Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
CAT SANCTUARY — Playing fetch with a dog who is into it is heaps of fun.
The energy and excitement is contagious, well, at least until the reality of repetitive throwing rears its ugly head.
Sadly, I’ve heard some dog owner disparage cats because they don’t “play fetch,” but that’s not quite the whole story.
First, some dogs are really bad at fetch. They won’t chase a thrown object for love or money, or they won’t drop the thrown object once they have it. Second, there are house cats that will play fetch with little tinfoil balls or even tennis balls. I have met such a cat. She was pretty rad. Third, cats actually have their own version of fetch, but it’s more like “catch and kill.”
The cat in this video plays the latter version of the game, but this is no lap cat. This is a full-grown lioness named Serabie that lives on a lion sanctuary in South Africa.
The keeper in the video gathers up a big pile of sticks and lobs them over the fence for Serabie to “fetch.” She runs and jumps and pounces while her male counterparts looked confused and then slightly annoyed at her enthusiasm for inanimate objects.
She is so into the game that she can’t not “kill” a thrown stick. So when a stick gets stuck in a tree — a tree that looks like it should not hold her weight — Serabie climbs that tree to try and get her kill fix.
The video is pretty stinking adorable, but as with any video featuring a wild animal, this one comes with a reminder. No matter how cute, cuddly, pet-like or human-like wild animals seem, they are wild animals with unpredictable behavior. Please enjoy nature responsibly. Martha Ostergar is a writer who delights in the ridiculous that internet serves up, which means she's more than grateful that she gets to cruise the web for amazing videos to write about. Follow her on Twitter at @monstergar.
