Having A Tiger by the Tail

THE STUPID LADY who got into it with a jaguar reminds me of myself. When I was about her age, or a bit younger, a friend and I split a six pack, and spend the day i a wildlife sanctuary in which animals were allowed to roam freely or were loosely confined in large enclosed areas. I remember tiny monkeys scrambling across our windshield, staring at us, as if they wanted to get in the car. One of them reached in and scratched my friend's forehead when he stupidly rolled down his window just enough to permit a tiny paw passage. We got to hold and pet a baby black panther, with supervision. We got into a sandbox with two baby tigers, and one of them, while my friend was focused on focusing his camera on one of them, stalked around behind him, and while I held and bit my tongue, jumped on his back. my buddy jumped several feet into the air, screaming, while I split my rbs laughing. Meanwhile, the parents of the baby black panther were in a bod mood, mad at humans for the theft of their baby. the big male, deprived ot the opportunity of killing his scion, lunged into the bars as my buddy approached his cage with his camera, and again, my friend flew back several feet. An eventful day for my friend the photographer. A four hundred pound tiger lay on his back against the bars, hiding from teh heat. Just like the stupid lady, we traversed a barrier, and I recall the thrill of rubbing the big beast's belly. I swear he purred. he was accustomed to people, but easily could have killed me. Each paw was four times the size of my hands, and the bars were widely spaced enough to give him access to me, but, relaxed and pleased, refrained. So, who am I to talk? The lady, healing nicely, says that management should move back the barrier. the things we say to avoid or mitigate responsibility. We can assume that she also believes that Trump's wall would work. she of all people should know the power of motivation, and its power of conquering any and all barriers. there's a new ford commercial in which we are reminded that all animals avoid danger, but that humans uniquely seek it out, for fund and adrenaline. Buy a Ford trunk, go for it. the one species apparently capable of intellectually comprehending its own mortality knowingly risks its life, just for fun and excitement. Drive a Ford, built Ford tough. No rock climber thinks he is going to slip, fall, and die. all the while knowing that he might. We know enough math to calculate odds, our curse perhaps. The lady who approached teh jaguar to share a selfie knew that she was taking a chance, but thought her odds were good enough. She was almost dead wrong. thirty five years ago I approached a lazing tiger, thinking the same thing. I was half drunk then, and much younger, but i no longer drink, and i don't think I would make the same mistake again. with age, we become risk averse. I am convinced the lady learned her lesson too, because she paid a far higher price than I, who paid nothing, and when we experience adverse consequences, we learn better to know better. Often, tragically often, when some stupid primate tries to mess around with a magnificent feline, for fun or for ego, and gets the worst for it, the magnificent feline is murdered in righteous retribution. But not this time. Repeated public outcries against murdering innocent animals has started to change our thinking. This time, the magnificent feline will live, and, thank the lord, so will the stupid primate. This is largely because, we all agree, that if anyone has to die due to some stupid, needless, ego driven encounter, it certain as hell isn't the magnificent animal, its the stupid one.