Curiosity

Last week I administered first aid to an Israeli boy who'd been attacked by a tiger. Do I have your attention? It's true, but the tiger was 4 months old, the injuries were minor and we were at a zoo, where I worked in north Thailand.

Anyone who knows me long enough can verify how much I love cats. Which is to say, not at all! It might surprise you then to know I've been working at a zoo for the past two weeks working with Indo-Chinese tigers. Tiger Kingdom is a zoo that has recently opened near Chiang Mai, Thailand and is unique because it allows visitors to go inside with the tigers and pet them and take pictures. I was one of these visitors when I asked if they hired foreigners. Half an hour later I had a job!

I wasn't looking for a job necessarily but I was looking for something to do. Working with tigers could be fun. My day-t0-day duties included arriving at 7:00am to clean the tiger pool and pick up the leaves that had fallen and coconuts that had been ripped apart from the previous day. Then I would help bottle feed the newborn cubs and shower and eat breakfast and wait for visitors to show up at around 9:30. For the rest of the day I was one of the staff members who took tourists into the cage armed only with a foot long bamboo stick should any of the tigers get too curious. After 20 minutes, all the tigers have been petted, pictures taken and questions answered and another group came in. This went on all day until 6pm when I could go home.

There are seventeen tigers at the zoo; 2 five years old, 2 fifteen months old, 4 nine months old, 4 four months old and 5 one month old. Guests can choose to play with the 9, 4 or 1 month old tigers.

After two weeks at the zoo I realized that tigers are just big cats. Duh! And I don't even like cats! In fact, I'm allergic to cats! What am I doing here? So I quit. Actually it's a longer story than that. True, I'm not crazy about cats, including tigers. I jumped into the job before I knew exactly what I would be doing (answering the same questions 50 times a day) and would not be doing (training tigers.) Then I got very sick which not only made me miss anything familiar but made me feel even more lonely and isolated than I already was. All my co-workers were Thai, and most didn't speak English so I was unable to have conversations with them and basic communications became more frustrating than usual. I decided to forgo extending my visa and continue on to Laos where I'll be heading this week.