There’s an episode of Steve Irwin’s show Crocodile Hunter where a leaky tap has to be fixed in one of the crocodile pens at Irwin’s wildlife park, Australia Zoo. While Steve carries on like a pork chop to distract the beast, the zoo’s resident plumber, a wiry little man who looks a lot like Willy Nelson dashes in with his monkey wrench and fixes it. I’m proud to say that that man, the plumber, is my father.
As such, whenever I’m up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland visiting my family (they’re all Sydneysiders who transplanted there, in case you’re wondering)I get to pop into the zoo for free. This time my dad had an extra surprise for me. He’d arranged for me to meet Khan, Australia Zoo’s prize Bengal Tiger.
Although you can’t see them in the photo there were two experience tiger-wrangler close at hand. One held the chain attached to a collar around Khan’s neck. The other had a wooden crook not unlike the one Little Bo Peep favours. How effective either the crook or chain would have proved I’m not sure, but luckily neither were called upon.
If you’re wondering how I felt being so close to a tiger have a close look at my right hand. No way was I tense!
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