They'rrrre OLD!

MORNING OF JANUARY 29, 2008

I was with at least one friend, possibly more (though even the one I'm sure of is only a vague presence in my memory) and we were visiting some zoo-like location. It wasn't set up like a traditional zoo, but it housed many animals.

At one point we entered a building that looked on the inside like a daycare or nursery. Each room was full of small furniture and other furnishings that you'd expect to find in a child's room. The only odd thing was that the walls and floors were just bare, uncovered cement. Oh, and every room was full of tigers!

My friend and I were speaking to a lady who was obviously one of the caretakers. As I cautiously observed the free-roaming tigers among us, the lady was telling us about one very special female tiger they were privileged to have in their facility. She gave its name, which I don't remember now, and told us this particular tiger was just over 400 years old!

When I expressed shock at the fact that a tiger could live that long, the lady assured me it was indeed highly unusual (most tigers never live to be older than 200 or so, she informed). I asked if we could see the very old tiger, and the caretaker promptly directed us to one corner of the room.

There was an oversize rocking chair in the corner with a huge, silver-white tiger curled up asleep in it. The caretaker carefully awakened the tiger, which slowly and groggily got out of the chair. The tiger's fur wasn't naturally the silver-white it was now, but had changed with age. It moved very slowly and gingerly, but otherwise seemed to be in good shape. I petted it, and couldn't believe it was 400 years old.