Eye of the Tiger

Following my run in with a bicycle rack, many of my friends and blog followers have asked about other accidental situations I've found myself in in the past, so I thought I'd share a few of them here.

Twelve years ago, just twelve short weeks after giving birth to baby number two, Tweedle dumb and I took a contract in Aruba, which is in the Dutch Caribbean. We, of course, took both kids with us. The contract was challenging as we were putting together a new show in a theatre that was barely finished on an island with few resources. To add to the complicated situation there was a very difficult star in the show; a white tiger, who ran by the name Adonis.

Having a tiger in the show was a big draw for the Hotel/Casino that owned the theatre in which we were performing and Adonis was built his very own habitat in the Hotel grounds. We were given good procedure advice on what to do if Adonis escaped his (Aruban built) cage, but the Tiger trainer seemed pretty sure that if he got out he'd kill us so denounced procedure as somewhat silly.

As lead dancer in the show, I was given the honor (ha ha) of dancing atop King Adonis's cage in a feather headdress...Tigers tend to like chickens so Adonis loved having live bait on top of his cage. Needless to say I was quite emotional having given birth just twelve weeks earlier so a good dose of fear was exactly what the doctor ordered...not!

Anyway, I was also Company Manager on this contract and one of my duties was to help the Tiger trainer transport Adonis in to the theatre. I would watch while he loaded the poor tiger in to a crate which then was attached to the back of a Jeep. My job was to check that Adonis did not poop in the cage, because if he sat in the poop we had to go back and wash it off. I would sit with my eyes glued to the tiger and shout "poop" at the top of my lungs whenever he let one go. The trainer would then jump out and scrape away said poop before Adonis could sit in it. Once we got to the theatre Adonis was transferred to his "stage" cage and I would go upstairs to get ready for the show.

On one occasion we loaded Adonis in to his cage, I went upstairs and the trainer went to wash his hands. I heard some rattling downstairs, then a thud so I looked over the stairwell....straight in to the eyes of a tiger.

Adonis flew up the stairs and I grabbed....a suitcase????...to hide behind. There really wasn't much else in the dressing room anyway. I stared Adonis directly in the eyes for ten whole minutes while he stalked me pacing around and around. Eventually he lost interest and wandered back downstairs in to the auditorium, which opened up on to a shopping mall, filled with hundreds of unsuspecting tourists! Aaaarrrggghhh!

Thankfully the trainer walked through the door just as Adonis was about to exit and tethered him in his cage.

I beat the trainer up...yes, literally. He reckoned that it was my poop watching duties that saved my life...saved by the poop?

Thanks again guardian angel!