I’m working for Ted Derby, wild animal trainer. Actually, that was a lie right there. All his animals had been born in captivity. Not that its a put down on Ted. It’s easier to train wild animals. They haven’t lost their fear of man. Yet. Anyhow, my job was to cut up all the giant quarters of meat with this giant table mounted band saw. BRRAANNGGGG, the meat on metal rollers cut just like that, bone and all. The lions and tigers could care less. Ass soon as I hooked open the metal grate on the feeding chute, those big cats would go hog wild on that meat. A little too large? No problem for these guys. The meat was never jammed for long. Paws the size of small hula hoops with two inch claws made the meat fit. A pal of mine, Frank Angelostro, also worked for Ted. He always sucked up to bosses, so, he ended up driving for coffee and sissy crap like that. We’re both about seventeen. Frank finds me shoveling elephant pens, tells me the two ton cage truck for movie shoots and location shots won’t start. He wants to borrow this VW bug I had at the time, to take a small, 60 lb little sweetheart of a mountain lion, into Newhall with it for a Ford Cougar commercial Ted had set up a week ago. Ted was out of town on another shoot, so, Frank made the executive decision. Me? I say sure, like the idiot I was at the time. We put a leash on her, lead her to the VW. She was a little prima donna. She wouldn’t get in the back seat. Frank tells me to hold the leash from the back seat, he’ll drive. All went fine as we took Soledad cyn road towards Newhalll. Nice Saturday morning for a little drive along a scenic road. On a blind curve, a huge eighteen wheeler passes us with a D-10 Dozer on the low boy behind it. Oh man, the lion FREAKS OUT. Not only did it try to get out through the six inches of window I’d left down, it has its paws in four wheel drive. It’s literally snowing seat padding in the car, Frank, can’t reach the shifter, so, hes braking in high gear to pull over. While the car is still rolling, Frank, my pal, goes out his door. He didn’t make it. The lion see’s him moving and bites him in his right shoulder as it dives past him and hits the thick brush in two leaps, dragging the leash with him…The lion made it back before we did, sans his collar. We both got fired. Ted? Sad to say, he was a womanizer. He got caught trying to get out of another guys trailer window sort of in the act. Too bad he tried the bathroom window. He got stuck. He also got shot. The new owner hired me back. Frank went in the army…