The look in the tiger’s eyes was one of intense concentration. Lifting a paw with the slow steadiness of a focused predator, his gaze never wavered. He placed the paw just as silently. One step toward his prey. Another.
He moved across the enclosure with all his wild instinct intact, despite having spent his early years as someone’s misbegotten idea of a pet. Now in the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Center, he had room to run and play, plenty of raw meat to keep him healthy, and friends from other species.
Two more steps. Three. His prey, a large male African lion, lounged on the other side of the chain link fence, gazing into space with the infinite patience of a meditating cat, apparently unaware of his stalker.
The tiger’s steady pace brought him to the fence without the lion even twitching. Lifting his front paw, the tiger touched the lion where he leaned against the fence. The lion leaped up, turned, and touched noses with the tiger. Another successful game of sneak-a-kiss.
Laura K. Deal, from Boulder, CO, is a writer, a teacher, a dreamworker, and a big fan of tigers. You can read more about her at www.LauraDeal.com You can read more about the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Center, where this story's events occurred, at http://www.wildanimalsanctuary.org
© 2007 Laura K. Deal. Original for CCF (Deal grants CCF first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology).
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