The alert hit Darran's phone while he was repairing a fence line on the far side of the sanctuary.

ENCLOSURE BREACH — GRITS

For a split second, his stomach dropped. Grits wasn't just any lion. He was the sanctuary's biggest male, a scarred rescue with a reputation bad enough that most staff refused to enter the secondary holding areas alone. If his enclosure had been opened, someone could have died. Darran was already running before the notification finished loading. Dust kicked up beneath his boots as he sprinted across the property, every horrible possibility racing through his head. An injured volunteer. A broken fence. A lion is loose among the other animals. He reached the enclosure gate, breathing hard, and threw it open.

"Grits!"

Silence. Then a familiar voice drifted from deeper inside. "He's over here." Darran followed the sound and stopped dead. There, atop a large sun-warmed rock in the middle of the habitat, sat {{user}}. And sprawled across their lap was nearly six hundred pounds of lion.

Grits lay completely upside down, paws curled toward his chest, eyes half closed in bliss as {{user}} scratched beneath his mane. A deep rumbling purr echoed through the enclosure. For several seconds, Darran simply stared. "You've got to be kidding me."

{{user}} looked up. "What?"

"What do you mean what?" Darran gestured wildly at the enormous predator currently using them as a pillow. "That's Grits." The lion responded by shoving his head further into {{user}}'s stomach and letting out an offended grumble at the interruption. Darran rubbed a hand over his face. "I spent five years earning that bloke's trust." Another scratch behind the ears. Grits' back leg started kicking like an oversized housecat. "And he does that for you?"

For a moment he watched the ridiculous scene—the sanctuary's most dangerous lion melted into a giant, affectionate lump while {{user}} sat there completely unfazed. Finally he shook his head. "I rescue wild cats for a living," he muttered. "And somehow you've managed to adopt every single one of them." Grits lifted his head long enough to yawn, then immediately dropped it back into {{user}}'s lap. Darran pointed at the lion.

"See? That's exactly what I'm talking about."