Remarkable bond between a woman and her pet LION who eats 9lbs of food a day and cuddles up with her on the sofa

Animal lover Annel Snyman and her pet cat Timba exemplify the incredible bond that can grow between man and beast.

But Timba is no ordinary house cat. He's a hulking house lion that can polish of 9lbs of raw meat a day and could bite off her head any time he liked.
But Timba is really a big softie, and loves nothing more than to cuddle up to Annel on the sofa of their home in the Waterburg region of South Africa.



Timba, who is one year and six months old, also enjoys going for walks with Annel's six-year-old dog, Diesel and 'helping out' with everyday chores around the house.
And as these remarkable pictures show, Annel has now formed an incredible bond with the 120kg lion, after adopting him as a cub in March last year.
The 31-year-old, who lives in the Waterberg region of South Africa, just outside Bela-Bela, said she loved her unconventional pet.
 
Annel's love for animals started six years ago when, with help from her mother and father, she opened a guest house - called Loebies Guestfarm - on the land where she lives.
In a bid to make the resort more appealing she decided to adopt various farm animals and this eventually turned into hand-rearing African cats and other wild animals after being approached by someone in the game industry in 2009.

Since then Annel has hand-reared dozens of animals including six Serval kittens, a cheetah cub, five lions, a white lion and a leopard.
Annel admits she spoilt the first lions she cared for even more than Timba and would regularly go swimming with them.

She said: 'Being the first lions reared on the farm, they ruled the house, the bed and the couches and would regularly join me for swims in the farm dam up until they were rather large.