip in the Punjab or the Sunderbans...I forget which I went on both several times. We were on a "logboat" which they use to navigate the waterways to haul out wood, and also for passenger transportation as kind of a side business. These boats are like not-so-miniature versions of an oil tanker in shape, with the cargo stacked to the bottom of the pilothouse (Pilothouse in the rear, like a tanker) with the top of the cargo area just above the waterline when loaded.
On this particular waterway, the boat was just about as wide as the river in the spot where this "sight" occurred. I remember my dad telling me before, back in Wisconsin, that sometimes the tigers use the boats as a "bridge" to cross the river. Keep in mind there are people sitting on top of these logs. I need to interject that at night in Madison, I could hear the lions roar (several miles away) at Vilas (Park?) zoo--and feared them greatly as a youth as a resultno parents at home, (mom deceased, dad in India/Pakistan) grandma and little brother living upstairs, me downstairs, considered both not much worth a damn in a lion-fight, etc. God, I hated those friggin lions and their roars
I bet I was 10. I remember this like it was yesterday. Right in front of the pilothouse, out jumps a Bengal tiger from the rainforest on one side of the river, bounds across the boat like he owns it, crosses in and amongst the passengers, and jumps to the other side of the river. This takes about 5 seconds. It was an awesomely scary spectacle for a 10 year old boy. This tiger didnt give a damn about peoplethat was my 10 year old boy interpretationNo fear.
The tiger population back then was like 1000 times what it is today. Due to the nature of my dads work, while I was there we would often stay with some honcho in a small villagenot often in a hotel or anything. Many of the kids I met spoke English, and I remember asking one of the kids I had befriended what the tigers eat. His responseKids, David, they eat kidssometimes parents and old ladies, too. I thought he was kidding, but my dad told me he wasnt. He told me that (the kids) grandma had been taken and eaten by a tiger. My dad always did suck at ensuring not to upset a young ones sensibilities, lol
They still "attach" themselves as man-eaters to some villages in order to prey upon the populationThose stories really, really sucked to hear when I was there. I was recently talking to a guy I know from those parts, and he said that they lose about 150 to 250 people a year from that, still. I think that is in the Sunderbans, mostly, because the Punjab --"I would never recognize it"--- is built-upProbably about 500 tigers left in the Sunderbans, which is always a guess, but still up to 250 people a year eaten by them
What do you think they seem to like to eat?
I didn't sleep so good there, either, but when I got home, recognizing the difference between tigers that like to chow down on little boys and girls for real and lions behind bars in a zooPretty much cured me of that particular phobiaf#ck a buncha lions, Ill smoke check their ass, etc.
Plus, like the tourist told me some years later...the guy from Wisconsin I "met" in Senegal...
"We got badgers where I'm from. Dat der ain't shit ...(mongoose, but could'a been anything, including lions, tigers or bears, lol) ...You don't f#ck with a badger...A badger would kick all their asses." :thumbleft:
This is ALL Bob's fault, btw--He ALWAYS gets me going with his stories...