This is the love story of Sheila, a gorgeous lioness who sadly spent most of her life as a show animal performing at private parties. After years of working away from her natural habitat, her health started to suffer making her unable to work.
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Her caretaker couldn’t afford to get her proper veterinary care. Soon, she was rescued by animal rights activists who were present to witness Sheila’s journey, from an abused animal to an international star and even a wife.
Rescuing Sheila
Sheila was one of the lions rescued by the U.S Department of Agriculture in July 2009. A lot of the lions rescued that year were in terrible shape, but Sheila’s condition was particularly dire.
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She was severely underweight, frail, and weak. Her rescuers thought that there wasn’t much hope for her, but they decided to take a chance and help her anyway. They wanted to do their best and provide her with all the comforts, she could need despite her condition.
Causes Of Her Condition
Sheila was rescued from an entertainment centre in Texas. Her job was to make her owner a lot of money by performing at high profile parties and events. Sheila wasn’t the only lion at this entertainment centre, but she was the lion who had worked and suffered the most.
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Sheila’s caretaker was particularly cruel to his lions. Keahey, founder of In-Sync Organization explained, “when they are no longer useful to him, he throws them aside and stops taking care of them.”
Life In Captivity
Sadly for Sheila, she had spent most of her life held in captivity in Texas. She had been a working lioness since she was just a little cub. Driven by cruel men to perform at the end of a whim throughout her life.
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She had started living as a pet and appearing in photoshoots, and then she began working in the entertainment industry. Sheila was a wild animal, far away from her natural habitat who was forced to do domestic, labour-intensive life, and it was taking a massive toll on her health and well-being.
A Safe Environment
Sheila was suffering from several serious, life-threatening problems, and pretty soon, she couldn’t even stand up on her own. Her rescuers understood that her muscles were weak and it was causing her problems even while she was just walking around.
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She could hardly lift her head to eat or to get a drink of water. She had completely lost her appetite and it seemed like she had completely lost her will to live. It seemed like Sheila’s troubled life was going to come to a troubled end.
Handing Her Over To Specialists
Thankfully, the right resources reached Sheila just in time and she was handed over to an animal social welfare organization known as In-Sync Exotics Wildlife Rescue and Education Center.
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The organization specialized in sheltering stranded animals and nursing them back to health. The U.S Department of Agriculture told In-Sync that if Sheila’s condition didn’t improve, they should strongly consider euthanizing her. It wasn’t fair to allow Sheila to suffer, throughout the little time she had.
She Needed Help Eating
Sheila was brought to In-Sync and started settling in. At first, she wasn’t responding well to treatment. Even so, her rescuers were determined to save Sheila’s life. She wasn’t able to eat food on her own, so the team would sit with her and hand-feed her each bite of food.
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The founder of In-Sync said, “For two weeks, I had to go in with Sheila and hand-feed her.” She added, “I’d take meatballs balls and literally stuff them down her throat.” The caretakers tried everything, from tough love to soothing touches.
No Improvement
Even though the team at In-Sync was doing everything they could to help Sheila, it didn’t look like she was improving much. Her health seemed to be pretty much the same as it was when she arrived.
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One In-Sync member said, “She had very little muscle coordination, and thus when she walked, her legs would slip out from under her.” It was going to be a very slow road to recovery.
Nothing Really Helped
The rescuers at In-Sync had experience working with wild animals in poor conditions before, but they had never seen a case quite like this. It was as though Sheila was refusing to get better.
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They thought she had given up completely. After days of weakness and lethargy, Sheila stopped moving altogether. She would throw up whatever she ate and it seemed like her health was getting worse. This put the rescuers in a really tough position.
Tough Decision
The team at In-Sync was at a total loss. They were doing everything they could to help Sheila, but nothing seemed to be working. After a few weeks of tireless work, they decided to consider USDA’s advice of euthanizing this big cat.
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Sheila’s daily life had become full of pain and general difficultly. The team had to face the fact that the most merciful thing to do was to give Sheila a peaceful end to life but even this decision felt wrong.
Sheila Was Unique
The team really didn’t want to lose Sheila. She was a beautiful animal who had spent her whole life in captivity. They wanted to give her a chance to enjoy the life she had never had been allowed to have. Also, Sheila wasn’t like other lions, she had unique fur which was very blonde, which made her stand out from other big cats.
