One of the best things about the Omaha Zoo is that you can get really close to the animals.

On a recent visit, though, one lion got a little too close.

Our kids are fans of the big cats, so we often start most of our zoo visits at the Cat Complex. Almost all of the cats are in glass cages indoors, but one family of lions is housed in an outdoor habitat that is viewable inside the Cat Complex from a huge glass window. It's in front of a rock ledge that the lions sometimes rest on.

While we were watching and pointing out to each other the four lions (one male, one female and two cubs that I would guess were about a year old), I noticed one of the cubs crouch low and start creeping around a big boulder in the middle of the habitat. I pointed it out to the kids, who pressed their noses tight to the glass to get a better look. To me, it looked like it was hunting something.

Apparently, it was hunting us.

In utter disbelief, we watched as the cub bolted out from behind the boulder and sprinted straight toward us! At first nobody moved; we were like deer caught in the headlights of an 18-wheeler. Then a twinge of fear set in. This was no “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” episode.

This was real. And this lion cub intended to eat US!

In a flash, the cub was almost upon us. With Rachel, the baby, in one arm, I stuck out my other arm and started to push the kids back from the window in case it broke. The cub sprang up to the rock ledge in front of us and prepared to sink its teeth into our flesh when it remembered - or saw for the first time - the glass and tried to stop itself.

Too late.

WHAM!!! The cub slammed head-first into the glass, which wobbled but somehow did not break. Dazed, it shook its head. It then looked longingly at the lunch it had just missed out on and casually hopped down off the ledge.

None of the kids cried. They didn’t say anything either. We all stood there still in a state of shock and watched for a few minutes as the cub trotted around the habitat as if nothing had just happened.

“That freaked me out!” Anna, our oldest, finally gasped.

“Me too,” I muttered.

As we left the Cat Complex, I thought I should put into perspective what had happened. I said to the kids, “Well, now you know what it’s like to be a gazelle. Very few people get to experience that.”

Macy, our 5-year old who is always quick to say exactly what is on her mind replied, “Dad, I don’t ever want to be a gazelle.”

Al Watts is the Vice-President of Daddyshome, Inc. – The National At-Home Dad Network and an at-home dad of four children living in west Omaha.

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