The cheetah, which can reach speeds up to 75 mph, is the elegant sprinter of the savannah. It can run down a gazelle without breaking a sweat then tear out its throat with the grace of a runway model. It is a rare child who has missed the opportunity to appreciate the cheetah’s killing ability via nature programming and the internet. So when nine-year-old Toby Taylor of Cambridgeshire, England, told his mom there was a cheetah in the garden eating his bike, she should have known immediately that he was telling the truth.
Jules Taylor thought her son was full of it until she looked out the kitchen window and saw the 6-foot-long cat chewing on the boy’s bicycle.
“I started to have a go at Toby for slamming the door,” she told The Independent, “when he ran up to me shouting, ‘Mummy, there’s a cheetah in the garden.’ I thought he was pulling my leg but he was white, shaking and shrill. We peered out of the kitchen window and there it was, sitting bang in the middle of our lawn, looking at the house.”
Toby had been in his yard playing on his bike when he noticed the cheetah standing fifteen feet away. He dropped his bike and ran 40 feet to the house, from where he watched the giant cat take a bite out of his bike’s leather seat and sink its claws into the tires.
It turns out that the three-year-old cheetah, named Akea, had escaped from a nearby zoo earlier that day. After being alerted to the incident, keepers came to the yard and took the cat away.
According to the UK Independent: Andrew Swales, the zoo’s director, said: “Akea was away for a few minutes, visited our neighbour, had his harness and lead put on and returned home. When our keepers arrived in our neighbour’s garden, Akea was happily playing with a bicycle, which must have reminded him of one of his toys.
“He wouldn’t pose any danger, and his reaction to strangers would be the same as a pet dog –œ either a friendly greeting or a guarded retreat.”
Cheetah in the yard? Cheetah! I don’t even go to school with this kid and I’m jealous of him. He’s earned some swagger time on the playground for sure.
[Via: The Independent]
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