29/08/2015

South African woman Miekie van Tonder shares her bed with a Lion!cuddles her BIg Cat friend every night!

                              Miekie van Tonder cuddles a fully grown lion that she has raised since she was a cub. Elsa needed a number of operations after crushing a vertebrae 

                         The pair have developed a special bond after Miekie raised Elsa from just five days old when the lion cub was separated from her mother

A South African woman, has  raised a cub like her own baby after it became separated from her mother. Miekie van Tonder raised Elsa raised by hand in her home and even let her sleep in her bed so she could monitor her through the night.


As she grew older, Elsa moved to an enclosure which she shared with two, slightly bigger, male lion cubs. But at eight months old, she had never interacted with lions before and wasn't used to their rough play but joined in and injured her neck.

She underwent a two hour operation which appeared to fix the problem but later started having problems with her balance.

                               Miekie Van Tonder is trained in game preservation and field guiding but shares a motherly bond with this lion

                              Elsa became separated from her mother when she was just five days old and was raised by hand by Miekie van Tonder

Her condition meant she had to go to a conventional hospital in Roodepoort, near Johannesburg, for an MRI scan before undergoing further surgery to fix the problem.
Such was Ms van Tonder's dedication, her surrogate mother dressed up in a lion suit and collected money at the traffic lights of her home city Bloemfontein to fund the treatment.
Their bond remains a tight one with Ms van Tonder insisting she has nothing to fear by cuddling up to the giant cat at night.


'At night she still sleeps with me. She cuddles up with me under the duvet. It's amazing sleeping with a lion,' she said. 



                              As she grew older, she was put into various enclosures, first with wolves and then bigger lion cubs which played roughly with her

                             Miekie van Tonder looks concerned as Elsa went on the operating theatre to undergo surgery to her damaged back

                             She shows no fear as she wraps her arms around its massive jaws and gives the lion a cuddle in scenes that would terrify most people







aomosale's blog

No comments:

Post a Comment