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 thought of putting Sultan into the ground made him retch; he leaned over, head down over his knees but nothing came up.


His memories skittered over his years with Sultan. Falling asleep with the cub between he and Juliana one afternoon, waking to make love to her and Sultan’s breathy rumble thick in his ear the whole time. An adult Sultan leaping ten feet straight up to catch an errant Muscovy duck that had flown into his cage from the lake, an astonishing sight. The tiger loping through his enclosure, chasing a bowling ball the way a housecat played with a Ping-Pong ball, his “mmwwwrrss” of enjoyment reverberating in a cold winter morning.


It should be me. If he has to die, let me do it, not Lawton.


Chapter 88