The Lion in Manvel

Not long ago, Paula and Fred became grandparents. Sometimes, their daughter leaves the child with them on the condition they not take the baby into the cage. Paula humors her with a promise, but as soon as her daughter is gone, Paula goes straightaway into the cage to introduce one baby to the other.

Nila licked the pregnant belly and now sniffs the baby. She eats five pounds of brisket a day and seems happy enough. There's still room in her cage to leap a few times, and her jumbo-size doghouse has five fans for the summer, a 1,500-watt heater for the winter and a radio that's never off. "KIKK all the time," says Fred. In the morning, he tries to read the paper as Nila tries to sit in his lap. At night, Paula grabs a pillow and sleeps on the doghouse roof. This is their life in the cage.

"It's not any different from having an ex-husband and fighting for custody," Paula says. "I'll fight tooth and nail for her."

She'll max out her credit cards, live on the run, whatever it takes. Several weeks ago, she ran an ad in the Alvin Sun that read, "Help Us Keep Our Lion." After that, Sarah Black, a longtime Manvellian, knocked on her door. She looked around, met the cat and became a friend.

"I don't see a problem here," said Sarah Black. "We've got more serious problems than a little lion in the back yard. I mean, if people want to get excited about killing their kids, we got all these chemical waste dumps around here."

This was a train of thought that appealed to Fred. What about driving, he said. That's the most dangerous thing he knew, and everyone does it. And have you ever been to a bullfight? A bull can do a lot of damage, "and we have bulls all over out here."

Sarah knew someone who raised gamecocks. "Ever been chased by a gamecock?" she asked. "Now there's a dangerous animal."

So it went for wild dogs and crazed teenagers, too. Manvel was beginning to seem a very frightening place, until Paula Tholen spoke. No, she said, she can't promise her lion will never harm anyone. Life doesn't come with guarantees.

"Only the guy upstairs can guarantee something," she said, "and that's that we're all going to die.