The Life Of A Tiger

Chapter 1: Captured

Hello. I am an endangered tiger. And I was born in the depth of the jungles. I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. You could say I had a pretty good life. But that was until, I was captured. I should proboably start from the beggining though.

One day, when I was playing with my family like every other day. Suddenly, we heard rustling in the bushes ahead of us. Due to my mothers instincts, she immediately started grabbing us one by one back to safety. Curiously, without thinking about the consequences, I ran towards the bushes where the noise was coming from and that's when it happened. A pair of huge hands grabbed me and took me away. No matter how much I screamed, growled, kicked and scratched them, they didn't let me go. I closed my eyes in terror as I heard my mother trying to fight back and save me. All of a sudden, I heard a loud bang pierce through my ears and my mother wasn't growling anymore. I still don't know what happened, but I hope she is ok...

After endless scratching and growling, they stuck a sharp, red needle in me, then it all went black. I woke up in a small cage where I could barely move my feet and I was squished up in a ball. I heard cars go by and lots of noise. I think I was in a van. Hours flew by, and suddenly we stopped. My heart was pounding, what was going to happen? I'm so scared, I just want my mother, she would know what to do but I'm just a cub. And I'm useless. Slowly, the van doors opened up and someone grabbed me roughly and took me away. Scared, I kept on looking all different ways, flashes of cameras blinded me and screams of children hurt my ears. After a few minutes, I felt lots of hands stroking me at every inch of my body. It felt very uncomfortable and once we went through all the rows of eager children I was thrown into a small basket with blankets.

I was so tired from being stroked by so many people and wanted to sleep. But every time I fell asleep someone poked me so I would wake up. Looking behind me, I noticed children were lined up to take pictures with me. I could just about keep my eyes open, the blinding flash of cameras flashed in my eyes and I couldn't sleep! I just got poked with a stick if I tried! After hours of photos, I was exhausted! I could barely keep my eyes open. I was shoved into my cage again - without a blanket to keep me warm - and I immediately went into a deep sleep. The next morning, I was awoken by the opening of doors, once again he grabbed me and took me to all the children again to take pictures... Why did this happen? Is this the consequence for being curious?

The morning after that, I was taken to a circus. And I spent the whole day in pain trying to get the circus act right. They taught me lots of tricks Like: sit, roll over, lie down, and all the stuff you normally teach dogs. Every time I made a mistake, I would get beaten by a hard stick and I bled... A lot. When I got back in my - small - cage, I thought about my family, and how much fun we had when we played in the jungle. I miss them. So much. This continued on for countless days until the day of the show. As I did all the tricks, I looked at all the people cheering and laughing. If they knew what really happens.... I don't think they would be that happy. Well, I hope they don't know. If people knew, I hope they still wouldn't cheer. They can't know.

After countless days of this, I decided that this is all too much. My mother wouldn't want this for me. She would want me to do whatever I can to escape here. But how? I can't escape the van because I can't exactly open the door and break the cage. My mum would know what to do... She was so clever. I should've listened to her and went back to safety instead of going to those bushes. I don't normally regret things I do in life, but I regret this choice. Mom. If you can hear me, what should I do? How do I escape? I don't want to be in a circus and have my picture taken with little kids. I want to go home so much. Is that too much to ask for? I'm so tired and hurt. I haven't even got bandages on my cuts so they won't heal, they will only get infected. I have to escape. Tonight...