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

“I saw him on the highway this morning, on my way to work. I couldn’t believe it. ‘Whoa, that was a cougar, I said’. So I backed up and there he was.”


It wasn’t a he, it was Audrey, a seven-year-old female cougar that Jared had rescued three years previously from a Miami drug dealer who’d been arrested. Litten had wrapped her in a big towel that bore the logo of a nearby golf course. Jared leaned into the trunk to stroke her head. Her eyes were open. She was intact, no blood, but cold, dead. He lifted her gently, felt the sickening weight of her head as it hung too low over his arm. Her thick tail roped against his thigh. And heavy, so heavy, a dead weight of one hundred sixty pounds that made him stagger. His eyes went blurry.


Sonofabitch. Am I gonna see any of these cats alive?


“Let’s bury her, Steve. Mr. Litten—I…” He couldn’t make the words come out. Jared looked at Peter, eyes pleading.


Chapter 44