Golden Jingga

Friends -
I actually have something of a love-hate thought process when it comes to big cats -- since 1994 when a cougar killed a friend of mine. But this is one beautiful baby, and it is a good story.

Nobody in the Sacramento Zoo thought that her Sumatran tiger mother, Bahagia, was pregnant this year. Even the ultrasound that the suspicious zookeepers took showed nothing. Who knows where this little Jingga was hiding during all that, but she elected to stay put, get a bit bigger and finally make an appearance into the real world on March 18 -- surprising everybody. Her name means orange in Indonesian, but in many ways she is one golden baby. I rarely go to zoos, but it might just be worth it now that she is healthy enough to be on exhibit in her glass-walled home.

Jingga (the gourd, that is) is about 10 inches tall, and is decorated with pyrography, leather dye, acrylic paint, embossing powder -- and finally a bit of gold leaf paint, which she well-deserves.

Summer is finally here, so go have fun.

margie lopez read

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