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 cats below scattered, the healthy cub deep into the cave, the female into the brush nearby. The sick cub dragged itself partway into the cave and collapsed. A yowl of distress reached them, and the breeze blew grit into their faces.


Valerie and Wolf watched him from the hill. When she couldn’t watch anymore, Valerie whirled and ran back down to the camp, notebooks and equipment forgotten.


The cub was dead the next morning. Valerie found his body some yards from the cave. There were drag marks in the sand; the female must have pulled him away. Flies buzzed over his skinny body. She noticed the jut of his hipbone, too sharp through his dirty fur, his broken leg loose, his eyes sandy and sunken.


Chapter 48