These pics surfaced from when Melanie was a teenager.
Oh, and a bonus: there's a shot of Tippi Hedren!
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That's so wonderfully kooky. I can't imagine ever feeling that comfortable around a fully grown lion, though. No matter how well trained it was.
I knew! LOL. Tippi has raised Lions and other wild animals for a long time and has taken in animals from circuses and such. I seem to remember she got Michael Jackson's animals from Neverland Ranch.
I've seen these pictures before, it's so bizarre! What I didn't know was that the family made a movie with their big cats and its available to purchase. I definitely want to pick up "Roar."
I know she liked to have freaky three-ways and didn't mind if it was anyone's time of the month when she was a teenager. Lions seem tame in comparison.
Also, it doesn't appear that Neil, the lion, had all of his teeth. If he did, they were certainly filed down. There's only one shot where any teeth are visible, you only see one, a lower canine and it look to have a rounded surface. That used to be done in circuses and such. It's possible they were all just taken from an angle that did show any, I suppose.
Great pictures!
Tippi has always been animal-crazy - she founded and still runs the Shambala Preserve in California, a sanctuary for lions, tigers, cougars and other big cats.
Still pretty incredible to have a lion as a house-pet, though.
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