I remembered her and Simba, playing their favorite game, back before we learned better, where they would race around and around a cage full of volunteers and then launch up and off the wall to be able to jump on someone’s head. The goal was to tackle the person to the ground. You got extra points if they screamed.

I remember the day someone came to my bedroom one early morning and said, “Come quick! There’s something gross in Nyla’s cage.” and it turned out to be Sundari and her black coated sister. Nyla hadn’t opened the sacks, so I did and was able to revive the dead little Sundari, but could not save her sister. Sabre was their dad. That was 1996 and pre Internet, so we had not learned yet than none of the privately held exotic cats would ever serve any conservation value.

Day after day, I’d try to get her to take Sundari back, but Nyla wouldn’t have any part of mother hood and was never bred again.

I’m so glad that she and her brother we re-united and got to go on “vacation” before her time was up. I had pressed for this to happen because we had come so close to losing Simba. I never dreamed that Nyla would go on before him. I am ever thankful to all of you who made her life the best it could be, and who worked so hard in the end to keep her comfortable until it was time to let her go.