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Her blonde fur was probably the reason that she was worth so much to her previous owner. Lionesses of this colour are only found in Timbavati and South Africa. In-Sync was actually prepared to euthanize Sheila when some new information came to light.
Finally, A Diagnosis
During Sheila’s rehabilitation, The In-Sync team in the background had been running tests upon tests, to figure out if what Sheila had could be cured and finally, they found an answer. They figured out that Sheila was suffering from a disease called toxoplasmosis, as well as a lack of vitamin A.
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This meant that there were parasites in Sheila’s blood. The disease can be fatal for members of the feline family. Now that her caretakers knew what was wrong with Sheila, they just had to get her to take her medicine.
A Whole Bunch Of Symptoms
Toxoplasmosis is an infection usually found in cats. An animal develops this infection when their immune system is not strong enough to fight off infections. It was particularly bad in Sheila’s case since she had suffered from years of improper care causing her immune system to weaken, which is how she developed the disease.
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Symptoms of toxoplasmosis include reduced coordination, disorientation, anorexia, lethargy, breathing difficulties, enlarged lymph nodes, and apparent blindness. If not properly and promptly treated, this disease can be fatal.
Getting Her To Take Antibiotics Was Tough
Sheila’s caretakers immediately started treating her with antibiotics. It had taken a while to arrive at the diagnosis, and Sheila was starting her antibiotic regimen quite late into her condition, but this was Sheila’s only hope.
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It’s no easy task to get a stubborn lion to take a whole bunch of antibiotics. Sheila was difficult and sometimes it would take an hour for the In-Sync team to get her to take her medicine.
Getting Better
Thankfully though, all the tireless effort from the team immediately started to show results! Ever since Sheila started taking her antibiotics, she soon looked and acted better. Just a few days after the treatment, she was able to walk and eat on her own.
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Naturally, all of Sheila’s caretakers thought that the improvement in her health was due to the medicine she was taking, but in reality, she was getting better so quickly because of a completely different reason— one that nobody had noticed before. Sheila had found herself a different kind of medicine.
A Drastic Improvement
In a Facebook post, In-Sync stated, “Sheila has made a remarkable improvement. She has regained muscle control, swallows easily, and runs and hops like a bunny.” It looked like Sheila would pull through, just fine.
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No one had any idea, what really was improving Sheila’s health though, even the handlers and caretakers who worked with Sheila every day weren’t sure why this lion who was previously been so sickly was able to make such a quick recovery. Antibiotics are wonderful, but they couldn’t have restored Sheila’s will to live all on their own.
A Friend In Need
The enclosure Sheila was living in at the In-Sync facility had another enclosure attached to it and there was someone inside of it who just happened to make Sheila’s, the lioness feel happier and healthier.
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When the employees at In-Sync discovered what was happening between the two enclosures, they were completely shocked. Keep reading to find out who Sheila’s helpful neighbour was, and why she bounced back so quickly.
Meet Kahn
It was a lion! A very handsome male lion, to be exact. It seemed like Sheila had developed a crush on her neighbour and the two had been helping each other from the very beginning.
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Sheila’s love for Kahn was the reason she was able to progress so quickly. Now that she had a relationship with another lion, she had found the will to live. The two seemed to work together to bring the strength back into each other.
Birds Of A Feather (Or Lions Of A… Mane?)
Who Is Kahn? Sadly, the male loin had a similarly sad story. When he was six-years-old he was rescued by In-Sync just a few months before Sheila’s rescue. Like Sheila, Kahn was a lion who used to work in the entertainment industry in Texas.
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He was also mistreated by his handlers and when he arrived at the rescue facility, he was in very poor health just like Sheila was. Maybe these two were able to bond so quickly because they had lived through similar circumstances.
Kahn The Magnificent
Just like Sheila, Kahn was a show animal. He used to entertain audiences in private parties by showing off his roar or balancing on his two back legs. His handlers took him to different events around the city, and sometimes he performed at multiple events or parties in a single day.
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All of that travelling and hard work made him sick, but he was still forced to perform despite his illness. At the time of his rescue, he weighed about 100 pounds less than the average lion his age.
Kahn Was In A Bad Place
On top that, the poor loin had been beaten and overworked by his owner. Most of his hours, when he wasn’t performing were spent in a tiny cage which than stunted his growth and compromised his bones.
