Tuesday, 2 June 2009

 

Tiger Idyll in the Zoo

The great big tiger has his great fuzzy head backed up right against the glass wall. There is a mere nothing, a few centimeters of invisible glass separating his chewing maw from the tourists, and the tourists, big and small, are full of excitement.
The great big tiger ignores them. He is chewing at a haunch of some kind, there is only a small leap of imagination separating it from a human leg. He rips unfussily through the tendons and the yellowish skin. Stringy gobs of meat dangle from it like a dancer's fringe and twitch impetuously. The great big tiger has great fuzzy ears and dinner plate sized paws to give you a dinner plate sized smack across your gob and knock your teeth out. His great big body stretches lazily along the glass wall. His paws are round and tender and strong as they dig into their prey.
The tourists have only very tiny silver cameras infront of their faces and flash red lights into his face, but the tiger isn't bothered. He tosses and teases his haunch coquettishly and his tail lies curled up and peaceful on the ground.
The tiger's tiger friend comes over to look at the haunch but the tiger ignores him too. Then the tiger friend throws himself on his back and rolls around on the ground like a purring cat to distract him. The tiger raises his head in disdain and chews.
In the back, two tiger kids pause their play to prick their ears to a sound. One shakes his hear earlier and seeing his friend still preoccupied, lunges forward and bites him in the foot. This is cat humour, and there is a look of predictable cat smugness about him as his friend jumps and dashes away. The usurper thrones on the clearing like a prince. In the bushes, a smarty pawed avenger plots his return.
The great big tiger chews his haunch. Bloodied strings of meat dangle serenely from his jaws.

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