A lot of you may know me as the "Teen Tiger Mom" The teen that sleeps with tigers The real life beauty and the beast.... I think you get the picture
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........ I never spoke out publicly in the media personally except for two interviews I did by phone. The original story was taken and bits and pieces were used and then some blogs news papers and magazine decided to change my story and say things I NEVER said. The reason why I never spoke out and why I did not go on talk shows was because it was all unexpected and blew up fast and HUGE. ... To The people who said I did it for Media attention I would like you to stop and think if I did it for media attention don't you think I would of went on Oprah when I was asked?.......I did not go looking for the media they came to me...... A photographer friend was on my facebook and saw all my personal photos of my tiger cub growing up and saw how he sleeps with me...... So after 6 months of watching him grow up and seeing him in pictures he asked if he could come shoot some pictures with me and my tiger for a magazine in the u.k and china so I said yes because this was NOT my first magazine for over seas I have done a few already but not with my tiger but with my other animals! (apparently other countries like to hear about American teens) But I never got the pictures that were taken sent to me so I said as long as I get some pictures (which i did and i LOVED them I even have a huge one hanging on my wall) Then he can come out and shoot. The photos took a whole 30min to shoot and with the video maybe A hour (cause I could not member what to say) so really it was no big deal. The photos were published in another country first then of course everyone else wanted A story (and I mean EVERYONE) Peoples Magazine was the first ones in America that I gave A interview with (they are pretty much the only ones I gave A full interview with) The Joy Behar and Good Morning America got the story almost straight Except for the fact my tiger was NOT 100lbs..Bhagavan Antle from T.I.G.E.R.S did A great interview.But anyways lets get onto the background of my life.........I come from 3 and 9 generations of animal trainers from both sides of my family. A lot of my Family are elephant trainers my grandfather trained all types of animals elephants,tigers,lions,chimps,leopards,: jaguars,bears,horses and many other animals... Since I was born I was raised with different animals including exotics three were African elephants. At the age of two i started performing with our three African elephants and at 13 I went on to present them in our educational shows. I do come from a circus background how ever now we have moved on to doing fairs we only travel 2-3 months out of the year. We do not work all year long and we have two homes A winter and A summer (Florida and Illinois ) after each fair we go home for A few weeks with our animals. In 2000 we started with tigers again and we began creating our show.All of our tigers have been raised inside we are 100% hands on with ALL of our animals we devote 24/hours A day 365 days a year to them. Will was NOT the first cub I raised the media made it out to be like I was just someone who had A tiger cause it was cool ITS NOT. Will was the third tiger I raised he was born to one of my tigers and was rejected at two days old his mother was A new mother and wanted nothing to do with him. I became his mother so I took on that full role. The first 72 hours of A babies life is the hardest they have to be watched 24/7 for the first 24 hours I slept right beside his moms enclosure watching him that is how I knew she could not care for him. That is why I continued sleeping with him just like his mother would do. They made it out to seem like oh how dangerous and stupid this is. In order to do what I do (I know what I am doing I have done it my WHOLE life) You have to have a bond with these animals and that takes hours and hours of dedication you have to know their moods and their reactions. Will lived inside and outside he spent his nights inside he was just like A dog he would come in and go sleep in the bed or the couch or in his bed it was what he chose to do. He had a HUGE dog bed in my room but he usually chose to sleep with me. Just like wills dad & mom did when they were cubs. He always slept in as late as I did (sometimes later) if he had to get up he would usually make a chufingfacebook page. http://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/profile.php?id=100002061303010
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