Backstory: Eye of the Tiger

When I started getting into all of the various social networks, such as Facebook, Meetup, Myspace, and so forth, I decided that my profile picture should be something unique. You might be familiar with the image I chose:

Although I have shared the story of this picture with some of you, lately I have had a couple more questions about it. So here is the story behind the picture.

Between 1998 and 2001, in addition to my full-time engineering job, I served as Resident Caretaker for Autrey Mill Nature Preserve in what is now John’s Creek, Georgia. I provided maintenance and handyman services for the facility, as well as security at night. I also helped out with logistics and set-up for special events.

One event in 1999, in particular, was called Wild Weekend. It was a national program aimed at showcasing nature preserves and animal reserves. One of the folks the helped organize Wild Weekend was also very active at Autrey Mill, and arranged for Autrey Mill to become the focal point of the Wild Weekend program. With that, we began preparing for a festival that would ultimately include presentations of numerous small wild animals. The presenter would be none other than Jim Fowler, of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom fame. He would show off animals such as snakes, bobcats, raccoons, and others provided by Chestatee Wildlife Sanctuary in Dawsonville, Georgia.

In preparation for the show on Saturday, I took Friday off to help with set-up. Just before lunch, we received a phone call from the trainer at Chestatee. He had been in the city that morning with his animals, helping Jim with some media appearances, and wanted to know if he could come by on Friday and drop his trailer for the night. Shortly after that, we got a second call letting us know that Jim and some of his associates would also come by to take a look at our set-up and begin preparing for Saturday’s show. About an hour later, the coordinator showed up with his trailer. He expressed concern that he needed to clean the compartment where the lion cubs were, and he inquired if we had a place we could secure the cubs. I suggested our Star Pond courtyard, which was fenced in. He turned the cubs loose, and we soon stopped our set-up work to watch the cubs play. They appeared to be hungry, so the coordinator put together some food for them. But instead of he taking the time to feed them (since he had to clean the trailer), he handed me the bottle and pushed me into the courtyard! I was a little worried at first, but he told me not to panic – the cubs were used to being around people and being bottle-fed. They knew what to do. The panic turned to joy and excitement:

After a while, Jim Fowler arrived with a couple of his press and media guys, as well as his son and daughter. They toured our facility, being impressed with what we were doing on such a limited budget. After some strategizing and planning for the Saturday show, Jim made a comment to the Chestatee coordinator about this being the perfect time to get the publicity shots done. The coordinator agreed, and they proceeded to lead out this HUGE Bengal tiger from the trailer! Not being one to pass up a prime “Kodak moment”, I raced inside and grabbed my camera. I was going to get my own “Jim Fowler publicity shot” even if they did not Jim and his folks took turns posing with the tiger while the media guy took their pictures. I stood off to the side, taking my own pictures. All of a sudden, the media guy turns around, grabs my camera, and tells me “it’s your turn!” And before I knew it, I had this tiger climbing all over me! What a total thrill! I ended up with two good shots that day, the second of which is:

And in addition to the tiger, we also posed with a full-size black bear. I can’t find that image at the moment, but I’ll look for it. This bear, when standing on his hind legs, was at least a foot taller than me!

It was truly a memorable experience. That night, the cubs, tiger, and bear stayed in the trailer, while the snakes found comfort in my living room (they were secured). And Saturday’s show went off without a hitch. Of course, when they brought out that Bengal tiger, all the folks there jumped back in fear at the sight of such a beast. If only they knew that just 24 hours prior, he was nothing more than a cuddly kitty-cat looking for a bottle!

P.S. As a side note, when I meet people at Meetup events and they want to know my contact information, I simply tell them that I’m the guy feeding the tiger – and they all instantly know who I am!

P.P.S. Look for more "Backstory" posts in the future. If it is a slow "news week" I'll write some more posts giving the history and background of some of my favorite pictures.