TUCKER THE TIGER LEADS A REVOLT!

If your an animal, the zoo is usually a nice place to live.  These days most zoos try to make the areas animals live in as much like their real home as possible.  They are well fed and cared for by veterinarians and zoo keepers.  That's normally the way it is at the zoo where Tucker the tiger lives.  Beautiful hills with trees and green grass to lay in and good food everyday.

Tucker has always been pretty happy living at the zoo.  He    likes to watch the children go by and enjoys being one of the zoo stars.  He doesn't like the fact that Stanley, one of his zoo mates is so greedy he sometimes tries to take his dinner steak away!  Tucker usually wins in the end and never goes hungry.

The lions and all the other large cats live near Tucker   and the other tigers.  From their caged area on top of a big hill, the lions, tigers and jaguars can lay and watch the Sea Life Show down below.  They all thought it was fun to watch all the people as much as the people came to look at them.  They also like watching the lady trainer Ellen work with the dolphins.

Ellen had been working with Bill and Sue, the two dolphins     since they were babies.   She was terrific with them and they loved her.  Dolphins are one of the smartest creatures on earth and very gentle.  Ellen's big finish was riding on the back of Bill and Sue standing!  The crowd always went wild and the big cats never got tired of watching the show. 

From their hill they also could see the marlins sword fighting.  Neither of them ever won the fight so the cats decided they were really just playing with each other.  Mary Beth, one of the zoo seals liked to watch the marlins also.  Mary Beth and the other seals were a big part of the Sea Life Show.  It was a great show for the families coming through the aquarium.

Suddenly one day a Circus Ring Master came to the zoo   and asked to see if some of the tigers would perform in his show.  The zoo keeper came and got Tucker.  Now Tucker wasn't going to have any of this!  He firmly stood his ground and refused to jump through the burning hoop.  What did they think he was a dumb Tiger or something?  A monkey friend of Tuckers was watching and laughing from a tree branch.  He knew Tucker was the last tiger who would go through that ring of fire!

That night one of the zoo keepers accidentally dropped a set of keys near Tuckers cage.  Tucker worked for a long time but finally got a long stick and reached out and got the keys.  Since he was still mad about the ring of fire, he took off and ran around opening all the zoo cages. Tucker then told everyone to follow him to the National Park that was near by.  All the animals did just that.  They wanted to see what being free would be like.

The National Park was run and watched over by Ranger Dan.  He loved all animals especially the squirrels.  He fed them by hand and even put up a squirrel crossing sign for them.  A lot of people laughed when they saw it but Ranger Dan had not lost one of his squirrels in a long time.  It sure seemed to be working!

Next morning when Ranger Dan pulled into the park, things didn't at first appear any different.  He saw Buster beaver and the apple tree talking about Buster using her for wood in his beaver dam.  The apple tree wasn't having any of it.  She told Buster to move along and find another tree!  The wise old owl was resting in another tree watching the two of them.

Then Dan saw Blackie his favorite big black bear.  Ranger Dan had known Blackie since he was a baby and as usual he had stolen some poor tourists lunch basket.  Ranger Dan only shook his head and let Blackie finish it.  He wondered if people would ever be more careful with their things.  Come lunch time he bet this family would.  He got out his binoculars to see if the family was still near by so he could tell them what happened to their lunch.

Finally he spotted a tent that might belong to the    family.  But...wait what was this, a Bengal Tiger stuck it's head out of the tent.  There were no Bengal Tigers in this area. Dan looked around some more and suddenly he saw a full grown hippo in the little stream that ran between two mountains in the park.  What in the world he thought, these are animals you would normally find in Africa.  What were they doing here!

Ranger Dan turned around and coming down a path was a    mom and baby panda bear.  Over in the bushes he saw another one eating leaves.  Dan knew pandas were originally from China.  What in the world was going on.  He knew these bears couldn't have been born and raised here in this park.  Ranger Dan had to get to the bottom of this!

On his way back to get his jeep, Ranger Dan even saw an   iguana catching lots of flies.  He also knew iguana were not from his area.  When he got to his jeep Blackie was having his usual fun jumping up and down on it.  This had become a game between Blackie and Ranger Dan.  Blackie always got down and took off when he saw Dan coming.

As Dan got in his jeep to drive up the mountain he pasted    a lama grazing on grass.  Then up in a tree was the cutest Koala Bear.  This was all very strange but also wonderful.  Ranger Dan was really enjoying seeing all these beautiful wild animals.  The visitors to the park were also.  Many told Dan this was a day they would never forget.

Dan looked up and saw Mr. Owl's head moving back and   forth.  He was also totally fascinated with all these animals that he had never seen before.   What really caught Mr. Owl's attention was a pair of giraffes that were eating in the top of trees.  Mr. Owl thought this may be trouble for him if they visited his tree.  They were very tall animals.  He hoped he wouldn't have to move to a new tree.

When Dinky and Winky, a baby boy and girl    elephant went by the whole crowd of people visiting the park were ooohing and ahhhhing!  They were really cute.  The mom and baby rhinos were also a big hit.  The people visiting the park that day sure didn't expect to see all these different kinds of animals.  They were really having a good time and would never forget this day!

After finding a gorilla in the woods, Dan headed for        outlook cliff.  From there he should be able to see a large area and many more animals if there were any.  When he got to look out cliff, it was just as he had guessed.  He saw many more animals that should be in a zoo.  Something must have happened there.  Dan decided to go back to his jeep and radio the zoo to see if something had gone wrong.

Dan passed a beautiful black panther on his way to the    jeep.  Then he saw a brown bear Dan had known for years reading a news paper.  The bear told Dan there had been a break out at the zoo and almost all the animals were loose.  When Dan got to the jeep he radioed the zoo and told them most of their animals were in his park.

Tucker overheard the conversation grabbed Ranger    Dan and locked him in the cage the Ranger keep near his jeep for hurt animals.  Tucker and all the animals were just having to much fun right now to go back to the zoo.  Tucker was protesting the wearing of fur by people as they came through the park.  He was really having a good time.

Tucker let Ranger Dan out of the cage after a few    hours.  He is a nice, gentle tiger.  He just wanted Dan to know how it felt to be in a cage.  That night Ranger Dan cooked up as many hot dogs as he could for all the hungry animals who came by.  Almost all the animals from the zoo had never had to find their own food as the zoo keepers kept them well fed.   The lion king roared out the word about the hot dogs and everyone came to have some.

Tucker knew a lot of the animals were getting hungry   and would have to go back to the zoo so he got into his fighting stance and negotiated a good deal for them.  The zoo keepers then rounded up all the animals they could find, which were most of them.  They were loaded in large trailers and taken back to their homes.  As they left a beaver who had made many friends from the zoo watched them go as he munched on an old stump.  Maybe he would go to the zoo and visit one day.

Tucker had negotiated a golf putting green for all the animals.  Many visitors were surprised to see just how good at golf many of the animals were.  One of the other things he got was a hot tub for the sharks that lived at Sea Life.  Now that became a really popular thing for all the visitors to see at the zoo.  Everyone enjoyed seeing those two big sharks relaxing in that hot tub. 

   If one day you are visiting a National Park and   suddenly you seen a boy ride out of the woods on the back of a panda bear.  Or a monkey ride by on a motor cycle.  You just might be near a zoo where a tiger named Tucker lives happily playing golf in his spare time.  If you meet a Ranger named Dan in the Park you'll know for sure your in the right place.  Tell him to say hi to Tucker the next time he's at the zoo for all of us!

THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME BUT SOMETIMES A LITTLE VACATION IS A GOOD THING!