I’ve been thinking about the Bengal tiger that got stuck on his climbing platform at a zoo in Bristol. They had built it to give him something interesting to do. It was 15metres high with lots of different walkways and platforms. Earlier this week he climbed to the top of it in a matter of seconds, but then couldn’t get down. Everyone branded him a ‘scaredy cat’ as whenever he put a paw over the edge as though he was going to try, he pulled it back again and sat tight. He was up there for over 24 hours without food or water. What I was thinking was that maybe he suffers from a medical problem, like my Mistress, which would have meant when he looked down he was completely disorientated. Branding him a coward might have been completely unreasonable in those circumstances. I was thinking that it might be more appropriate to send in a rescue party. I guess the fire brigade are good at rescuing cats out of trees, they could have been called. It might have been wise to mention that they were dealing with something a little larger and it might be just a tiny bit hungry, but I’m sure they would have risen to the challenge.
As it turned out, when he got hungry enough he came down of his own accord, which in truth would probably happen with most of the domestic cats that get stuck up trees, if their owners were prepared to wait long enough for them to be that hungry!
I still think calling him a coward is mean. If it is a medical thing, there would be nothing he could do about it. Tiger’s do have feelings too you know. I think he should write a piece for the newspapers telling his side of the story.