Living Like A Lion-The Circus

Chapter 3-Learning Then Performing

3.Learning Then Performing

I woke to find meat in the corner of my cage; so I quickly ate it before I heard Killing Karen chuckle, “Good morning, sleepy-head. Today, you are going to learn the main routine.”

“Oh, sounds fun,” I gloomily replied as I laid back down.

Louis soon let all of us big cats out and we walked into the huge circle cage. In the huge circle cage sat ten platforms. Mighty Mike, Terrible Tim, Sensational Stripes, and Killing Karen each got on theirs; then Louis walked over to another and commanded, “Scaring Simba up!” I jumped onto it and he grabbed a hoop. “Jump!” he commanded as he held it in front of Killing Karen; then he repeated it with the others until he reached me. I jumped through and landed on the platform across from mine. After I had jumped, he lit the hoop on fire and they all jumped through it; then it was my turn. I warily sniffed it before preparing. I closed my eyes as I soared through the hoop, safe from the flames; then the other big cats hopped off their platforms and lined up at the edge of the cage. I jumped down quickly and dashed to their side. Louis set up a plank with tons of poles on two platforms; then he had us weave through the poles. We did several more tricks before Louis let us back into our individual cages, where he fed us before leaving us alone.

He soon returned wearing a loin cloth and iron bands on his arms and legs. He released us into a large moving cage, splitting us into lions on one side and tigers on the other. The cage was pulled by four black stallions, which pulled us around the tent; so the crowd could clap and cheer for us.

Curtains came down over the huge circle cage and our moving cage; so we quickly traveled from one to the other. There we waited on our platforms as we listened to the crowd cheer and roar.

After we had waited hours, the curtains finally rose and Louis walked into the ring. We performed our show quickly and smoothly before the curtains fell again. We were moved back the moving cage before being taken to our individual cages, but Killing Karen was taken back. She returned as we heard the final applause. Louis brought of lots of food before all the other big cats fell asleep, but I stay up watching Killing Karen closely.