Tigers, tigers, and more tigers.

John,

I don't know where I found my love for tigers, but it goes way back to some of my earliest memories.  I've collected quite a bit of art dedicated to tigers, over the years.  Some is even of my own photography such as the pic below:

Raj the Tiger:  taken at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, UT in the summer of 1992.

I have a very large version of this on the wall at my office.  It may not look too impressive on the screen, but on my wall it is pretty cool.

One summer, on a trip to Canada, my parents came across a petting zoo in Oregon somewhere.  They had a baby tiger and my parents were able to get me in to hold the cub.  

Summer of 1983 in Oregon.  Tom, age 14 years.

Ever since that time I have come across quite a few animals, but this one was always my favorite.

Over the years I have had a number of pets, some more exotic than others:

I have had a tortoise, ball python, ferret, and the traditional black lab.

I've even had the opportunity to work with animals for research at BYU in 1993.

But of all the animals I've encountered, it is always the big cats that impress me the most.  My most recent encounter was with Vikki in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  She heard about a zoo there that had an opportunity to get up close with a couple different types of big cats:

Vikki with Kiara, a black jaguar.

And I got to play with Melchor the tiger.

I have been very lucky to see some of the animals I have seen.  I've had opportunities to see all kinds of wildlife not only in zoos, but also in the wild.  I hope to be able to go with Vikki to Alaska, Africa, and Borneo some day, as well as Australia, Figi, Tahiti, and Hawaii to see more undersea life via SCUBA.

With that in mind, good night.

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