READING

Last week I was invited to a party hosted by the adoption agency that facilitated our adoption from China. The room was full of girls (and 2 boys) , all adopted from China. Some were past the age of picture books but still argued which one of them was the 'tiny tiger'...my writer's heart skipped a beat. Holy cow they actually identify...and like it enough to have a spat over it! They didn't know I was the writer, so they had no idea they had made my day. And calmed my stomach, since I was under the impression that I was doing a reading later on...my first reading ever.


But after a long, somewhat painful, dance recital, followed by a weird, smarmy magician the girls  -- and parents if truth be told -- were in no mood for a book reading and mercifully it didn't happen.


My relief at not boring the life out of the already sagging party was later followed by some disappointment. It turned out that I really wanted to read. And still do...At a party full of bored children, at a bookstore in the boonies, at the library around the corner with 2 kids listening. Who knows, someone might just fight over who the tiny tiger really is.

WWF - Year of the Tiger

I chose to use Tigers in my book for a personal reason -- my childhood nickname was based on ‘tiger’.  It felt like a good fit. Before I started to write, I did a bit of research on tigers. There were some fun facts like: A tiger’s roar can paralyze a human being. They are the biggest feline on the planet; bigger than lions. The largest is the Siberian Tiger:conservatively measuring nine feet (274 cm) from nose to tail and weighing in at 400 - 600 pounds (181 - 272 kg)! And now it is nearly extinct with only 400 left in Siberian forests.

The Siberian Tiger used to be called the Amur Tiger because it inhabited an enormous territory that stretched from south of the Amur River in China, and north into Russia (Siberia). Now there are none left in China. The ever-shrinking habitat is located north of the river in Siberia. Hence, the Siberian Tiger. This weekend Russia's Vladimir Putin hosted the first ever International Tiger Conservation Forum. Twelve nations, all from Asia, were represented. Obviously a good thing, but also a sad thing since tiger population has been declining for decades...a hundred years ago there were 100 000 tigers in the world; today there are 3200.  A dead tiger is worth $50 000 (US) once the poachers skin it and harvest all the body bits for ‘medicinal’ purposes.

What is a live one worth? I say, our humanity. If we can’t get fired up to save the largest of the big cats, one of the most beautiful and revered animals on our planet, then what can we save?  This is the Year of the Tiger. Let’s make it mean something. You can visit the WWF  (WWF - Year of the Tiger ) for ways to help.

WWF - Year of the Tiger