The Lion and the Little Dog

In London they exhibited wild animals and charged money for the viewing, or dogs and cats to feed to the wild animals.

One man wanted to see the animals: he grabbed a little dog on the street and brought it to the menagerie. He was allowed to watch, but the little dog was taken and thrown into the lion's cage to be eaten.

The little dog tucked its tail and pressed into the corner of the cage. The lion approached it and sniffed it.

The little dog lay on its back, raised its paws and began wagging its tail.

The lion touched it with its paw and turned it over.

The little dog jumped up and stood on its hind legs before the lion.

The lion looked at the little dog, turned its head from side to side and did not touch it.

When the owner threw meat to the lion, the lion tore off a piece and left it for the little dog.

In the evening, when the lion lay down to sleep, the little dog lay beside him and put its head on his paw.

From then on the little dog lived in the same cage as the lion; the lion did not touch it, ate its food, slept with it, and sometimes played with it.

Once a gentleman came to the menagerie and recognized his little dog; he said that the little dog was his own and asked the owner of the menagerie to give it back to him. The owner wanted to give it back, but as soon as they called the little dog to take it out of the cage, the lion bristled and growled.

Thus the lion and the little dog lived for a whole year in the same cage.

After a year the little dog fell ill and died. The lion stopped eating, but kept sniffing and licking the little dog and touching it with its paw.

When he realized that it was dead, he suddenly sprang up, bristled, began lashing himself with his tail on the sides, rushed at the wall of the cage and began gnawing the bolts and the floor.

All day he thrashed about, tossed around the cage and roared, then lay down beside the dead little dog and grew quiet. The owner wanted to carry away the dead little dog, but the lion would not let anyone near it.

The owner thought that the lion would forget its grief if given another little dog, and let a live little dog into the cage with him; but the lion immediately tore it to pieces. Then he embraced the dead little dog with his paws and lay like that for five days.

On the sixth day the lion died.