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He became so frustrated with his living conditions that he chewed his own tail off out of boredom and frustration. The tip of his tail had become completely raw and swollen. Had he not been rescued in time, he would have developed an infection and died.
An Aggressive Lion
Keahey explained, “When Kahn came, the end of his tail was completely chewed off and [he] was very thin.” Kahn also suffered from bone problems that made it difficult for him to walk. He was also very aggressive when he first came to the rescue centre.
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It was very difficult for the In-Sync team to interact with him and to help him. Because he hadn’t been given enough food when he was living with his previous owner, he was very aggressive when it came to feeding time and caretakers had to go above and beyond to ensure, their safety as well as the Kahns.
A Part Of The Family
Kahn was a fighter, and unlike Sheila, he never lost his will to live. This actually worked to help him recover quickly and soon this aggressive beast turned into a calm and relaxed animal.
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Kahn fit right in with the other lions at the rescue centre, and he seemed to really enjoy his new retirement life. His aggression was mostly an effect of his health issues and how he had been treated by his handlers, during most of his life.
Ready-Made Friends
Now Kahn just needed a friend to play with. Lions are very social creatures who tend to live in packs (called pride), which is why it’s especially upsetting for both Kahn and Sheila since they were isolated from other lions for so long.
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As soon as Kahn and Sheila were placed next to each other they immediately developed a strong friendship. Turns out, this friendship would be the key to Sheila’s recovery and Kahn’s fighting spirit would start to rub off on her.
Different Responses To Similar Trauma
Both of these wild cats had gone through the same kind of tragedy, however, the situations of both were a little different. The in-sync founder explained ‘It was easy to treat him and get him comfortable with his new surroundings. Sheila, on the other hand, was in very bad shape … Sheila was almost dead.”
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Even though these lions had both been through a lot of trauma, their different personalities caused them to respond to that trauma differently. Keahey opened up about the improving condition of both the lions: “As time went by they both healed and grew into beautifully grown lions.”
Moving In Together
“In the meanwhile, we had finished our new lion enclosure. The way it was designed would have Kahn and Sheila living next door to each other.” These two were taking the next step in their relationship. Who knows where this pairing could go?
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Kahn and Sheila’s friendship developed into something more than a friendship. The two would spend a lot of time playing with each other. Keahey said, “Sheila spent the next few months showing off for Kahn, and Kahn strutted his stuff for her.”
Taking Precautions
The workers at In-Sync saw that these two lions were clearly affectionate towards each other. They decided to let them date and to let them share an enclosure, but before they did that, they spayed Sheila so that there were no happy accidents.
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It was obviously done to prevent any more lions born in captivity. Vicky, who works at In-Sync explained, “we did short dates every day, then the dates got longer and then the dates became unsupervised.”
When Two Lions Get Married
Vicky continued, “Then we let them spend the night together. After three months of dating, we let them get ‘married.’ A special enclose has been built for them where they spend their ‘we’ time together.
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In their relationship, Sheila seems to be the boss according to the caretakers. “These two are serious relationship goals. Everyone at In-Sync was so happy that these two lions found each other. Sheila and Kahn were finally happy and healthy.
Happy Lions
This newlywed couple can’t get enough of each other. Sheila is absolutely in love with her husband. She also enjoys playing with cardboard boxes and getting a lot of attention from her caretakers. Vicky has revealed that Kahn is very possessive over his wife.
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He gets very jealous when other lions look at Sheila and he does everything in his power to protect her. Vicky says, “Then Kahn lets that guy know she belongs to him. He roars and sometimes charges at them.”
Actions Have Consequences
Also, The man who abused Sheila, Kahn and other animals are no longer entitled to keep big cats or wild animals. He lost his ability to keep lions, which in turn affected his business and how much money he can make.
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However, some animal rights activists thought that this man should receive a more severe penalty. They thought he should spend time in prison or at least be fined for what he did to these magnificent creatures.
A Happy Ending
This story that started with animals in horrible conditions, fortunately, ended with some lion-sized love. Sheila, a loin who was almost euthanized finally found peace and sanctuary, with her beloved lion husband.
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This story makes us believe in happy endings, and it makes us want to do everything we can to make sure that no more lions or any animals in fact are stolen from their natural homes and forced to overwork for the sake of human entertainment.