The lion version of Kaylin

Last night at work I was bringing the lions inside for the night. (We bring them inside to feed them and keep them in their barn all night for a variety of safety reasons.) Anyway, I opened the door and Luxor the male came right in. Casey the female is usually right with him but she wasn't coming so I shut the door for a minute while I shifted Lux to his food. I reopened the door and Casey still wasn't there. Odd. I called her and a few seconds later, she strolled into the barn. She was completely covered in wet mud and more closely resembled a black leopard than a lion. It was hilarious! And sooooo disgusting. Since I had already put her meat in her stall, I let her eat while I checked and fed some other animals.

When I returned to the lions, Casey's two stalls were completely brown with mud. She shook mud droplets all over the walls and even out the mesh fencing into the keeper hallway. I was about bawling with laughter. I grabbed the hose and started hosing out the stalls. Lions typically don't like water, but Casey must have really wanted to lose the mud because she allowed me to hose her off almost completely. I spent about 10 minutes hosing the stalls from the front and got most of the mud off the lion and lots out of the stalls. I imagine I'll still spend at least an hour cleaning her two stalls today. Yuck. Oh, and I can't even imagine what she did in the yard to make this mess :) I didn't have time to look after all my hosing...

It was only Tuesday and already my second experience with a mud-covered girl this week. Kaylin came home from the neighbors' Sunday evening COVERED in mud. She claimed that she slipped coming off their trampoline, but judging from how even her covering was, it appeared she rolled around after she "slipped." I immediately went for the hose but it wouldn't turn on. Ok, maybe Gene shut off the water to the hose for some reason. I went to the kitchen sink. No water. Huh??? Kaylin told me the neighbors had no water either. Ugh. A water main break. I ended up using one of Logan's beloved spray bottles that happened to be half full and some paper towels to clean my mud-covered child. Nice timing, Kaylin!