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Haley
Joel Osment leaves town next week with
a lion tooth in his pocket.
It's
a present from Marie Reeves, his body
double for dangerous scenes involving
the title characters of "Secondhand
Lions," Tim McCanlies' film that
ends production around Austin next week
and sends home Pasha, Torig and Kenya
-- three young lions weighing in at close
to 250 pounds each.
"I
try to keep my face down and at the same
time not get my throat bitten," the
diminutive Reeves says of the cats, ranging
in age from 18 to 20 months. "And
I still have to get what the director
wants."
Reeves
raised the lions from cubs and trains
them for the cameras by sticking to play
behavior. Pasha, as if understanding Reeves,
rolls on her back in her cage-within-a-cage
and waits for a belly rub.
"Not
letting your guard down and remembering
they're not cute and cuddly kitties --
that's the biggest challenge," Reeves
says.
"Secondhand
Lions" involves a plethora of critters,
including bloodhounds, podengo hunting
dogs, French bulldogs, pigs and an African
reticulated giraffe named Kelsey.
Animal
coordinator Stacy Gunderson housed the
motley crew at Triple Crown Dog Academy
near Hutto, where the lions have been
under 24-hour watch to keep any brave
sightseer from losing a limb, and where
the pooches have basked in a bone-shaped,
saline-filled swimming pool surrounded
by fake palm trees and sand.
"This
is like the Bahamas for dogs," says
Gunderson, whose résumé
includes both "Dr. Doolittle"
films and "Snow Dogs."
Gunderson
drops a plastic ring on the ground and
calls Linus, a five-year-old bulldog,
to his mark. He sneezes on command. Then
she sends him to walk with a stranger,
a move called a "go with."
"Haley
is not afraid to pay the dogs," Gunderson
says of the film's star, and pulls out
a dog treat. "Nobody works for free."
Kelsey
was a special case because giraffes are
"not known for their brain power,"
Gunderson says.
The
giraffe had to be put in a giant box and
raised in a forklift for one scene.
"I
was really glad when that was over,"
says Gunderson, who graduated from a college
exotic animal training program before
signing on with Birds and Animals Unlimited
13 years ago.
The
movie shoot was a boon for Triple Crown,
which offers everything from dog training
to kennel services at its idyllic 350-acre
facility.
**Many
thanks to OZ
for this article.
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