Playing with Tigers

My husband (I just wanted to use that word :) ), the rest of my family and the people that know me best, know that tigers are my FAVORITE animal. Well, tigers and dolphins. In elementary school, I got to choose an animal to research and write a report on and I chose Bengal tigers. I’ve ALWAYS loved tigers! And, I’m very lucky that I’ve already gotten to swim with dolphins (twice) and check that off my bucket list! And, yes, swimming with dolphins was absolutely amazing and so special! However, the thing about swimming with dolphins is that 1. they are actually known as sweet and maybe even docile creatures (when it comes to humans) and 2. there are a decent amount of places around the world where you can swim with dolphins. With tigers, most people don't believe that they can be really tamed and I only know of one place where you can hang out with them (Thailand), and Scott and I got to do it!!!! (I’m sure there are more places, but I’ve only heard of people doing it in Thailand)

On a normal day, I would have already been exhausted from the elephant rides (and Scott and I both were), but we both had a huge adrenaline rush that kept us super energetic for the tiger kingdom! Who wouldn’t be excited? We already knew when we got there that we wanted to go into cages with each sized tiger. The cages were dubbed- Smallest, small, medium, and big- very self explanatory. You could also pay to have a photographer with you and since we bought the package with all of the different sizes, we got to have a photographer in with us for the smallest and big tigers, which was super helpful. I don’t know if there are words to describe the excitement we had after buying the tickets and waiting for our turn! :) :) :)

We went through the gates and started out by just looking around at a bunch of the cages. A positive and negative about the time of day that we went is that it was just before dusk, which meant play time. While it was awesome, exhilarating, and a little intimidating to be in the cages while they were playing, it also meant we had to get as many pictures in as we could when they were actually sitting still because they didn’t sit still much!

The people showed us over to the “smallest” cage for our first session (you get between 15-20 minutes in each cage). OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!! That’s all I have to say. The smallest tigers (that you could actually play with) were all about 3 months old, and most of them brothers and sisters. While they were only 3 months old, they were still bigger than any house cat (only by a little). But, they were SOOOOOO cute!!!! One of the rules (which wasn’t as important with the little ones but became MUCH more important as the cats got bigger) was that you always approach it from behind so that they don’t think you want to play. So, even with the smallest cats they would have you sit/lay down behind it, and angle your feet back behind you. The first tiger cub we went to get pictures with was dead asleep. They had us both take turns laying down next it with our faces pressed up against its head, holding it’s paw, kissing it, snuggling and just getting to love on it! I was absolutely, 100 percent in heaven!!! I WAS SNUGGLING A TIGER CUB!!!!!!! I was enjoying every second of this when all of a sudden, I feel four more paws and a warm, fuzzy body on my back! I had just been stalked and pounced on by a tiger cub and it was the best moment ever!!! Scott and the photographer from the Tiger Kingdom both got a great sequence of me smiling with the asleep cub, getting surprised by the playful cub and then enjoying every second they let it stay on me and play :) The guys there weren’t seriously worried about it (because it can’t really hurt you that badly, nor is it trying to) but they also are trying to teach it how to behave around humans. So, they let it lay on me and play for a bit (again heaven), but after a minute or so made it get down. You don’t really get to “play” with any of the tigers so the fact that I got an impromptu session totally made my day! We could have gone home then and I would have been elated! Luckily, we were only just beginning! After playing with each of the 3 month olds (there were 4, I think), we stepped over a little gate to go see the one month old. SWEETEST LITTLE THING EVER!!!!! It was also completely exhausted and just sleeping away. So, we did the same type of routine- laid down with our head on it, held its paw, etc. And, as we were going through the routine, she wriggled over to the edge of the platform we were on and started dozing off but with her head falling off the side- adorable. The trainer had us then hold it’s head up and give it kisses and snuggle even more, which was really cute and really awesome.

