REXANO REXANO A Week Alone With Big Cats or How I Learned to Brave the Lazy Lion and Live to Tell About It!By Tim Stoffel

A Week Alone With Big Cats
-or-
How I Learned to Brave the Lazy Lion
and Live to Tell About It!

By Tim Stoffel

I don't know when it was that I first 'met' Zuzana on line, but I do know I was still living in Rochester, New York at the time. Even then, I could tell she was a no-nonsense person and cared very much about her animals. Her presence on the various cat lists was a constant from that time onwards.

In 2000, a job opportunity brought me out west to Reno, Nevada. The stage was set for a major change in my fortunes. This began to happen before I had started my new job or even had a place to live. My heart was 'captured' by the cats of Animal Ark, Sierra Safari Zoo (especially Kenya, their magnificent lion), and a short time later, Tigertouch in nearby Fallon, Nevada.

By Christmas 2000, I was already learning how to hand-feed a tiger, and how to (safely!) kiss her on the nose. By Christmas 2001, I was living next door to the zoo, and would start working there on weekends as soon as I was fully settled.

But just before I started working at the zoo, I attended the first ever convention of a new animal owner's group, called Phoenix Exotics. It turned out to be a really 'wild' convention. The president, Jeanne Hall with her entourage ended up staying overnight in my living room. The last minute planning of the convention was done in the 'Catatat' out at Tigertouch, as we made our way south to Pahrump, Nevada. There was a gentleman from England traveling with us, who we all knew. And at the convention (which met in the Pahrump public library), I met another person named Harold Maxwell who immediately became one of my best friends. And most importantly for this story, I met Zuzana. Originally from Czechoslovakia, the easiest was to describe Zuzana was a human fireball of energy who spoke with a heavy European accent. I managed to get the relationship off to a good start by losing an expensive accessory to her VCR!
On the last day of the convention, we went around to various cat facilities in the Pahrump area. One of these turned out to be Zuzana's place. At that time, she was just really getting started with big cats. Her tiger 'Pepper' lived in a spacious enclosure that rivaled many zoos I have been to. She also had wolf dogs, and a number of smaller cats.
That visit turned out being the beginning of many comings and goings to Zuzana's place.

By 2006, Zuzana got her first lion, who she named 'Bam-Bam', or simply 'BB' for short. Because of strange rules regarding animal shipping that had gone in to effect just a short time before, BB had to be flown into the Reno airport. Zuzana asked me to meet them at the airport to pick up BB, or to take charge of BB should they be delayed in making it to Reno. But everything went OK, and we had a fun evening playing with BB! He was just five months old at the time.

Various activities take me to Las Vegas on average, 2 to 3 times a year. I now started visiting Zuzana on a regular basis, performing 'lion inspections' to make sure BB was being adequately 'spoiled'. He certainly was. And I was able to watch BB grow. (I also learned that we both share the same birthdates-- January 16th.)
As a pleasant surprise, Zuzana asked me if I would be interested in taking care of her animals while she and her boyfriend Scott took a long-overdue trip to Europe. Of course, I accepted. I made arrangements at work to keep a 'floating' week of vacation time to accommodate whenever that trip ended up happening. And after that, each time I visited, Scott and Zuzana took the time to show me what needed to be done to care for their animals.

In the meantime, BB the lion was becoming famous. He is featured in a series of YouTube videos, with such titles as 'Lazy Lion Feeding Frenzy'. Or, 'Lazy Lion Grooming Frenzy'. There are quite a number of them now, one of which has won an award. BB quickly became known as the world's laziest (and most spoiled) lion!

The opportunity finally arrived few months later. Scott and Zuzana would be in Europe for a little over a week. This trip came at a time when I really needed a 'break from life'. I had just returned from an unplanned trip to Wisconsin to attend the memorial service for my mother. I had also just been diagnosed with severe sleep apnea, the treatment of which involves being connected to a breathing machine every night for the rest of my life. This would force on me several other life-changing adjustments which have had a major negative impact (despite feeling better) on my ability to accomplish many things I used to easily do. This trip was my last chance to be 'free' as I saw it.

I arrived in the early Friday evening. The trip down had been very enjoyable, as I had taken a detour through Death Valley National Park. I had not done this in a few years, and most importantly, I was able to visit several places that I had never been to before. Additionally, there is a road that runs out of the park directly into Pahrump. That made getting to Zuzana's place really easy when I was done with my visit. Still, I got there quite late. There wasn't a lot of time to do things that evening besides having a nice meal and visiting the animals in the dark.

