Wild Cat Act

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One of the most fun times when I was with the traveling Circus was the animal training/feeding. As previous discussions stated I traveled with carnivals/circuses as a runaway at 13 years old. When I first joined the Circus I was the cleaner of cages and baths and feeding person for the wild cats, elephants, camels ,horses, etc. I fed, bathed, cleaned cages of every animal there. It was a 15 hour a day job in itself. It was to this day the worst and filthiest job I had ever done in my life. But this discussion focuses on the aspect of the training of the animals. After a few months of doing the dirtiest job around I was asked to bring 2 of the Tigers to the arena after the afternoon show. I didn’t know why. But I found out the trainer wanted to teach me some basics about wild cats & the training of them. Now yes we did use a whip. But it never made contact with the animals unless by accident. We also used a starters pistol with blanks as a scare tactic in emergencies. Cats hate loud noises. That’s why the snap of a whip or a gun shot works so well in the training process. So as the cats roamed and circled the arena I was taught how to snap a whip correctly. I had many welts on my forearm & wrist from learning the correct snap method. Then after a couple days I was brought in to actually run the cats through a couple basic actions they already knew. I learned the correct hand signals & sounds to make them perform certain actions. The most basic is hand moving upward with the palm turned up. That’s to make the cats jump onto their pedestal, barrel etc. Then the circle motion for them to walk in a circle around the barrel. Then I was left with the newest addition a Black Leopard to train her for a future show. I was stunned/shocked to be able to do this on my own time etc. I put her through all the rigmarole of all aspects of training. She was a quick learner also. After a month I was brought in with the Black Leopard during an evening show. I had the semi-tux monkey suit and all on. Bowtie with top hat etc. I felt like a fool but loved the attention of the audience at the same time. I ran her through the basic actions of a circus cat. The jumping up on the barrel, the running around the entire arena. Also the jumping over of the tigers and lions. I was amazed yet scared to death if I was doing a good job. Then came the finale for me & my cat. I snapped the whip pointing to the ground near my feet. She slinked slowly like cats do lying down at my feet. I knelt down grabbing her chin then kissed her on the forehead. I stood and bowed to a loud roar from the audience. That wasn’t the last of my wild cat acts. But it was the most memorable for me. I performed with various cats for almost a year in about 15 different states and got the same loud roar and applause from the crowds. The owner loved my act as I threw in some things they didn’t teach me. As I was a very self empowered child at the time and taught the cats things they didn’t teach them. That’s it for this installment. Hope you enjoyed this little part of my life as the other 3 parts. Thanks for reading this and thanks in advance also for responses forth coming. HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~