Tabatha came to us from a private owner in Calvert, Texas along with two female leopards, Lily, and Onyx. Private owner surrenders, either by court order or by choice, are the second most common avenue by which we receive our cats, the first being entertainment facilities. This rescue was a joint mission between Tigers in America and In-Sync Exotics to rehome all the cats on this property. The rescue took place over the course of a year and involved Tigers In America and the USDA. This joint venture rescued and rehomed 9 exotic felines.
If Tabatha looks a bit different from an average tiger, good eye, she is! She is a liger which is a crossbreed between a male lion and a female tiger. Ligers only occur in captivity and are often accompanied with health and personality concerns, contrary to popular belief that mixing the species produces a stronger animal.
The same private owners had, a year prior, surrendered a male liger, Zachariah. When Tabatha first arrived at In-Sync Exotics, she was placed next to Zachariah, in hopes of easing the transition into a new environment as well as a long term plan of living together. Zachariah and Tabatha had lived next to each other prior to arrival without incident which gave us hope. The plan was to introduce them, let them get familiar, have supervised dates and overnights, all leading to “domestic bliss,” but Tabatha had other plans. With the stress of a new environment and neighbors, Tabatha started chewing on her leg and caused herself some harm. She also started to show signs of stress and anxiety from large crowds. In order to decrease further harm to herself, we immediately moved her to a different enclosure without big cat neighbors, put up barriers in front of her enclosure to decrease crowds, and started her on medication to decrease anxiety. Tabatha started to relax and stopped messing with her leg. She is now comfortable and happy and even accepts her adoring public.
Before coming to us, Tabatha did not have access to a playground, pool, or toys. Since her arrival and especially after she became comfortable, Tabatha likes to spend her time playing with her toys in the playground. Her true passion, however, is the pool. When you visit, you’ll often see our volunteers or keepers begging and pleading with her to come out long enough for us to clean it! She loves taking her toys to the pool and dropping them in, especially her big yellow ball. When she needs to recharge, she enjoys naps on the grass by the pool in the spring and summer and in her warm toasty straw filled den in the winter. With our bobcat enclosure ‘Barney’ built and Tabatha settled in, we were able to move her bobcat neighbor and reunite Tabatha and Zachariah as neighbors. The two are very happy living next to each other, sharing the toys, pool, and playground. Tabatha, now, has a second passion, keeping ‘tabs’ on her neighbor boy!