Unlike places I have stayed at previously, the cats are very close to the house, and BB the young lion was maybe 60 feet outside the window. In addition to the lions and tigers, Scott and Zuzana had 12 canines, many of them preowned wolf dogs. So, when BB gets going with his roaring, the wolf dogs often join in (or vice versa). That is a truly wild chorus!
The next day, Saturday, was spent carefully going over the animal care plans and the contingency plans. Every single thing they could think of in terms of contingency plans was covered. I was introduced to a neighbor, who would back me up should something happen to me. I was shown all of the electrical, mechanical and water systems, as well as backups to these systems where they existed.

And although I am already an experienced big cat keeper, and well known for practicing safe handling, Zuzana especially stressed how important safety is. This was an important lesson that one would want to thoroughly train a new or less experienced keeper in. There cannot be any goofing around with these kinds of animals. So one message I want the reader to take away from this story (and especially those with little or no experience working around big cats), is that although caring for big cats is a tremendously rewarding and enjoyable experience, it should not be attempted until you have been thoroughly trained on how to do things in a safe and proper manner.

The other thing a 'newbie' needs to be aware of is that some parts of working around any large animal is not particularly edifying. Like raking out cages every day. Or preparing food every day. Imagine starting with a cow's hind leg, and divvying that up for each of the hungry mouths to feed. You don't cut that kind of meat with a butter knife. Or, having someone drop off a crippled horse, etc. that had to be killed and butchered as soon as it arrives (which almost happened). Although it is life for the cats, it is smelly, messy, thankless work. Thankfully, Scott and Zuzana had everything set up to be as simple as possible, and I would be feeding mainly prepackaged chicken quarters.

As that day went on, it started to get very windy. By late afternoon, there was a full-blown dust storm occurring. The sun set as a diffused copper colored smudge on the horizon. The lights of the Pahrump valley could hardly be seen through the dust. And the entire house shook repeatedly with the heavy winds. (Welcome to Nevada!) But this did not dissuade Scott and Zuzana from saying 'good bye' and leaving early for their trip. They trusted everything was in good hands.

The contingency planning turned out to be worthwhile. I awoke the next morning to find plenty of damage around the property from the wind. The worst casualty was a high power solar power night light whose solar panel now flopped around in the wind by its cable. Another, smaller solar powered light lay in pieces on the ground. I worked to find each and every last piece of glass to prevent any of the dogs from cutting their feet. Other materials were blown about, but simply needed to be put back where they belonged. The animals did not have any issues as a result of the wind.

I spent a good part of the day exploring the property, and spending time with the animals. One particular pair of animals that were allowed to have run of the property was a Doberman named 'Jerry Lee' and a wolf dog named 'Shady Lady'. Shady in particular took a real liking to me, and followed me wherever I went. At times, she became a pest. A nice pest, but a pest nonetheless.

There were smaller cats to care for as well. There was Isis the ocelot and Jasmine the bobcat. I remember these two cats from my first visit back in 2002. They live together in the same enclosure. This enclosure was lush with greenery, and water features, just like an ocelot's world might be like. I found both Jasmine and Isis to be shy and reserving. But Isis, especially was very pretty, and she would at least let me get a good look at her. I have always been fascinated by ocelots, and it was a privilege to be able to observe and care for this rather rare-in-the-private-sector cat. There was also a new serval, named 'Tiny'. Tiny had only been there a short time, and was still adjusting to her new 'digs'. Although I never made friends with Tiny (she stayed out of sight most of the time), she was not uncomfortable around me during the times she was out.

I tried to take a nap on a 'hammock' made from fire hose that is just outside BB's enclosure. Well, Shady thought a nap was a fine idea as well. She jumped up to join me, and proceeded to paw, lick and nuzzle me until I was about to go nuts. She then went to sleep. Bus as soon as I rolled over, etc., she was at it all over again! In the end, taking naps on this hammock became impractical if Shady was out.

Feeding went just fine. I then discovered the real work was the watering that had to be done each day. Despite the complex drip system on the property (the most complex I have ever seen), there were a lot of plants that had yet to be put on the drip system, or couldn't be for various reasons. Some of the animal water tanks also took a while to fill. But in the end, everything got done as correctly as I could. And the animals were happy.

