• The park seemed a prison, its inmates shouts and squeals filling the air as a smog might; However, its echoes resounded off of a boys ears like whispers, easy to shun, for his attention was not upon the myriad of screeches.

    His eyes had locked on the simple cage in the southern nook of the place. A gentle, concrete and iron enclosure which held the unknown. Warning signs and signals were plastered across its front. They were ignored on the boys approach.

    The boy clamped his warm fingers to the cold, thick iron bars, his eyes searching the enclosure for a sign of life, of motion, of anything. His fingers were squeezed so tightly to the iron his knuckles shown white, anticipation tensing his muscles.

    Suddenly, a gentle purr, louder than any noise yet in the zoo, while so quiet the boy had to focus to hear it, escaped from behind the enclosure's concrete trough. A great, pale cat rounded the water basin and looked the boy in the eyes, ferocious green to calm blue, as he approached. The cats fierce jade eyes searched his face for any sign of hostility, of attack, of any threat. The boy grinned, then chuckled as the white tiger approached.

    Once the tiger was directly in front of the boy, the boy could see just how great he was. The creature was head height with the boy. The boy looked the cat eye to eye in awe, as the tiger sniffed his locked fingers. Any thought of fear was beyond the boy; in fact, nearly any thought at all was beyond his grasp.

    After two sudden and quick sniffs, the Siberian tiger pressed his soft cheek to the boys hand, chasing away an itch. The boy laughed, utterly shocked as the gentle white fur ran across his fingers, the bass and timbres of the great purr warmly shaking his very bones. The boy reached his palm forward, and the cat pressed his ears against the boys hand, purring louder. The boy almost squealed as the tickle of whiskers danced across his wrist.

    The firm, abrupt, and urgent tug of a parent yanked the boy from his new friend. He moaned at his parent, saddened. He waved farewell to the beast, and trudged off.

    The tiger lay near the bars, awaiting the boys return.