Since her mother was Tippi Hedren, you probably assumed that actress Melanie Griffith didn't have a normal childhood. What you probably didn't know is that she grew up with an enormous fucking lion named Neil.
A series of pictures were originally published in LIFE magazine in 1971 and they're probably the most compelling thing we've seen in weeks. Since the photos are so incredible, we're just going to present them to you, filtered only by some brief thoughts and some amazing lines from the Daily Mail.
1.
"Neil came to live with the family in bizarre circumstances, after they adopted him from Anton Lavey, High Priest of the Church of Satan, who was told he could no longer keep him in his small San Francisco apartment." So what you're saying is, this lion once belong to SATAN.
2.
Tippi, did you not learn anything from The Birds!?!?!
3.
"Oohp, sorry Jim, I've gotta call you back. A lion just walked into my office."
4.
"The majestic beast was adopted by the family after they took a trip to Africa and decided to make a movie about lions, Roar, which would take 11 years to complete."
5.
"Sadly, the movie was a box office flop,and the production was plagued by injuries resulting from working with lions." OH NO, YOU THINK!?
6.
Noel Marshall, Tippi Hedren's then-husband had to be the most stressed out agent in Hollywood in the Seventies.
7.
Is the line between play-fighting and real-fighting something you really want to test with a full-sized lion?
8.
"I definitely don't get paid enough for this shit."