There were things that were occasionally scary. The first night, I left the house to run some errands. The property has a zoo grade security fence with an electric gate. I have a transmitter in my car to control the gate. The gate opened just fine, and was closing as I drove away. When I returned about 30 minutes later, the gate was wide open! I went into 'full suspicion' mode, and 'cleared' the property before I finally had a chance to relax! I have since learned that the gate controller has a 'memory'. If you inadvertently hit the transmitter button twice, the gate will close, and then open (or vice versa). From that point onwards, I always made sure the gate fully closed behind me before driving away.

The second night I was alone was devoted to astronomy. The winds had died down, and the skies were clear. This trip took place at the time of the year for an observing event called a 'Messier Marathon'. The goal of this event is to observe all 110 'Messier objects' (the finest nebulae, star clusters, galaxies, etc. in the northern sky) in one night. This can be done for a few weeks in early spring each year. I did really well. I missed the first two objects, which are very easy to miss. I also missed the last object, but only because it rose behind the house. The telescope is not easy to move once it is set up. By the time the stars marking the location of this object had cleared the house, the sky was too light for faint, fuzzy objects (plus it was in the middle of the not insignificant sky glow from Las Vegas). Still, 107 of 110 is nothing to sneeze at! This would be one of two nights I spent 'under the stars' on this trip.

I quickly learned the personalities of the animals. Take Pebbles the tiger for instance. She really likes me. She gets really excited when I come to see her. In many ways, Pebbles behaves like my beloved liger friend Hobbs did, when I am around her. Although she has to be hand-fed very carefully (she is grabby with her food), she was an utter pleasure to feed. She really likes it when I just spend time near her. And when I was observing with the telescope, she was busy 'play-stalking' me inside her enclosure, and deriving much pleasure from doing so. She wanted me to quit looking through that cylindrical thing and spend time with her!

I had been in Wisconsin just a week prior to this trip, attending the memorial service for my mother. One of the things I invariably pick up whenever I visit Wisconsin, especially in wintertime, is a cold. Now, since I had started to work at the zoo, I have noticed that I get far fewer colds and flu. This is a good thing, as I had bronchitis about 20 years ago, and every time I get a deep chest cold, I cough and hack like a three-pack-a-day smoker (I have never smoked). Well, the cold from that Wisconsin visit did not hit me right away like it usually does. It waited until I was on this trip. And when it hit, it hit hard. It was the worst cold I have had in many years. I think I went through three boxes of Kleenex that week, and I had developed my 'smoker's cough' for the first time since late 2001.

Monday went without problems, other than my nose began to run like a faucet. Tuesday morning started out (other than the cold) OK as well. Then, I had an unexpected surprise.
One of the activities I had planned for that week was meeting a veterinarian friend of mine who lived in Pahrump, for lunch. That was planned for Wednesday. Instead, I got a call from her early Tuesday morning. She has an interesting 'patient', and would like me to come and visit her at the clinic. So, I did. The 'patient' turned out to be serval that was having digestive system distress. By the time everything was done, the serval was rushed into emergency surgery. It turned out that there was a piece of a ball stuck in his intestines. My friend easily removed the obstruction, in less than five minutes of work. It actually took her longer to 'rearrange' things a bit in the serval's abdomen to ensure complete healing. This serval was very lucky. Normally, an obstruction like this would strangle a section of bowel. This did not happen here, so no portion of the intestines had to be removed. In any case, it was quite a privilege to be in the operating room and ask questions as she worked. (The cough hadn't developed yet, so the mask provided plenty of protection from my cold.) I still had lunch with my vet friend and her staff that day, after the surgery was complete.

I was allowed to take day trips from Zuzana's place, as long as I was back in time for late afternoon feeding, etc. So, after the unexpected vet visit, I drove back out to Death Valley National Park (about a 40-50 minute drive) to go to the visitor's center. This is one thing I had been unable to do on my way in. A pass to enter the park is good for 10 days, and I wanted to get the most value from it. Despite the 'adventure' earlier in the day, I was back in plenty of time for 'chores'.

One thing I really wanted to do was sleep outside with BB. As mentioned earlier, Scott and Zuzana had built one of their fire hose hammocks just outside BB's enclosure, in a kind of 'training arena'. It took a little getting used to, as it had a fairly deep dip in the center. The prevailing winds also tended to blow mist from the misters onto the hammock. This was sort of OK during the day, but would not be OK at night. Although I tried several things to see if I could make sleeping there work, I never did succeed. And with the raging cold, I really didn't want to be outside at night, anyway (It also never occurred to me that it would have been easy to shut the misters off at night). Even with these challenges, I did take plenty of naps there. That was, of course, if Shady would let me! It was during these naps that I could listen to the world around me. It was quiet enough much of the time to hear the 'whoop whoop whoop' of the wings of the crows slowly flying overhead. And of course, Pahrump is still 'wild Nevada'. You could hear all sorts of shooting going on in the hills, including automatic weapons fire!

