By Chanda Ayub

ONCE upon a time there was a little girl called Annette. She was a very sweet little girl with dark blue eyes and black hair. She had no brothers or sisters so she sometimes felt lonely. Her father had died when she was only two years old. She lived with her mother in a little cottage near the forest.

One day, she asked her mother if she could go to the woods. And her mother gave her the permission. Annette put on her coat and ran out in the woods.

She first walked slowly and noticed the beautiful flowers, plants and giant trees … then she came to a big oak tree. ‘What a beautiful, calm and lovely place it is! I should sit here and see the surroundings,’ she thought.

She sat down to observe the beautiful view and hear the chirping of the birds. This soon made her fall asleep. It was hardly after a few minutes that she woke up hearing a pitiful whining. She sat up and looked around, the whining came again.

Annette got up. The whining was coming from behind the tree she was leaning on. She slowly walked behind the tree. There was a big tree branch lying and she could see the little paws of a cat-like animal under the branch. She tried to lift the branch but it was quite heavy. She moved it a bit and could now view the animal.

Annette was stunned to see a baby tiger. The branch had fallen on it, but luckily the cub was saved only its hind leg was hurt.

“Oh you poor thing!” cried Annette, pulling off the branch. She picked up the cub. The cub was so hurt that it didn’t struggle. “I’ll take care of you until you are better,” said Annette. “I’ll name you Stripes.”

She took the cub home and kept it in the shed at the corner of their garden. No one came there so she thought it was safe. ‘He must have lost his parents,’ she thought. She applied some ointment on Stripes’ hind leg. Stripes liked the cool effect of ointment and he also liked Annette. She then put a bowl of water and food near him and he happily started to eat it.

Stripes stayed with Annette for a week and she grew to love him. One day, she came down to the shed to play with him and when she opened the shed door she saw him running around.

“Oh! You are better today!” said Annette who was too happy to see the cub healthy but then a sad thought struck her — she has to leave him back in the wild. She picked up the cub and started cuddling him and was soon overcame with sadness and began to cry. Stripes didn’t like to see Annette sad. He started patting her in his own way.

“Oh you darling,” said Annette, kissing his soft little head. “I’ll take you to the woods tomorrow.”

The next day, she reluctantly went to the shed; put the cub in a basket and set off to the wood; there she let the cub out of the basket. At the same place where she found him more than a week ago and said farewell. She cried and ran off before the cub could follow her. That night, she could not sleep, it was very windy, and she was worried for the wellbeing of her little friend Stripes …

Next morning, she got up with a heavy heart because she had no one to play with and no one to take care off. During the previous week she got too attached with Stripes all she could think of was Stripes.

When she opened the front door of their house to go out, to her great surprise, sleeping on the door mat was Stripes! Now she took him to her mother and told her the whole story. After much thought, her mother allowed Annette to keep Stripes. Annette was very happy. She hugged her mother tightly.

Stripes is still there to this day, only now he is not a cub anymore. He is a strong tiger who goes to the wild himself whenever he wants! But he is as tame as a cat, very loyal to Annette.