That trip, which I think about all the time, was a very life-changing experience. And when I say life-changing, not because of the experience of taking care of two tigers, but by what had transpired with Mehrtens and animal dealers before, during, and after the trip. He actually had been conned by the Ruhe family because he knew nothing about mammals or birds. His entire zoo career had been in reptiles, mostly turtles. He was, loved turtles. He was a very accomplished reptile keeper and curator. But the short version of that story is that I was taken by the zoo director to see our two tigers, and by the grace of God, I took pictures of them with a brand new camera that I had bought for my Germany and crossing the Atlantic adventure. The next morning, I got to the zoo and they said, “Well, we’ve already crated the tigers.
