House Pets : Togar the Lion...

Tippi Hedren and Togar the lion

Tippi Hedren and Togar the lion

Melanie Griffith and Togar the Lion

Tippi Hedren and Togar the lion

Tippi Hedren and Togar the lion

 Did you know Actress Tippi Hendren lived with a Lion?  No nor did I until I found these pictures from a 1971 Life magazine! I had seen the second picture before but thought it was a taxidermy animal... I love big animals but I think even for me a Lion as a pet is a bit way- out, especially around my kids!!

"On the edge of the Mojave Desert forty miles northeast of Los Angeles is SHAMBALA, a "Shangri-La" for unwanted and abandoned exotic animals. The only game preserve of its kind in the United States, Shambala is a unique haven for more than 50 large animals that live together on 60-acres of a recreated African wildlife habitat. Residing in this secluded riverine are African Lions, Royal Bengal Tigers, African and Asian Leopards, American Cougars, African Servals and African Elephants, most of them orphans or cast-offs from circuses, private owners and zoos. And overseeing them all from a modest 2-bedroom cottage surrounded by the animal compounds is Tippi Hedren, star of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, whose life has evolved from actress to animal protector, conservationist and "den mother" to a unique brood of felines"

Extract from The Pet Press