Bitten & Smitten

Love Bite from a Cheetah!

I embarked on a personal and professional exploration of my self and the African continent

My first day in South Africa I found myself walking on the grassy promenade in Sea Point, Cape Town, marveling on the sensation of the profound beauty of the people and the geographic surroundings and the feeling of the African soil. I lived in India, Central and South America and traveled throughout Europe. This felt different than any other continent I’d stepped on. My senses reveled in the sky, the ocean, the air, the flowers, the smells, the music and the dance.  I wept with pleasure at the innate majestic mountainous beauty, enhanced by a cornucopia of delicious foods and exotic  peoples.

Since seeing a PBS special on the Cheetah Reserve and Restoration project, I was determined to visit.  After the standard  safari, I arranged to spend additional private time with a cheetah and her handler. Aziba was leashed and approaching slowly I sat down about five feet away.  Gazing at her in awe, I inched closer.  Getting a nod from her handler, I gently ran my hand down her back. Extending my arm I felt the tongue of the cheetah licking  my skin.  As she continued to lick my arm from wrist to elbow, I sat delightfully mesmerized.

Playfully lifting my arm to invite more licking, I soon got more than I asked for.  I had instigated a invitation to play.  Next thing I knew I rolled onto the grass with her left paw on my face and her teeth closing on my underarm.  I felt the soft weight of her paw pads on my cheek, nails retracted.

I experienced  a primal sense of being prey.  Clearly, this animal could do with me what she wanted.  Finding myself utterly powerless,  I went into shock, the reptilian brain kicked in and I froze like any other victim of perdition.  Instinctively I surrendered.

For me this moment of powerlessness was eerily familiar.  I had experienced it before when I stopped breathing on the operating table.

It was a moment of confronting my mortality on a pre-verbal level, which as a somatic thanatologist is something I hold space for in concert with my clients every day.

Thankfully Aziba was only playing and I was merely the object of her frolic.  No skin broken. No blood. Just the prize of raised teeth marks that I kept fingering in amazement.  I was jumped on and bitten by a Cheetah.  The proof, my teeth mark tattoo, quickly started fading yet has left a lasting impression on me. What could have been a horrific maiming trauma was instead transformed into an ecstatic experience of connection with the wild.

Thank you Aziba. I hope to return to see you soon.

Subsequently, I went to pet year-old white lions. Wisely I made no sudden moves and collected no “love bites”. Check out my video of the White Lions Tana and Demi.