the vegetarian lion
This is a story about a lion who was living in the woods all by himself. How a lion ended up in a woods is because, almost three years ago, he was living in a zoo, but one night, a huge storm came through the zoo and the high winds blew several fences surrounding some of the animal’s enclosures down. The lion was in one of these enclosures. He watched from inside his cave as the tall chain link fence surrounding his area was blown over and fell flat to the ground. He was very scared and didn’t know what to do, so he just moved farther back in his cave and curled up in a tighter ball.
After the storm was over, the lion slowly walked over to where the fence was laying down, and sniffed at it a couple of times. He noticed that the way the fence had fallen, it formed a bridge across the moat that surrounded his enclosure. That meant that there was no barrier keeping him in anymore. He looked all around, then cautiously stepped onto the fence and carefully crossed over to the area where people would stand to stare at him every day. He stopped and looked around again, then slowly walked away. He walked a short while and saw a tree had fallen on top of the entrance gate that led out to the street. He looked around again, then slowly walked out to the street. There was no one around. He started running as fast as he could until he came to the end of the road where there was a forest. He ran into the forest and when he thought it was safe, he stopped, went over to the nearest tree and laid down. He fell asleep right away because he was very tired and worn out.
While he is sleeping, let’s talk about giving him a name. The zoo had never given him a name, so we need to. What do you think is a good name for a lion? I kind of like the name “Li-Li”. What do you think? Glad you like it too!
Li-Li woke up the next morning and was a little scared because he didn’t know where he was. He stood up and looked around. He saw an apple tree not too far from where he was. He walked over to the apple tree, and with his front paws, shook the tree until several apples fell down. He sat on his hind legs and ate about five apples quickly because he was so hungry. With his belly full he looked around again. He still didn’t see any people or other animals or houses or barns. All he saw were trees.
He started walking through the thick woods and eventually he saw a clearing up ahead. When he reached the clearing, he saw a farm. It was a big farm, a farm that grew all kinds of vegetables. His eyes got so big and he started drooling when he saw all those veggies! Veggies were the only kind of food he ever liked. For some reason, since Li-Li was just a lion cub, he would only eat the vegetables that zookeeper would throw in the cage and leave the meat untouched. The zookeepers couldn’t believe it. They had never seen a lion that didn’t like meat! After a while, the zookeepers only fed him veggies. So seeing a whole giant garden full of veggies made Li-Li so hungry. There was just one problem - how was he going to get to those veggies without being seen? He decided to wait until nightfall so the farmer couldn’t see him.
Li-Li walked back to the hidden spot he was using as a sleeping place and took a nap until it was dark outside. He walked over to the farm to get something to eat, but it was so dark he really couldn’t tell what veggies he picked. He just pulled out anything he could and started eating. This was so good and so much better than eating only apples. He needed to figure out how he could bring some of the veggies back to his tree. He looked around and over by the barn he saw a plastic bag. He very carefully tip-toed over to the barn. He saw the farmer working inside the barn. Li-Li gently picked the plastic bag up with his teeth, but even though he was very careful, it did make a little crinkle noise. The farmer stopped and turned towards the sound, but Li-Li was very quick and jumped back so that the farmer didn’t see him. He still thought he better leave though just in case the farmer came out of the barn. He would come back tomorrow night with the bag and fill it up with more veggies. Li-Li always liked humans, but was afraid of them because humans always seemed to be so scared of him. He guessed it was because other lions are known to hurt humans, but he wasn’t like that at all. He always wanted to be friends, but humans never wanted to get that close to him.
The next night Li-Li grabbed the bag in his teeth and headed back to the farm. He didn’t see anyone around, so he snuck in the garden and filled up his bag with as many veggies and fruit that he could fit into it, then headed back to his tree. He had quite a feast and then fell fast asleep. The next night he did the exact same thing, and the night after that too. As a matter of fact, he filled his bag with veggies and fruit every night for several nights, but one night, after about a week of this, as he was walking to the farm, he noticed the farmer standing near the gate with a gun, no doubt waiting for whoever it was that kept stealing his veggies and fruit. Li-Li decided to wait until later when the farmer and his family were asleep.
As he was heading back to his tree, he crossed a path in the woods and there he saw the farmer’s ten-year old son coming down the path on his horse. The horse spotted Li-Li and having never seen a lion before, got quite scared and reared up on his back legs, causing the boy to fall to the ground. As the boy fell, his head hit a big rock in the path and knocked him out. The horse just stood there looking at Li-Li who had walked over to where the little boy was lying. Li-Li tried to wake him up by licking his face, but the boy did not budge. Li-Li thought that the only thing left to do is to go get the boy’s father, so he headed to the farm.
When he got there, the farmer was still standing near the gate with his gun. When he saw Li-Li, he aimed the gun at him, but Li-Li was too quick for him and jumped towards him, knocking him down to the ground and causing the gun to fly out of the farmer’s hands. The farmer laid on the ground frozen with fear. You would be too if a lion just knocked you down and was standing over you. Li-Li cautiously bent down and gently grabbed the farmer’s sleeve of his jacket, then pulled on it as if to say “come with me”.
The farmer couldn’t believe what was happening, but had no choice but to follow Li-Li because he didn’t want to anger the lion. Li-Li pulled the farmer by his sleeve, into the woods and brought him to where his son was laying in the path. When the farmer saw his son laying there, he ran over to him, completely forgetting about Li-Li. He called out to his son, “Donnie, wake up Donnie,” but Donnie did not move. The farmer picked Donnie up, climbed on the horse and took off towards the farm. When he got there, he put Donnie in the car and took him to the hospital. Li-Li was so worried about the little boy that he didn’t even want any veggies that night.
The next morning, Li-Li was laying under his tree sleeping when he heard a noise. He looked up and there was the farmer standing, looking at him. Li-Li was worried that the farmer had come to chase him away so he wouldn’t eat his veggies from his garden any more, but the farmer just looked at Li-Li and said, “Don’t be afraid. I’ve not come to hurt you or chase you away. I came to say thank you for what you did for my son. Donnie is going to be okay, but he might not have been if you had not taken me to him.” Li-Li just looked at the farmer as if to say “You are welcome.” The farmer continued, “I know you escaped from the zoo, and I will not turn you in, but if you stay out here, they may find you, so I have made an area for you in my barn where you can stay as long as you want to and eat as many veggies as you want to. I never heard of a vegetarian lion before! You are one special lion, that’s for sure.
Li-Li really liked the area in the barn that the farmer made for him. When Donnie came home from the hospital, he went into the barn and saw Li-Li. He told Li-Li how grateful he was that he took care of him when he needed help. Li-Li rubbed his head against Donnie’s leg and made a sound kind of like a purr, even though we all know lions aren’t able to purr. Still, it was a sound of happiness. Donnie pet him on the head and Li-Li laid down in front of him, then turned his head towards his back. Donnie said, “Do you want me to get on your back?” Li-Li pointed towards his back again and Donnie climbed on. What fun it was for both of them to walk around the farm together. Li-Li made sure he walked slowly so Donnie wouldn’t fall off. He didn’t want to go through that again!
Years later Li-Li is still at the farm and now Donnie’s children have the chance to get rides on his back. Li-Li always makes sure he walks slowly and carefully. When Li-Li is in the barn by himself he thinks about what a lucky lion he is. He wonders if things would have been different, though, if he had not been a vegetarian lion. The farmer would probably have thought twice before keeping a meat-eating lion in his barn! Good thing for Li-Li that he loves all types of veggies and fruits!
(This was inspired by a story idea from my great-grandson, Jack!)
