Dare Seize the Fire has roared to life!

And here it is! Dare Seize the Fire is available right now as an e-book and soon in a print version. Woot!

Katie Zielinski is an ordinary girl who obeys her parents, does her homework, and loves her autistic brother, Cassie. But Katie is too afraid to tell anyone about her secret crush on her best friend, Laurinda. Then Katie meets Jyoti, a tiger who's able to think and talk when he gets close to her, and also fuels amazing magic powers in Katie. The evil warlock Zadornin wants to sacrifice Jyoti in a black magic ritual, and he'll kill anyone who gets in his way. Katie must think fast to save Jyoti while her ordinary world explodes with magic fireballs, a deadly enemy, and discovering how Laurinda really feels about her. From a chase among ghosts on the Gettysburg battlefield to a confrontation in Philadelphia where mythical creatures join in a vicious battle against Zadornin, Katie must learn to dare seize the fire of who she really is to survive.

Stay tuned for updates on the availability of a print version. Either way, I think you'll love this one; it's got adventure, young romance, a tiger, and gryphons! How can you go wrong? :D

Dare Seize the Fire at Storm Moon Press/Budding Moon Press

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Siberian Siblings at Cedar Cove

THIS VIDEO IS AWESOME! It comes from Cedar Cove, the park where I used to volunteer. Gunny and Sierra are littermates, and I love them both. Sierra especially was my sweetie during my days at the park! It is so awesome to work with these cats. Tigers are the most amazing and beautiful animals I have ever seen. I really miss them.

Look at how big those two tigers are in the video, and then check out how they looked when they were itty bitty little kitties! This picture was taken by Cedar Cove's founder, William Pottorff, who raised these cats himself. That's Sierra on the left looking up, while her brother Gunny figures he'd better get some eatin' done before his sister takes the rest!



Cedar Cove Feline Conservatory & Education Center

My animal pix at SmugMug, featuring thousands of pictures of Cedar Cove's cats!

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The Revenge of Tatiana!

As I always suspected, reports bear out that Tatiana the tiger was provoked by the youths the NY Post so delightfully dubbed the "Tiger Twits" before she escaped and TRACKED THEM DOWN THROUGH THE ZOO to attack them.

Do NOT get on a tiger's bad side -- they WILL remember!

RIP, Tatiana...

Feds release SF tiger attack documents

(AP) – Feb 12, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A female Siberian tiger killed in a hail of police gunfire after fatally mauling a man at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas Day 2007 likely was provoked into leaping and clawing out of its enclosure, a federal investigator said in documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The tiger named Tatiana killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. and injured his friends, brothers Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal, leaving claw marks etched in the asphalt and claw fragments in the bushes outside its pen. Claw marks were also discovered near the top of the enclosure wall, which was lower than federal safety standards dictate, showing that the big cat was able to get enough leverage to pull itself out.

"It appears the tiger was able to jump from the bottom of the dry moat to the top of the wall, and gain enough purchase over the top to pull herself out over the moat wall," wrote Laurie Gage, a tiger expert who investigated the scene for the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, which oversees the nation's zoos.

"With my knowledge of tiger behavior I cannot imagine a tiger trying to jump out of its enclosure unless it was provoked," Gage wrote in the Dec. 27, 2007 draft of her report.

That statement was stricken from the final version of the report because it was "irrelevant from an Animal Welfare Act enforcement standpoint," said David Sacks, a spokesman for APHIS. Whether or not the tiger was provoked has long been a point of contention.

After sitting with its prey for a short time, Gage wrote that Tatiana likely followed the Dhaliwals' blood trail for about 300 yards to where it resumed attacks. Photographs show blood-smeared asphalt where the tiger apparently dragged Sousa's body.

"After a kill, I find it interesting the tiger would leave a kill to go after something else unless there were a compelling reason," Gage wrote. "The tiger passed exhibits with warthogs . which it ignored as it followed (the blood trail?) of the two brothers to the Terrace Cafe outside the dining area."

The documents, provided to The AP more than three years after a Freedom of Information Act request, offer the first public glimpse into the findings of the APHIS investigation and details from the scene written by some of the officers who killed Tatiana.

