Tiny Tiger's Big Dream

A small package arrived on this day for Tiny Tiger. He doesn't usually receive much personal mail, so it was a very exciting occasion. The package included a photo of a huge tiger eating an orange, a pack of playing cards with tigers on them, and information about a charity that helps to save the tigers.

Tiny Tiger himself arrived several years ago as part of such a mailing. He was in a small clear mailing tube with some literature. They wanted me to sign a little gift tag that was attached to him and send him back. The charity would then give him to a child to encourage conservation efforts.

I was having none of it: I did respond by giving them a small monetary donation, but I kept the mailing tube; and of course, I kept the tiger. And that is how Tiny Tiger originally came to live with us. The tiger-saving people sent him to me, and I kept him! So I am personally responsible for saving at least ONE tiger, albeit a very SMALL one.

So Tiny Tiger examined the materials they sent us on this day with great interest. He admired the huge tiger. We all did. He wondered if, in fact, he himself might grow up to become big and fierce if he ate his Wheaties and took his vitamins. (And maybe an orange!) We all looked at Tiny Tiger with renewed interest: did we have a potentially huge (and possibly dangerous) tiger in our very midst?

This was the scene that I encountered at our house late in the afternoon. Tiny Tiger had the big tiger photo and the deck of cards set up so he could see them. He had also borrowed a mirror so that he might compare himself to the larger tiger. Is there a big, fierce tiger waiting inside me? he wondered. (We all did.)

The Crittergators were very interested in the tiger drama. And they also lined up, and peered into the small mirror: might they also, in fact, be extra-tiny tigers? But alas, no, it did not seem that way. Not unless tigers come in very teenie-tiny sizes, dressed in red and green, with funny shaped noses and dark antennas.

So let us leave this image here, then, so that we might all enjoy it: Tiny Tiger -  his orange self - and friends, admiring the very big tiger, and looking in the mirror. And dreaming some Very Big Dreams indeed!

The song to accompany this whimsical image is Jim Nabors, who left us last week, with the song The Impossible Dream (The Quest). (Go well, sir.)

Bonus: further adventures of Tiny Tiger and friends . . .
The Tiny Tiger Recovery Ward
My Home Away from Home (see the Extra Photos for a close-up of this very patriotic tiger)
Tiny Tiger, Ready for Take-Off
Postcards from the Edge (see Extra Photos for Tiny Tiger in front of the Taj Mahal)
A Tiny Tiger's Christmas Dream Comes True
Sproul State Forest: Spend a Winter Day (see Extra Photos for Tiny Tiger's sled ride)
In Which the Tiny Tiger Gets a Puppy
Tiny Tiger Surgery!