Well... what has happened with my neighbor is that he is in his 60's and had a stroke about a year ago. When that happened, he realized that his tiger, his two lynx, and his cougar, might outlive him.

So he sold his home that is 2 hours from here, moved his big cats into a the care of a friend during the transition, and bought the mobile home, two car garage, and acre and a half next door to us.

He selected our area because there is a big cat rescue near us, and he is now volunteering for them while they care for his cougar and two lynx. I guess if something happens to him, they will take over the care of his animals.

Next, he built the tiger cage, and is now awaiting the USDA inspector to come and re-license him. The cougar and two lynx are already living in the rescue, about two miles from here, and they will not be moving in next door... but the tiger is his favorite, and is emotionally attached to the owner, so the tiger will be the only one next door.

The system that has been built is very safe. The tiger is inside a huge cage with a top. That cage is inside a fence. The fence is 4 foot apart from the cage on all four sides.

The inner cage has a wire box in it, which has a plywood door. The tiger is trained to go into the box on command, and he stand and waits until the plywood door is closed by a cable and a latch. When the door is closed, the owner can go inside to clean the cage... and when finished, the owner comes back out and raises the plywood door again so that the tiger can come back out into the cage.

So the night that Rowdy the tiger arrived, we were standing around watching him adjust to his new cage. He was acting DELIGHTED to be with his owner again! I asked if he needed something to scratch with his claws, as a cat would... and the owner replied yes... so I went to our wood pile and got him a log to scratch. When I arrived with the log, the tiger took one look at me and went into his box!

The owner shut the box, took the log into the cage, exited the cage, and opened the box. Rowdy came out and scratched the log in delight. Talk about a smart tiger!