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

“Yes, hon, kitty cat.” Probably his neighbor’s Siamese, peeing in the coleus he had planted the week before. Thanks a lot. The paper towels eluded him; Tom moved to the laundry room closet, the phone still scrunched in his shoulder.


“Kitty cat! Kitty cat!” His son’s voice rose into that brain-squeezing toddler pitch that only small human beings can muster.


Tom opened the closet door and twelve feet away Aaron screamed, a genuine blood-curdler this time. “Daddy! Kitty cat!”


Tom turned from the closet and looked at his son. Aaron pointed gaily. “Kitty cat!”


Tom’s guts twisted in his belly, a sharp cramp of fear-pain.


The tiger peered in, only a screen between it and Aaron. Tom felt his heart rump-a-thump, like an old engine straining.


Chapter 33