There is a place in Arizona where a young couple loved big cats and build their home around them. I took my girls on the VIP tour with the owner of their home-turned-big cat sanctuary-park a few years before his death as an old man.

It was fascinating. What struck me the most is the behavioral similarity amongst all mammals and beyond. As a radiologist, I was already aware of the shocking biological /neurological and osteological similarity amongst all mammals, but to see it demonstrated amongst cats and rhinos and even snakes was awe inspiring.

We all want shelter. And food. And play. And progeny. We all make economic calculations, including a lion deciding to impressively jump into water to eat a juicy steak instead of chasing the human offering the steak.

There is no such thing as a tame lion. But relationships can be formed. Touching ones. Repeatable and demonstrable and even transferable ones. Even a lions’ or tigers’ offspring learn to “love” the unwavering supplier of shelter and food and comfort. Durably. For years. Watching the man and the lions embrace was beyond amazing. He even embraced a rhino who was undeniably observably genuinely “happy!”

We only eat each other because the world is a shitty place. This was not the original plan. Not even close.