Gage and inspector Michael Smith investigated the enclosure and zoo premises on Dec. 27, 2007.

In more than 65 years no other tiger had escaped from that enclosure. San Francisco Zoo officials now say the enclosure should have been safer.

"Nobody was there to witness it at that time of day, it was closing, just the people who were there and the tigers," said Lora LaMarca, a zoo spokeswoman. "We cannot prove the animal was provoked, and regardless of that, she was able to jump out which led to a whole series of renovations to that exhibit which makes sure this will never happen again."

USDA fined the zoo $1,875 for violations associated with the flaws in the tiger enclosure that allowed Tatiana to escape, and for one unrelated violation.

The USDA's findings show the tiger jumped from the moat right in front of an area where a path had been worn through plants meant to provide a sight barrier. According to the reports, the zoo complained that people often pushed through the plants and leaned over the enclosure, sometimes even putting their children on its rim.

USDA's investigators said they found "some sticks, foreign to the exhibit, and at least one pine cone inside the tiger exhibit indicating that someone may have thrown these items into the enclosure at the tigers."

The Dhaliwal brothers denied provoking the big cat, though Sousa's father told police that Paul Dhaliwal had admitted to being drunk and yelling and waving at the animal. Sousa's parents settled their wrongful death lawsuit for an undisclosed amount, and the brothers settled their lawsuit for a reported $900,000.

An attorney for Sousa's parents, Michael Cardoza, called the theory that the tiger was provoked "mere speculation" that would not hold up in court.

"Keep in mind these are animals, who knows why they do anything?" he said.

Once Tatiana found the Dhaliwals, she sat for a while near one of the bleeding brothers outside the zoo's Terrace Café.

When San Francisco police officer Daniel Kroos and his partner arrived at the café area, he saw the tiger and one of the Dhaliwals sitting near each other.

"At this time I saw the tiger pounce on top of the victim and maul him continuously for several seconds," Kroos wrote. "At this time I was not able to shoot the tiger without placing the victim in the field of fire and thereby placing the victim in further danger."

"It appeared to me the tiger was protecting its prey," said Office Scott Biggs, who was also among the first officers to respond.

After several seconds of mauling, Kroos said Tatiana stopped and headed in the direction of one of the officers.

"Fearing that the tiger was going to attack and kill Officer Biggs, or that the tiger might turn around and continue to maul the victim who could not move, I fired my department issued firearm an unknown amount of times at the tiger in an attempt to stop the threat of further attack," he said.

The officers continued to fire at the tiger, with one putting a final shot in the animal's head to ensure it was dead.

Associated Press Writer Adam Goldman in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Original article here.

Photograph from here.

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Tigers Into the Pool!

Yikes! I would not try this at home. My friend Wendy asked me today if this sort of thing was safe. Umm...if the tigers are very, very familiar with the people involved and have spent tons of time around together, then it's "safe" in an extremely relative way. Tigers are never 100% safe; just ask Roy Horn. Anyway, there are some pretty impressive pictures at this article. Enjoy!

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Wendy's Tiger

Wendy Barsotti is a co-worker at my day job, and like me she spends her spare time being creative. Some of the thing she likes to make are custom, hand-carved rubber stamps. Earlier this week she surprised me with the lovely stamp above, taken from a picture of Tynne, one of Cedar Cove's tigers. Here's the photo Wendy used:



Remarkable, isn't it? Anyway, go check out Wendy's creations at her Etsy site. And thanks for the tiger stamp, Wendy!

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Where Killer Whales Belong

An interesting blog post from Susan Orlean appears at The New Yorker; it's about how we interact with magnificent animals like orcas. I didn't think this entry was much different from other posts I've seen the last few days about how we probably shouldn't keep orcas in captivity, until I got to this part:

And here’s the problem: even though I was convinced that whales should be wild and that we should instead just take fabulous videos of them and project them on gigantic high-definition screens, I simply couldn’t resist. I begged one of the trainers to take me to the dock where Keiko was lolling around and let me pet him. I will never forget the soft spongy feel of Keiko’s rubbery skin or the sensation, when he lifted his huge blocky head just above the water, that we exchanged a real look, eye to eye, full of primal meaning and connection. That’s exactly why it’s so hard to do what is right with regards to wild animals, because having such a creature that close really is magical.

