We Bought a Zoo. Benjamin Mee

to finish the inside of the fourth chamber, with the unspoken efficiency of men who knew what they were doing and had worked together for a long time. Duncan had been exploring the dart-gun situation. The nearest zoo, Paignton, couldn’t lend us theirs because it wasn’t licensed for use off site. Our park’s previous reputation in recent years, and our much heralded inexperience can’t have helped with their assessment of the situation, and this sense of fiasco, the public perception of it, and what it might mean for our prospects, now had time to sink in.

      Rob finally secured a dart gun and a licensed operative who was prepared to travel down – Bob Lawrence, senior ranger at the Midlands Safari Park – but it was decided that because Sovereign was contained, Bob would come down in the morning. Opinion on the ground was, quite reasonably, that the cat was contained in an enclosure designed to contain big cats, and the risk was minimal. We began trying to lure him into the finished fourth cat chamber by placing meat just inside the door, and though the presence of meat had an almost chemical effect on this muscular predator and brought him to the lip several times, his instincts for self-preservation held him back. He was just too canny, and too spooked, to surrender his new territory in order to jump into a small house for a free meal.

      Mike advised that we kept a vigil from a car next to the enclosure, and at the first sign of trouble, like Sovereign trying to climb the wire mesh fencing, call for the firearms. Rob went to sleep on the sofa in the keeper’s cottage with the gun next to him, and I moved my mum’s car as close as I could, and settled down with a flask of coffee and a torch. Every half an hour, Mike said, I should shine the torch and make sure Sovereign was calm – and most importantly, still there. ‘Don’t get out of the car,’ warned Mike. ‘If he has got out, you won’t hear him, and he’ll be waiting outside the door.’ Unfortunately, as the evening drew in, sensible Sovereign decided it was safe to sit in the empty chamber, though he kept a watchful eye on anyone approaching the house. This meant I couldn’t see him from the car, so every half hour I had to open the door, half-expecting 100 kilos of muscle, teeth and claws to come bursting in, then, when it didn’t, walk a few paces into the darkness which may or may not contain a large angry Jaguar, and shine the torch. My confidence grew with each sighting of the two reflective eyes staring back at me from the house. Sovereign wasn’t going anywhere, and at 5.00 am Duncan relieved me in the car.

      Bob Lawrence arrived at about 7.30 am with the dart gun. With things hanging off his belt and an Indiana Jones hat, Bob was a very reassuring presence to have on site. If there was a rhino loose (not that we had any), you felt he could deal with it. The vet arrived with the necessary sedatives, and at the third attempt Sovereign was successfully darted, unfortunately, it appeared, in the tip of his sheath, and he jumped around angrily until he began to slow down, scowling and prowling, glaring at us through the wire. You got the impression he was memorizing faces, so that if he got out again he’d know who to punish for this indignity.

      There was a danger that, drugged, Sovereign may fall into the moat and drown, so I sent for a ladder, mainly to use to push him out with, but I secretly decided that if it looked even remotely possible, I was prepared to climb down the ladder into the water to drag him out. But that wasn’t necessary. Sovereign went down like a lamb, and we rushed into the enclosure to stretcher him out. Back in the safety of his own house – microscopically examined for flaws which may have contributed to the incident – Sovereign got a quick dental and general health check. It’s not often you get to peer into this kind of animal’s mouth without it being terminal, so the vet made good use of the time.