The Hungarian Tiger

[alice_loves_cats]

Thought I'd try and give you a laugh, or at least a smile.

The True Story of the Hungarian Tiger

As most of you will know, Hungary is a small country in Central
Europe, with a continental climate. There are some nice woods to go
a-hiking in, and if you're lucky, you might spot a deer, a wild boar
or a stag. 

You would not, however, expect to encounter a tiger.

The six-year-old who first saw the beast in the Mecsek hills was
rather taken aback, and after running home to Mummy, proceeded to draw
a picture of the animal she had met. It was, unmistakeably, a sketch
of a fully grown stripey tiger-tiger-burning-bright. Would you believe
your child in this situation? Well, this Mummy was fairly sceptical,
until someone else reported having found pawprints. Experts from the
national parks were called in to identify the pawprints. They were
rather bemused, since they distinctly remembered that their job
description said nothing about recognising tiger-prints. So the
zoo-people were called, and the pawmarks were finally identified as
indeed belonging to a tiger.

As this point in time we have a confirmed tiger roaming the woods on
the Mecsek hills, yet we have not yet got a tiger that is being
missed. Zoo-directors waddled over to the tiger-cages, had a count,
and found all their dear ones still there. Circuses did the same. The
possible solution is an illegally kept tiger, that has outgrown his
hospitaliy. The owner would of course not be stupid enough to own up
to having raised an illegal tiger, and is keeping quiet. 

Search parties set off to the Mecsek with weapons to shoot sleeping
injections into the beast. They find nothing. Slowly, they get bored.

A couple of days later, more pawmarks are found, and the search
intensifies. There is another problem, though: the tiger doesn't seem
to be eating anything - all the sheep in the district, for instance,
are still alive. It also doesn't seem to have any fur: or rather, it's
not leaving it clinging to bushes. People get suspicious of the
paw-marks, and examine them again. They are again confirmed to belong
to a tiger. 

The search party suddenly gives up and goes home to watch the Euro
2004. Shortly, the search is declared unsuccessful yet finished.
People living in the Mecsek are slightly uneasy about this, but are
already thinking of ways to attract tourists: the Hungarian Tiger,
they hope, is at least as good as the Loch Ness Monster. Better, even,
because it's doing it's job nicely: leaving enticing pawmarks yet not
gobbling up the villagers.

Strange world we live in.
Love, Alice