My wife and I were walking in the deep forest when I heard a noise, like a bird fluttering. Then I heard a crunch right behind me, pretty close, and I thought a bicycle was going to be right on top of me. But it was a lion, coming with his front paws aimed at the middle of my back. I ducked, like you would duck a bad pitch in baseball. It stumbled on its face a little bit, turned around, and faced off at me. I stuck my arm out in defense, and it grabbed it. It hurt just like somebody hit you in the arm with an ax. It tore a deep hole in my right arm and hung on. It started going with all four claws like a house cat. It never even made a sound. The moment I went down, it grabbed a hunk of the top of my skull and ripped off a patch of my scalp the size of your palm. I screamed out when that happened, and that's when my wife heard. She got a big tree limb, and when she hit the lion, I felt the blow come through its body to mine. My face was down in the dirt — it was on top of me and had a hold of my head. I got my fingers in its nose and twisted the hell out of it. I just pissed off the lion. It grabbed me by the mouth so that our teeth were gritting together. It shook its head side to side and just ripped my mouth all to pieces. My wife was still beating away at it. Never fazed it. It was digging on my head again, trying to get a hold, like if you were trying to grab a basketball but it slips. I knew I was running out of time. My wife took the limb and just jammed it at the lion's head, and the points on it must have hit the lion and it jumped back. It was crouched with its ears down, its teeth bared, glaring at her and twitching. She had the limb above her head and she was screaming like hell. It just relaxed, turned around, and walked behind the ferns. And it was gone. — As told to Steven Yaccino

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