BB the lion is really quite a 'lazy lion'. But then again, most male lions are quite laid back. BB has an interesting face, that is kind of long and rounded. One lion researcher friend of mine suggests that this face indicates that BB is not many generations removed from wild lions. BB also has an unusual, kind of scruffy, curly mane unlike any other lion I know. (His mane has since grown into the more typical-- and very gorgeous-- mane of a mature lion.) In any case, BB is very gentle, and is a lot of fun to hand feed. Like most male lions, he does enjoy a good 'scratch' in his mane. But BB doesn't crave it like some lions do. BB does like to play 'sneaky lion', and I can often catch glimpses of him following me along the fence, through the palm branches attached to it, as I walk around his enclosure. And for some reason, perhaps because there is a shady hammock there for him, he likes it when I interact with him on the back side of his enclosure. Still, BB does not have a real strong bond with me, and most interactions with him are brief ones. But that is OK. The cats choose who their friends are, and not the other way around. No two cats are alike. And two of Zuzana's tigers really do like me a lot, and make up for a less-than-spectacular bond with BB.

Wednesday and Thursday, I was just plain miserable. I tried to rest on their living room couch, but its odd fixed backrest was kind of uncomfortable to me. I read books, and slept a lot of the time. Although I did not have any real problems doing the feeding, watering, etc. 'chores', having a nose running like a hose definitely did not help matters. To make matters more interesting, there was a major writing project I wanted to work on, that required this kind of 'down time' to accomplish. I had brought everything I needed to work on it, except for one thing: The manuscript file. Needless to say, this was a major disappointment, perhaps the biggest disappointment of this entire operation.

Despite setbacks like the cold, and the missing manuscript, there was one thing that always added a bright spot to each day, and that is Coogie the cougar. Coogie was only about 2 years old at the time, and has more energy packed into her than six racehorses. She is everything you could ever want from a cougar. She can literally run on the walls of her lush, spacious enclosure like 'Trinity' could in the movie 'The Matrix'! Coogie is always there when you walk by, purring loudly and looking for attention. And no matter where I was on the property, I could hear Coogie 'talk'. And if I talked back, chances are Coogie would answer me. Now I can see why so many exotic cat keepers enjoy working with cougars more than any other cat. I also now know why some experts suggest that the cougar will be the next species of cat we domesticate.

Zuzana pointed out to me too be on the lookout for rattlesnakes. Although she had not seen any in a while, one always needed to be on the lookout for them. I never saw a rattlesnake (or any other snake), either. But on two separate occasions, I heard a sound that sounded distinctly like a rattlesnake rattling. I was inside the house on both occasions. I told Zuzana about this when she got back, and she told me I was probably not hearing a rattlesnake. But much to her surprise, she found two rattlers on her property in the next week.

One routine, reliable thing at Zuzana's place is 'Pepper' the tiger. Pepper is Zuzana's first big cat, and one I have met many times before. Pepper is a shy, reserved cat that does not like large numbers of people. So the first few times I visited, I was with a large group, and Pepper hid most of the time. But when I am alone, or with 1 or 2 others, Pepper now eagerly comes up to the fence for attention. Pepper is a white tiger. She has a longer snout than most tigers I 'know' (And I have since learned that there are as many different tiger head shapes as there are tigers). She kind of reminds me of 'Tigger' of 'Whinnie the Poo' fame. Pepper knows the drill at feeding time and is consistent with her food habits, etc. Pepper also enjoys interacting with two of the wolf dogs who are in an enclosure that shares a common wall with hers. She is often there, sitting with them, or playing with them. Her enclosure is also the largest of all the big cats, and can be partitioned off in various ways with remotely-actuated doors. She also has a concrete swimming tank (purpose-built for a tiger and not a re-used swimming pool) that was constructed at the same time as the house.

