USAToday: Along the Tigris River, near two of Saddam's 78 presidential palaces, two Army scouts came upon a metal door to a walled compound. When they jarred it open, one of them, Staff Sgt. Darren Swain, thought he saw a tail. "Hey man," he said to the other soldier, "that looked like a lion." Inside the compound was a small, private zoo, where lions, cheetahs, a bear and German shepherds were starving. The soldiers opened their MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and pushed pound cake through the bars for the bear. They tossed chicken meals to young lions and two lion cubs. Most of the animals had been locked in cages surrounded by a chain-link fence. The young lions had the run of the compound, but the bear and cheetahs were confined to their pens. The soldiers worried that the caged animals couldn't reach any water. That's when Capt. Stefan McFarland entered the fenced-in compound with his 9mm pistol in one hand and a chair in the other. He needed to reach the cages to free the other animals. "The Crocodile Hunter would be proud of you guys," said Maj. Kent Rideout, a battalion executive officer who was watching. Apparently, the MREs didn't satisfy the animals. The soldiers ended up pulling live sheep from a nearby pen and pushing the animals into the lion compound. While the soldiers looked on, the young lions pounced on and killed two of the sheep, fending off the cheetahs and the bear for the spoils.