The Lion.

• Lions are not like sharks; they help you, the lion keeper. In fact, the keeper needs them and their protection to survive. Even those that to now did not need to adopt a lion are finding it more and more necessary to their very survival. Not having a lions protection, in no uncertain terms is unhealthy.
  
  
• There is however, one rule to remember, when seeking to adopt a lion. This applies especially to new keepers looking for the first time. Never ever forget: The lion is always bigger than the keeper… always. Never the reverse, no matter how small or friendly the lion may seem, or how big or strong the keeper may think he is, the lion can and does bite…nature always wins over nurture - if the keeper lets it.
  
  
• The lion is cunning. He is a well-trained and experienced hunter, or he dies. He knows that by the time the keeper is at the line the keeper must choose. He is so far at the end of a long process that he simply has no choice. However, it is not so bad. In return for choosing the lion and feeding him, the keeper will be rewarded so far and for as long as the lion is able and willing to do.
  
  
• The lion promises the keeper many good and powerful things, because he is after all a lion, and king of the jungle. The normal rules that apply to other animals in the jungle simply do not apply to the lion. When competing for the keepers food against other animals he will abuse this position nicely, and with charm. He is a lion after all, and because he can offer a keeper more than the other animals, and because the keeper needs him more, the keepers very survival depends on his acceptance by the lion. The lion will use this to write his own game plan and set the rules. The keeper may not know it, but it happens.
  
  
• The lion in other words, no matter how hard the keeper tries, will eventually have the upper hand. The keeper needs him. The keeper can manage him, but the lion's only problem is to be the one chosen. (Like all cats, they adopt the owners. The owners only think they own the cats!!).
  
  
• With his protection the keeper will be safe and his future secured. The keeper can go and move anywhere when he is under the lions protectorate. The keeper will live in harmony for life or at least a long period of unspecified duration. In other words everything will be more or less perfect. The keeper can leave and move on at any time. There is nothing stopping the keeper except that over the course of the relationship, many things like in a marriage become intertwined, except its not a marriage of equals.
  
  
• The lion gets to know the keeper, and the keeper he. The lion knows the more powerful he becomes the weaker the keeper gets. The more committed the keeper is over time. The lionmust find more keepers to keep him alive, the keeper on the other hand must stay with the lion. The keeper has little choice.
  
  
• A strange marriage that carries a paradox. The keeper gets to choose the lion; the lion can make any promise to get the keeper. Once the keeper has chosen the lion he must remain faithful only with the one lion. But as as a result of the adoption, the lion must find other keepers, and the biggest twist is, that whilst the keeper may not like it, it is in his interests the lion does this, or the lion will die eventually leaving the keeper with a big problem...
  
  
• The keeper not wanting this to happen, and not wanting to be seen to have made a bad choice when the lion dies, often is willing to act as sponsor for the lion, luring in other keepers. The original keepers are not happy about this, but as with the lion they need each other. The keepers more than anybody need for the lion to survive. This is a true commitment that the lion surely appreciates. There are real rewards for being a sponsor.
  
  
• The lion knows this, and uses this fact to his advantage, in his quest to get bigger and bigger as he indeed must do.
  
  
• The lion knows he will only survive if the keeper adopts and feeds him. The more keepers he finds the bigger he gets, and the more he must find. He has to manage this process or he will surely die - not in his instinct to do; young or old.
  
  
• It may not be bad, some lions and keepers get big together.

Here are some guides for keepers adopting lions.

• Generally the more able the keeper is to feed the lion, the more the keeper is rewarded. In theory, the reason a keeper adopts a certain lion, is that he promises a keeper more, and if all works well, the more a keeper is rewarded the more able the keeper is to feed the lion. This is the principle arrangement.
  
  
• The lion's life is however a very tough one. The law of the jungle dictates that only the fittest and biggest survive. So he does not like to waste time. He must eat regularly and often. The more he eats the bigger he gets and the more he must in turn eat. As he gets bigger he has certain advantages over other smaller lions.
  
  
• He is big, so he can push them around, and bully them. He is wiser too, and not silly or he would be dead, so he can and must in order to survive appear clever and knowledgeable to other potential keepers. This is one of his techniques he uses.
  
  
• A keeper must select one lion to work with, and disappoint the others. For each keeper there are many many hungry lions. There however can be only be a single type of lion chosen by each keeper. Each keeper feels momentarily under control in power. He has the feeling of the power of life and death. In many cases this is true.
  
  
• A lion without keepers is lonely hungry and dangerous.
  
  
• He must be cunning to survive, not be outwitted by others in the pride.
  
