A TIGER IN MY WHAT?
Amara came to live at Tiger Creek after being seized by authorities from a man who kicked her, hit her and thought it entertaining to watch her fight with his Rottweiler dog. She had so desperately tried to escape the cage that held her in these abusive conditions that, when authorities confiscated her, she had required stitches in her paws. A cold, wintry rain fell the day Amara came to Tiger Creek, weather much too harsh for a frightened baby tiger with sore paws to sleep outside, so that's how her first bed came to be the bathtub.
Kind workers gave her blankets and toys and talked softly to her but the horrors of abuse lingered and Amara could not shed her fear. Yet in spite of the terror and dread that filled her short life, perhaps she clung to a faint memory of short-lived love and security with her mother, because at night when all was quiet she would sneak out and search the house. Her heart must have leaped when she spotted the big teddy bear on the living room sofa. She found comfort with that old stuffed bear and attempted to drag it back to the security of her bathtub, but always it would get stuck between the wall and coffee table and she had to leave her source of comfort behind. Terri, a sympathetic Tiger Creek worker, finally took it to the tub for her and she slept with it constantly.
In Texas, cold weather doesn't usually hang around for long and a growing Amara was soon moved outside into an enclosure with another tiger. That faint memory of her mother must have sparked once again because Amara's anxiety disappeared immediately as her self awareness recognized "one of its own". Normally tigers are solitary animals, socializing very little with each other, but Amara had not had a normal tiger life.
It's now been four years. Amara has grown into a beautiful adult tiger. Her "chuffs" can be heard among the other cats at Tiger Creek and at feeding time she paces and growls with the other cats, in anticipation of her meal. But if someone reaches out to her she moves away.
Are the early memories of terror and abuse a permanent part of her? Will those emotional scars never heal? Four years, yet Terri reports that, just the other day, Amara approached her and stayed near her
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