This week’s animal is a little different.  Meet Mello, official mascot of the 2007 Cricket World Cup:

The woman with him is his handler, who has spent several months working with big cats in preparation for the tournament.  You really haven’t trained until you’ve handled big cats swinging large wooden bats.

Sure, Mello looks like the quintessential laid-back icon of West Indian smoothitude, I grant you.  (And could anything possibly be more calming than an afternoon in the Caribbean… watching cricket?  Toss in 90-degree heat and humidity, and It’s amazing anyone hasn’t slipped permanently into gelatinous torpor.)  And no question, on his good days, Mello is an absolute treat for young and old alike, a feline fountain of big-shoed mirth.  Nobody does a between-innings hokey-pokey with the kids like Mello.  Nobody.  That’s why he’s getting this one last chance.

But just in case, his handler is packing utility-belt tasers and maintaining constant communication with rooftop snipers armed with tranquilizer guns.

Mello… has a few rough edges.  Let’s say that.