I don’t remember the part of The Lion King when Simba was kicked out of the house. But that seems to be what’s soon to happen to the National Zoo’s three year-and-a-half-old male lion cubs, who have started exhibiting some behavior that’s a little too, well, frisky for the family home.

A recent incident in Ohio got us to thinking — what exactly are the rules in the District when it comes to owning non-standard pets? Would a resident be able to keep a lion, tiger, coyote or flamingo in their backyard?

Seven young lions at the National Zoo celebrated their first birthdays today the only way they knew how — by chewing through a 50-pound birthday cake made of ice, two cow femurs, five pounds of shaved beef, and a half-gallon of cow blood.

A newly-single mother is forced out of her home, as a rival family brutally beats her, and murders her husband. Displaced, she flees to unfamiliar territory, homeless and barely able to watch over her three young children. Her efforts to put food on the table for her family are blocked at every turn by the hulking, scarfaced leader of a band of thugs who like to hang out near the area where she’s tried to stake out a hideaway. Meanwhile, that rival family, led by a half-blind silver-eyed matriarch, continues to stalk her and her children, intent on wiping them out entirely. The mother must somehow run all of these gauntlets and either learn to survive on her own or manage to get accepted into that rival family if she has any hope of raising her children.

That may sound like the pitch for a pretty intense crime thriller, or an intimate gangster piece about warring mob families. Believe it or not, it’s actually the basic outline of the conservation-minded nature documentary, The Last Lions.

It’s been a long, hard day of political analysis, fallout and bickering. As a result, I’m pretty sure that nearly everyone in D.C. would be incredibly well-served by watching this video right now and repeating, as necessary.

We can’t get enough of all the new lion cubs at the National Zoo. As you know, lioness Shera had four adorable cubs in August, followed by Nababiep’s three babies last month. Nababiep’s African lion cubs took their first visit to the vet’s office this morning, so enjoy the cute overload above. The Zoo reports on the checkup:”We’re happy to see that the cubs are growing and that each appears to be in good health,”…

Uh, guys: there’s more lion cubs at the National Zoo. The Zoo added three more cubs — seen above in all of their CCTV glory — to its already impressive haul of four. (Come on, you know you can’t resist clicking through that gallery again.) Mama Nababiep — whose first cub born at the zoo unfortunately died in May — went into labor early this morning and gave birth to the three new additions between 8 and 10:30. Happy days, people. Fingers crossed that all seven make it through.

We’ve got ourselves some new lion cubs! The National Zoo reports that at some point last night between 10:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m., proud parents Shera and Luke welcomed four lion cubs to their pride. Oh, and get this: “Because it is not uncommon for intervals between births to be several hours long, we will continue to monitor Shera for additional cubs.” The Zoo’s other lioness, Nababiep, also bred with Luke earlier this summer, and is expected to deliver at some point in September. All this happy news is much appreciated, considering that the Zoo’s last lion cub died in May after a freak accident in which a straw awn became lodged in its lung.

The first cub born to female lion Nababiep (pictured) earlier this week has died. Photo by Mehgan Murphy, courtesy Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Awful news for baby animal lovers. Officials at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo confirm that the lion cub born Tuesday has died. Lion keepers observed Thursday evening that the cub had stopped responding to its mother, and after moving mom Nababiep out of her den, were able to confirm the death. The cub…

Photo by Mehgan Murphy, courtesy Smithsonian’s National Zoo For the first time in more than 20 years, a lion pride has successfully reproduced at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Zoo officials say a cub was born to 6-year-old lion Nababiep early this morning. Tragically, the zoo has yet to release any cuddly wuddly images of the brand new baby lion. Images accompanying the press release sent out with the birth announcement were only of the…