Here kitty kitty
“Do you trust me?” Robyn asked, turning from her computer to look at me. It was Monday afternoon, and I’d just returned from a long hike.
“I guess,” I said, immediately suspicious. “Why?”
“There’s some place I want us to go on Saturday, and I guarantee you’ll love it. It’s outside, and it’ll take us a couple of hours to get there.”
“Will there be a lot of people?”
Priorities, you know.
“I doubt it.”
“If I agree to do it, will you tell me what it is?”
She considered, then pulled a section of newspaper out of her desk and handed it to me.
“I saw this at the shelter this morning when I was taking care of the cats. I want us to go to this place,” she said.
The top half of the page was a big picture of a man holding two tiger cubs. I scanned the article, which was about an exotic animal rescue group about 90 minutes from here called “Tigers for Tomorrow”, quickly. They saved big cats, and kept them safe and well-treated for the rest of their lives. Not-for-profit, completely devoted to their animals, and not a tawdry carnival sideshow. Matter of fact, they only open their doors to the public once a week. I looked up at Robyn.
“You know what sucks about this?” I asked.
“What?”
“That we have to wait until Saturday!”
Saturday, however, came today, and we drove over to the southern part of Dekalb County to see if, in fact, here be tygers.
We arrive at the facility
Tigers for Tomorrow rescues all kinds of animals, including wolves.
They have probably between 15 and 20 tigers, all of which are simply beautiful.
The tigers love to play in water, and got VERY excited when our
guide (more on that in a bit) got out the hose.
Look at that beautiful lady. Want to see her better?
Check out the big version.
I had no idea that tigers loved water so much.
They had plenty of big cats besides tigers.
Above is a cougar who came over to check us out just as I was taking her picture.
Mr. Lion (really, that’s his name) watches us from the shade of his domicile.
Looks like a good ole boy, doesn’t he?
Miz Cougar (not her real name) stretches out for us, and shows her belly.
Alas, there’s something I haven’t been telling you. Robyn and I didn’t have the normal tour. We had the special tour. As things so often seem to happen in our lives, we had a little bit of serendipity this morning at Tigers for Tomorrow.
We both had to pee like nobody’s business when we got there, me because I’d stopped for Mickey D’s coffee (large!) no less than three times on the way, and Robyn because she’d been sipping water since she got up. While Robyn was in the port-a-potty, one of the volunteers (who runs the on-site petting farm of zebras, camels, ostriches, goats, horses, tortoises, and llamas) came over and introduced herself. We had a short conversation about the organization, the site, and animals in general.
Then, on a whim, I said, “I’ll bet that no matter how much I beg there’s no way you guys would let us actually touch a tiger, is there? Liability, and all that.”
And poof, magic.
“Actually, there is,” she said. “For a donation of $200, you can get a private tour with your own guide, and at the end—only because we happen to have them right now—you get to spend 30 minutes in the pen with our tiger cubs. If you sign a waiver.”
Thirty minutes. In a pen. With baby tigers.
For two hundred dollars and a signature.
As if there even needed to be any discussion about whether or not we’d be willing to pay $200 to play with baby tigers. And everyone knows the best things in life require a waiver.
But look at the time—it’s getting so late I’ll need to save those pictures for another day.
Okay, one small teaser picture.
Well damn, you sure are a teasing fool. hee! I was all geared up to see lotsa baby tiger pics. What a cool place. Can’t wait to see more…thanks for sharing!
P.S. If Robyn ever mentions volunteering there, you might want to nip that in the bud….otherwise you could find yourself living in a tiger foster home! But on second thought, Sugarbutt and Tom Cullen interacting with those big boys might make for some excellent journal entries, so forget I said anything!
“…I’ll need to save those pictures for another day.” –Those, Fred, are words to be killed by…
There’s no way we could sweet talk you into posting them veryveryvery soon, is there?
Me likey pretty kitties!
Wow. Just amazing. I’m very jealous. I can’t wait to see more pictures of the babies!
What strikes me about these pictures is how healthy the animals look. I live close to one of the bigger, major zoos in the US and their cats don’t even look anywhere as healthy as the ones in these pictures. It still makes me sad to see them in cages, but at least this bunch looks well taken care of.
Your pictures were beautiful! The kitties look really well-cared for, which is terrific. I couldn’t believe the size of their paws and claws…bet they could ruin a couch in about two seconds
Can’t wait to see the pics of the babies.
Tigers, Lions, Panthers..if it is a big kitty I am in lurve!
We have a place here in Arkansas that is similar. I got to play in the cage with a FULL SIZE once. I had a pharmacist friend who raised one. Big paws has no meaning until you put one of theirs in yours. Most awesome thing ever!!
Holy moly! Too cool! And also, WOW! IN the pen. WITH TIGERS. !!!!! Just…!!!!!
Now leave it to me to ask a really goofy question, but in the photo of the tiger playing in the water - I swear, is that his gnarly red bare right eyeball staring at us through the spray? I looked at the big version and it totally squicked me out.
Cheap at twice the price! Just beautiful! I’m really glad there’s an organization like this.
Fred, Very cool.
Are these tigers and other animals rescues from exotic animal parks and individuals who try to raise them at home? I was just curious what they were rescued from?
Melissa: These were, without a doubt, the healthiest- and happiest-looking big cats I’ve ever seen. They had nice big enclosures. Most of them, anyway. Because they just moved up here, a few are still in temporary areas that are way bigger than a cage, but still small compared to the permanent ones. The permanent areas were VERY nice. For example, they’re in the process of putting stone-lined pools in all the enclosures (like I said, the tigers love water). They’d finished one while we were there, and we got to see the release of the tiger back into the enclosure. He went to the pool, sniffed it, touched it, then flopped down in the water. Here’s a picture of him, and you can get a feel for the size of the enclosure. The picture shows the width of the area (that woman in the back runs the place with her husband), and the length is roughly double the width. I think these tigers get treated better than our cats, which should tell you something.
Kathy: Might the thing you’re talking about be her pink nose? Her eyes are closed in that picture. If you’re looking right above the leftmost upper canine (the big fang) at the pink and black, that’s nose and nostril, respectively. All the tigers have golden beige/brown/green eyes (like the one in the pic below the water picture).
Martin: Indeed, that’s where they get most of them — people (assholes) who get the cubs, and quickly realize big cats aren’t supposed to be pets; carnivals that have gotten newer cats and are going to put down the old ones simply because they’re grown up; some have been saved from “canned hunts”, which are exactly what they sound like.
That cougar breaks my heart a little. Lovely pics. (I read these out of order and started with the babies). I’m still jealous.
Those are all wonderful pictures. I especially love the two of the cougar; she’s so beautiful. And she must be quite happy and trusting to show her belly like that!