If you're not at Burger King, you can't always have it your way

A friend of mine has a relative who took her children to one of those farm stand places where they have Apple Festivals in Autumn, and cider and doughnuts and hay mazes and hayrides. They arrived too late; the hayride tractor was being put away and the employees were closing up everything, but this person, an attorney, loudly and publicly clamored for her children to be able to have a hayride.

The employees said they were sorry, but the sign posted said that hayrides were over at 5 PM, and they should have come earlier, and they tried to be as kind as possible, but this person, an attorney, would not hear of it.

"I DEMAND a hayride for my children!" she shouted.

And don't you know, they got that tractor back out and loaded up the kids and took them on what must have been a helluva happy hayride.

Lion Park is a wildlife center in South Africa's Gauteng province, where one can drive along the roads and see all sorts of animals, including lions, zebras, giraffes and wild dogs. Upon entering, visitors are given a piece of paper with the rules, the main one being that the car windows have to be rolled UP at all times, which only makes sense.  But the other day, a 29-year-old woman, Katherine Chappell of Rye, New York was killed at the safari outside Johannesburg. She was taking pictures of a lioness, with her car window down to get a better picture, and the lioness, who was with her cubs, reached in through the window that should not have been open, and killed her.

We see this all the time...people jumping into the cages of large cats and other dangerous animals at zoos and parks.  Sometimes, they are sadly deranged individuals bent on suicide, sometimes, they are under the delusion that getting closer to our animal kin is good for the soul, and sometimes, they just want to take photographs.

This is not a housecat

And of course, there is this curious human tendency to demand that things be done the way we want them - or else!

Unlike the people who operate hayrides and apple festivals, animals don't operate with the same sort of logic that a rational human employs in making decisions.  A mother lion sees her offspring being encroached upon, and responds the only way she knows.

And that's the way it's going to be, until animals evolve to the point at which they have attorneys to resolve these matters.  So until then, I urge each and every one of us to follow the rules of animal engagement.  They're in place for a reason.