  
• The lions when it is clear they have not been chosen become upset and angry.
  
  
• They say nasty things about the chosen lion, right or wrong. This is a real test of nerves for the keeper because here anything can happen. Relationships nurtured in the courting process are shattered over night. Friendly lions become enemies. They must do anything to survive. They stop short of acting badly in front of other potential keepers, or they will surely be in trouble.
  
  
• As the lion gets even bigger he must play a careful balancing act. He must keep his existing keepers happy to the point they are still willing to sponsor his attempts to get bigger keepers. The smaller keeper not growing with the lion or moving in other directions are of little use and are disappointed fast.
  
  
• The problem is that as the lion grows by finding more and more keepers, those early keepers, if they have not grown or able to keep pace with the lion, loose their place as they are less important to the lion for his survival.
  
  
• The keeper feels there should be loyalty, as he after all did and does help to keep the lion, but the lion can no longer just live from this and smaller keepers. He must in order to survive live from keepers that are growing with the lion, and find bigger more able keepers.
  
  
• The lion is unable to reward the small original keepers, and in some cases the keepers are forced to find alternative better-positioned lions for them selves. This is like divorce. A very sad, traumatic expensive and disruptive process.
  
  
• Other lions that have simply made false promises also suffer. They cannot fulfil their commitments and rarely get to be big as they loose their keepers for not rewarding them.
  
  
• Of course the more successful the lion is at this process, the bigger he gets, and the more attractive he is to the bigger keepers who are able to feed him.
  
  
• Even keepers have big egos, and the big lion plays this card to his full potential. He knows there is nothing more a rich keeper likes than to prove to other keepers how powerful he is too. They too, like the lion have their own hierarchies. The big keepers like to play with the big lions.
  
  
• He claims he is the best and most able to look after them because he is after all big, and a keeper needs big rewards, that a small lion cannot offer, if the keeper choose to adopt him.
  
  
• The lion realising this, spends more time with the keepers that he can easily reach any way he can. A hunter moves on fast, and the keepers themselves, having more food to give as a result of their cooperation with other lions, are also in a better position, to choose.
  
  
• It is a real system of give and take. The lion when small gets adopted by the keeper, and is rewarded. The more the reward for the keeper, the more food he is able to provide the lion. The more food the lion gets the more reward he provide the keeper.

There are however other considerations:

• The problem is that there are many lions competing for a seemingly small amount of food at any given time and this causes them to fight, even though they seemingly live together. In the end each must eat.
  
  
• If it was all managed properly there would be enough food to go round, but it's a jungle and they all want everything. Most are greedy, eating for the moment, a bird in the hand.
  
  
• In the end more or less most survive. There are however bigger stronger ones and weaker ones. The process is the lion is getting bigger and stronger or getting weaker. The lion knows this instinctively. The big get bigger at the expense of the weaker...
  
  
• Seniority is no indication of virility, as in the end the lion gets old and weak no matter what.
  
  
• His success is based on his ability to attract the keeper to his solution.
  
  
• Not all big lions are the best ones for a keeper, if this were the case there would only be big lions. They do die.
  
  
• Big lions were once small lions.
  
  
• The biggest lion is always under attack from other small lions. He once had to do the same to get to be the biggest lion.
  
  
• Amongst the many smallest lions in the pride there is the next future big lion.
  
  
• The biggest lion never dies gracefully. He is a fighter and will fight to the end. Only by being beaten though being weakened will he step down. This will happen.
  
  
• If he is wounded he can die very fast the pride move against him.
  
  
• All things under his protection are exposed.
  
  
• For more food, other lions, often the new king will offer to take over the protection and service. This is particularly the case when it is not clear who the new king is or will be. The lions exploit this to their advantage. The only thing is clear is the king is dying.
  
  
• The whole jungle is in a state of change. There is a sense of occasion everybody knows that nothing will be as it was. There is a new beginning on the horizon.
  
  
• This further weakens the old lion, and whether truth or not, if the tide moves against him he will die, and one of the younger lions will set to take his place.
  
  
• Eventually unable to get food and eat well, and needing more than those few loyal keepers left are able to provide, big old sick lion eventually dies.
  
  
• The old loyal keepers are regretful, because he was the best lion for his time, and did reward them well. It was as good long relationship that for better or worse had to come to an end…
  
  
• The rules of the jungle prevail through time. There is always another lion, there is always another keeper. The lion as with the shark must however eat to survive. All lions are more or less friendly. They are predators and dangerous but they can also be friendly if handled correctly. Tamed in other words.