Keith, I kinda feel like I know what ya mean about lions as you so stated above.
One of the Cirque performers give us some comped tickets to see Sigfried and Roy when they were the top act in as Vegas and we were seated right up front and my elbow was actually resting on the stage.
When the show started and the lions came out, two of them were sitting directly in front of me no further than 6 feet away. Close enough that I could actually smell their breath.
It wasn't a comfortable feeling and I wondered what would happen if they had a dinner show with people eating steaks in that front row.
One lion just sat there looking at me right in the eye while Sig and Roy ran the other lions through their tricks further down the stage. Then that lion who shared my interest jumped up as if on cue and ran (stampeded?) to the far end of the stage and hopped onto another small stage directly above a table that held about four VIP's.
He made a couple of turns and flopped down as if to take a rest with his tail hanging over the edge directly above one VIP's head.
Roy claimed that they always had trouble with that particular lion who simply liked to watch the show while resting on that little stage ...... and he liiked to have his tail pulled.
So Roy tells the VIP sitting under the lion with the tail just about hitting his bald head to go ahead and give it a yank. Needless to say the VIP refuses but within a minute or so of prompting, he gives the tail a yank ............ and as if on cue .... the lion jumps up and gives the biggest roar ever heard outside of Tarzan's neighborhood and much more louder than that old timer in the MGM logo.
It scared the shit out of the poor guy who pulled it and just about eveyone else in the theater but the lion had simply done his part and silently jumped off that stage to his predesignated spot on a huge silver ball which magically floated up and over the stage and over the heads of others who were sitting up front.
Great LV show and they may be coming back. Lions are amazing critters but I wouldn't have one as a pet!