Here are a lot of pics from the smallest cage-

Alas, it was time to leave the sweet, sweet babies and head to the “small” tigers. They still felt like babies but they were the same size as a full grown golden retriever. These guys were a little more active and on the move so we did more watching than picture taking in this cage. But, we still got a few pretty cute pictures and a little bit of snuggle time! And, the trainers in the “small” cage must have really liked us because then they took us to “small 2”, which we hadn’t paid for and didn’t even know existed. Great bonus for us! In the small 2 cage, we took some more pictures and had fun trying to get them to sit still. While I was getting some pictures of Scott with a “small 2” tiger, that wasn’t actually so small, I see one of the trainers run over towards me with his stick making that “ah ah ah” sound that you make to a child to tell him no. I turned around, and what did I find? A second tiger stalking me! It was definitely ready to play and it was definitely only about a foot away from me, haha awesome. I didn’t really have time to be scared since I had no idea it was behind me until they made it move. All it wanted to do was play, and worst-case scenario it might have jumped on my back, but the trainers were way more cautious after that.

Next cage was the mediums, and they were probably the most rowdy of all of them. They were constantly wrestling with each other, playing with the trainers, roaring (and LOUD) and just generally running around. Even though they were medium size they were still only about 13 months. It’s crazy how fast and big they grow! The one fun picture we got in there was me getting to hold onto the tail of one of the tigers and he “walked” me for a bit. We even got a little video of that which was pretty fun. I’ll try to post it if I can.

And finally, we made it to the bigs! We loved the in between sizes because they were cute and playful and at a fun age, but for picture purposes, the smallest and big were definitely the best! When they say the “big” cage, they are not joking. I might even suggest they change that cage name to ginormous! Luckily, the big cats were all pretty relaxed… we read that since the tigers there are all well fed (don’t have to worry about energy for hunting), once they are fully grown they stay pretty calm and sleepy which is pretty typical for cats anyway. We did some fun things with the big cats. Scott got a picture using the tiger’s tail as a moustache (his favorite pic), we took some cute ones together hugging it, and some others spooning them and laying on them, etc. It was pretty unbelievable that we were able to rub all over these big tigers and they loved it and just hung out while we did it! 

And, to top off the day we went over and saw the 4 day old cubs! The trainer described them to us as looking like geckos, and it was actually a decent description (but way cuter)! They were some really stinkin’ cute little things and I really wanted to bring one back J No such luck though.

Side notes-

Scott is CRAZY allergic to cats. When I say crazy allergic, I mean that if he walks into a room that a cat has been in sometime in the last few days, he starts to sneeze. Now, because we were thinking that we were going to see TIGERS, it didn’t register to either of us that they were also cats. Needless to say, by the end of the tour, Scott was starting to get hives, sneezing non stop, and itchy all over. I felt horrible, but he said it was 100 percent worth every second!

The trainers were all awesome! We had a really fun trainer with the smallest cats who when I asked what they ate (meaning, is it only milk at that age) he without skipping a beat replied “humans” with a big grin. He also made lots of funny jokes and made it a super fun time. We then had a few of the same trainers go with us for the three middle size cages (small, small 2 and medium) and he was really great. Cracking jokes, pretending to shut us in the cage by ourselves, etc. He also played a lot of games with the tigers so that we could see them in action, which was really great of him! Then, for the “big” cage, we had like 5 trainers in there with us and again, there were all jokesters and helped us relax a little and have fun! Luckily, we got a picture with a few them (and left them a good tip for keeping us alive!)

Look at Scott’s face in the pictures as the tigers get bigger. You can definitely start to see a little more stress (totally understandable), haha :)

Last sidenote- we heard that there is a tiger kingdom or two in Thailand that uses drugs to subdue the tigers. We asked a lot of questions about the one we went to and read some papers they had posted. They definitely did not use drugs on the tigers there and seemed pretty devoted to keeping the tigers healthy and happy. I think the best testament to the fact that they didn’t use drugs and treated the tigers well was that the tigers looked playful, healthy and happy!