When 11-month-old Aryeh visited Zoo Atlanta with his godparents, he donned the cutest lion suit underwear costume to mark the occasion. But, when Aryeh came face to face with real lions (no worries — there was a thick layer of glass between them), it seemed as if the mightiest cats in the animal kingdom were looking to, ahem, adopt.
Aryeh's godparents thankfully took a video of the amazing encounter, which shows the little boy crawling on a ledge and a male lion following him on the other side of the glass. At one point, the lion babydoll chemise stands up on two legs and begins pawing the glass, trying to make contact with his "cub." The connection between the boy and the lion is, as his godmother says in the video, "unreal."
"The lions were immediately interested in our little lion cub, and it wasn't long before they couldn't stand their curiosity any longer and came right up to the glass," Aryeh's godfather wrote on News Flare, where he posted the video. "Aryeh was completely unfazed and interacted with the lions for a few minutes!" But the trio moved along after a few infant animal costumeminutes — the lions were beginning to get anxious. And, well, no one likes an anxious lion.
As it turns out, Aryeh means "lion" in Hebrew — so we could see how the lions at the zoo got a little confused.