A man. A tiger. A tornado. Jared Montaine owns a big cat rescue in Florida and faces financial pressures, getting over his ex-wife, and the challenge of suburbia creeping ever closer to his enclave for the animals. But when a tornado wrecks part of the refuge, Jared's worst fear comes to life: his Siberian tiger, Sultan, escapes. It's a big cat handler’s nightmare: a tiger on the loose, confused, lost -- and hungry. Jared races against the police, the media, and the hysterical public, all of whom are clamoring for the tiger's hide. He must re-capture Sultan before the cat is killed -- by traffic, by SWAT, or by a civilian who just wants to shoot a tiger. With fellow wildlife handlers at his side, Jared fights desperately to find and capture Sultan before the tiger injures or kills a human. Because that would lead to his worst nightmare -- having to kill the tiger he hand-raised from a cub. Jared’s commitment is tested -- to his animals, his refuge, and his belief that saving the life of even one tiger is worth losing everything.

The Tiger Whisperer

The mother duck’s body lay in the sun for several days; Jared didn’t have the guts to bury her. When she was gone, he assumed a gator had gotten her.


He’d had the dream when things were bad before. When he was eighteen and his father was diagnosed with cancer; twice before big games while in college; again when he and Juliana had a terrible fight during their first year of marriage.


The duck dream. It sounded silly, but it scared him more than facing a tiger in the night.


“Let’s get moving again.” He puffed as he rose, stretched, heard his knees creak. He gently windmilled his arms; his ribs had stiffened up a lot. The two men scuffed through the leaves, back to the van.


They moved farther east but there were no signs of Sultan through the long night. No scat, no claw marks, no urine markings.


Chapter 32