Sierra Blogging Post Archives

I have a soft spot for stories about unusual human - animal friendships. Even more so when the friendship involves an animal that could easily eat her human friend but chooses instead to love him.

Meet Kevin and Meg. Kevin Richardson runs the Kingdom of the White Lions, a nature preserve near Johannesburg, Africa for lions, leopards and hyenas. Meg, one of the lions he keeps on the 650 hectare preserve, is especially fond of him - she even likes to go swimming with him.



If you've ever tried to swim with a dog, you know it's not easy. They tend to paddle right for you and usually end up scratching you accidentally with their paws. Now imagine trying to swim with a lion.

"People are always amazed that she doesn't rip me to pieces with her claws," he said in this article in the Telegraph. "I assure you every now and again I get a claw going into me. It's unintentional and just reconfirms to me how gentle and in control she tries to be. She gets like an excited dog going for a ride in a car."

A very big and potentially very dangerous dog. Meg weighs in at 185 kg or 412 pounds. She's huge. Her paws alone are bigger than Richardson's head. Yet you can tell from the photo she wouldn't harm a hair on his head.

That's my kind of love story.