I had mentioned previously that the watering chores were considerably more work than I had anticipated. One of the cats who made watering a big job was a young white tiger named 'Elvis'. Elvis (whose many nicknames include 'foo-foo' and 'little boy') was a first-rate character. Every time I tried to refill his big water tub, he insisted in going swimming in it. He loved to play with the water stream as well, often making a 5 minute job into a 15 minute job. He was also a real 'treat' to feed, as he would play with his food. One thing he likes to do is put his chicken quarters in his drinking water bucket. (Hobbs liked to do this too, but with partly eviscerated deer fawns!) As a result, his water would become disgusting very quickly. I ended up having to improvise some novel means of keeping his drinking water clean. But in the end, he won and I lost. I ended up just trying to flush-change his drinking bucket, and keep his 'swimming tank' clean. In any case, the saying 'Youth is wasted on the young' certainly applies to Elvis!

By Friday, the runny nose was just starting to slow down a bit, but the cough was beginning to 'settle in'. Although I had planned to do it earlier in the week, this was my 'planned day in 'Vegas'. I had a number of errands to do, including visiting a telescope store, the MGM Grand Lion Habitat (where they had two male lions on exhibit, a rarity), and a gun show I heard was in Las Vegas that weekend. In all other respects, things were beginning to settle down to a routine for me. I was also starting to learn where everything was in the kitchen so I could do a better job at preparing dinner.

The weekend was spent trying to repair a telescope that Scott and Zuzana owned, but had not used in many years. Although the optics were fine (and very nearly the same as my telescope), the tracking drive motor was damaged beyond repair. This was probably from having worked against bearings that were freezing up on the main drive worm gear. On Sunday night, with Scott and Zuzana scheduled to be on their way home, I tried to use the 'scope as a manually aimed equatorial mount, and discovered I have a lot to learn about setting up an equatorial mount. I also had my 'good' telescope set up again, and enjoyed some relaxing star-gazing.

By now, the two dogs that had 'run' of the property, Jerry Lee and Shady, had me 'figured out' and knew how to be as 'uncooperative' as possible, in part to 'score' more attention from me. In the end, these dogs ended up being the most challenging animals there were to work with, much more so than any of the cats!

Scott and Zuzana arrived back very late that evening. We stayed up long into the night, talking about their trip. In a kind of prophetic manner, Zuzana told me about the town she had grown up in, in Czechoslovakia. It turns out that the town's name, Levice, means 'lionesses' in English. The town's crest features three heraldic lionesses stacked on top of each other. Since the fall of communism (Zuzana had been back there only once since that had happened), the town had become substantially more 'touristy'. But for some reason, she had trouble finding items with the town crest on them. In the end though, she succeeded, and got a 'set' of them for herself, Scott and me.

Monday morning came too quickly, and it was time to say 'goodbye' to everyone. Scott and Zuzana took Coogie and Elvis for leash-walks. Since I know they are experienced handlers, and have trained their cats to behave no matter what, I accepted their invitation to accompany them. One of the results was I got to 'handle' Elvis a little bit. Of course, Elvis tried to make a game out of everything. But in the end, I succeeded in handling-- for just a couple minutes-- a tiger on a leash. This was a good experience both in the sense that I can say 'I have done it', and also it is a good skill to have in case I have to leash walk any cats at the zoo, etc. (I have leash-walked a younger lion, on a number of occasions.) I do have a lot more to learn, but one has to start somewhere. As a result of this experience, I have it on my long-term 'roadmap' to get some professional training in cat handling from someone like Charlie Sammut (of 'Josef the lion' fame), or a possible upcoming seminar being contemplated by Doc Bhagavan Antle.

It was almost with tears in my eyes that I drove out through the gate, and started the long journey back to Reno. Despite the unwanted challenges and aggravations, I had a wonderful time 'taking on the Lazy Lion' and all his friends. The intense, quality 'kitty time' did wonders for me, and I left a much more relaxed person (but still coughing and hacking!). I look forward to many future visits to Zuzana's place for periodic 'lion inspections'. And indeed, as I write this in the early fall of 2009, I am again 'cat sitting' here while Scott and Zuzana got to Washington State to bring back a truckload of caging they have in storage there.

One objective of this experience that Zuzana wished for, was for me to learn what it feels like to be a full-time cat keeper. I think I lived up to the challenge. I was able to do the work required, and then some (I did some minor clean-up and repairs as well). There are a few procedural things I would do a bit differently if this was my facility, but these are minor. Scott and Zuzana have an easy-to-work-with setup that is designed to be practical for one or two people to handle. It is much easier than the zoo, for instance, where terrain and the many public barrier fences make things a lot more challenging. I also need to 'share' my keeping practices there with six other 'shifts' of cat people, all of whom have their own (generally valid) ideas on how to do things. So, could I deal with a situation like this, if it were suddenly dropped in my lap? I think so. And it is my sincere hope that someday it will!