My emphasis. It's funny because I sometimes wondered the same thing when I worked with tigers. There's no other word than "magical" that better describes being up close and interacting with an animal like a tiger. It sometimes occurred to me: were we, the humans, being selfish in our justifications for keeping tigers captive? There are many ways to answer this question. In the case of our tigers at Cedar Cove, I think we give them a happy and satisfying life in which they are somewhat pampered, and in which they don't have to worry about hunting down their next meal. And with the rapidly declining tiger population in the wild, it may well be that the only place tigers will live at all in another twenty years or so will be places like Cedar Cove and your city zoo.

But with orcas, you move into a whole new category of animal: An enormous creature for whom movement is essential to life, possessed of high intelligence (I love tigers, but they are not the smartest felines out there) and a tremendous need for social interacting and environmental stimulation. I do think it may be wrong to keep them in captivity. Of course, taking a captive orca and freeing it can lead to the animal's death, as Ms. Orlean manages to avoid mentioning (completely) about Keiko, the whale from the movie Free Willy. But I give her credit for the observation I quoted above, and her post is as a reminder that as humans we always need to keep in mind what's best for the animals we domesticate, give good homes to, or hold captive against their wills. I truly believe the tigers at Cedar Cove are happy. But I know that many other captive tigers aren't, especially those forced to perform for the public (ours at Cedar Cove don't, and never will); and I think about Tilikum, the whale involved in last week's tragedy in Orlando, and about Tatiana, the tiger in San Francisco who was so ill-served by both those who were charged with her care and a few of those who came to see her. I have no absolute answers. But don't forget, humans can cover our own selfish desires in a great deal of knotty justifications. These creatures exist in real time and deserve our best consideration and judgment, always.

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My Fuzzy Valentine!

I noticed that I took this picture of Sierra one year ago today. Isn't she gorgeous?

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Random Tiger Pic: Sierra

"I will chuff at you nicely. Then you have five seconds to pet me. If you are still touching me in six seconds, I will growl at you."

That's my sweetheart!

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Cedar Cove Feline Conservatory and Education Center

This is Sierra, a thirteen-year-old female Siberian tiger, and she's my sweetie. What an absolutely gorgeous animal!


Down in Louisburg, Kansas, you'll find the Cedar Cove Feline Conservatory and Education Center. Back in 2006, I was researching tigers for a novel I was writing and I discovered this place, only thirty minutes from my home, that had real tigers! I went down to visit. And I visited again. And again! Finally a wonderful woman named Shelly Tooley pointed at me and said, "Sign him up!" And thus began my three-year adventure helping take care of the cats and other animals at Cedar Cove. The park was found by Billy Pottorff, who first saw tigers for real while serving in Vietnam. Shelly helped him build the park, and for a long time they were the only two people who ran it, until B.J. Auch and Steve Klein became the first outsiders to volunteer there. Shelly passed away very unexpectedly in November of 2008, and we all miss her a lot.

I was active at the park for three years, doing hard work and bonding with the cats, including tigers, leopards, cougars, and bobcats. I stopped going out there regularly simply because I realized I needed to concentrate more on my writing, and I miss the park very much. But if you're in the area and have a chance to visit, don't miss it! There are also three wolves at the park, and soon they'll be making a big announcement about a new addition to the park (my Facebook friends already know what that it).

The park is entirely run by volunteers, and no one draws a salary from the place -- your entry donation goes straight to the care and upkeep of the cats and the park. The work can be unbelievably hard and risky -- imagine shoveling heavy snow while keeping one eye on a tiger that's just waiting for you to give him a chance at you! But there are many rewards, as any of the volunteers will tell you. It takes a certain kind of commitment, patience, perseverance, and love to do what these people do, and they are truly wonderful folks for all of the work and time they give to Cedar Cove.

My personal picture page is here, which has literally thousands of pictures of Cedar Cove's cats. Another one of our regular visitors has his own picture gallery here. Enjoy! And remember, it's Sierra's world -- we just feed her in it.

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