China Doll Tries to Kill Auroara Tiger

 

(Auroara’s ball is 48 in diameter and weighs 90 lbs. )

 

Standing between two adult tigers as they were reared up on their back legs and roaring at each other turned out to be one of the dumbest things I ever did.  But, I fear I’d do it again for love.

 

China Doll and Shere Khan have about 2-3 acres of mostly swamp, with access to the lake.  Next door was Auroara Tiger who has about an acre of lakefront property.  There is a shared wall in the lake, but we’ve covered it with shade cloth to keep the cats from getting a tail, ear or paw through to the other side.  China Doll and Auroara are about 300 and 280 pounds respectively, but Shere Khan weighs well over 700 pounds due to his high percentage of Amur blood.  He’s neutered but loves both girls and decided to tear down the water wall so he could be near Auroara. 

 

He’s also the most timid of the three, so after tearing down the wall, he didn’t venture into Auroara’s side, so she went to him.  That meant having to get past the very jealous China Doll, who was having none of this ménage à trois.  The roaring is what called us all to the scene and it was a bone chilling sight to me.  My “baby” was about to be killed by China Doll. 

 

Neither of them were hearing my screams of “NOOOOO!” and there was no drawing their attention away from each other.  We have a number of tricks to divert a cat’s attention, like food, or even an empty bucket, like the kind that brings food, or an air horn, or a fire extinguisher, but nothing was breaking up their rearing up, face to face, paws flailing toward each other and snarled teeth snapping at the air between. 

 

I yelled for our van to be pulled up as close as possible to the side of the cage, with the side door open.  My plan...my stupid plan...was to cut a hole in the cage right behind Auroara and try to get her out of there.  I told the volunteers to line up in two rows from the cage wall to the open door of the van, to create a walkway for Auroara to use as a guide.  All I had to do now was figure out how to get her out the door, without turning her back on China Doll, which would certainly encourage her to make a lunge for the back of Auroara’s neck.

 

I took a chain, to throw around Auroara’s neck, but it was distracting her from keeping up the pretense of being big and bad enough to keep China Doll at bay.  I tried getting in between her and China Doll, flailing my paws at China Doll and roaring “NOOOO!” at her.   China Doll would have laughed if she weren’t so incensed about Auroara in her space. 

 

The last resort would probably land China Doll on my neck and be the end of me, but I didn’t know what else to do.  I grabbed Auroara by the scruff of the neck, pulling her off balance as she was up on her back feet again.  I threw her and my body weight sideways and over toward the hole in the fence and pushed her out into the “welcome line” of volunteers.  Auroara leaped from the side of the cage into the van in what appeared to be a single leap, and the door was slammed shut.

 

One tiger contained.  Two to go. 

 

So far so good.  China Doll was not on my back, so I scrambled out the hole I cut and used my body to block the hole as a patch was being secured in place.  Now that China Doll couldn’t see Auroara she wasn’t as intent on going after her, so that was good.  Shere Khan was just watching the whole thing from the sidelines and I wondered if he’d protect me?  Would he have stepped in if he saw that China Doll was turning her rage toward me, or would he be too fearful of her wrath?  Even if he were to help, I’d probably been torn limb from limb in the process.  Cats just don’t let go once they set their mind on something.

 

I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates thi