Tantra is one of our oldest cats here at the sanctuary pulling in at 18 years old.  Tigers can have the life expectancy of an average of 20 years old in captivity.  In knowing this little fact it goes to show that Tantra is well into her old age.  We rescued Tantra from Texas about 4 years ago along with 3 leopards.  They came from a closed down facility that said they were an educational center in Alvin.  She and the others were the last cats to be placed in homes.  We were told that Tantra was originally taken from a drug house where Tantra was routinely beaten to be kept mean so no one would break into the house to steal the drugs.  This we were told was done with a baseball bat.  When arriving in Texas it was immediately apparent that no one was living on the premises any longer because the house seemed to be abandoned and there was a lot of over-brush around and in the cages.  Old carcasses were scattered all over the old cages.  The owner had to be called to meet us at the house.  Tantra proved to be the toughest to load, not wanting anything to do with us or the previous owner.  After many hours and finally tricking her with food in the transport cage we were on our way back to a permanent loving home here at Forever Wild.  It took about 2 years for Tantra to finally be convinced that we were not going to hurt her or neglect her in any way.  She finally came around to one of the owners, Chemaine in which she will rub against the cage and chuff.  She still does not like to be around people she doesn’t know and she suffers from bad arthritis but, in all, she seems happy.  She has had reconstructive surgery on her bad paws due to a bad declaw.  She is one of our most vibrant tigers in color and her markings are very distinct making her one of our most beautiful tigers here at the sanctuary.  We love her dearly.