HER name is Jody and she is an original Celtic tiger. However, she is eating so much that her growth rate is surpassing that of the economy, and now it is hoped to send her to America.
She was born in Co Tyrone last September to a wild animal breeder who sold her three weeks later to a family in north county Dublin for a price estimated at "about £1,800".
The family thought she would make "a nice household pet". But Jody is a Siberian tiger, and one day will weigh about 300lb.
Her kin are the biggest cats in the world", according to Mr Brendan Price, of the Friends of Dublin Zoo group. They are known to favour a diet of "hoofed animals, mainly deer and wild pig."
Such fare is rare in north Co Dublin these days, but that was not something which the family who wanted Jody had considered. Nor were they told by Jody's breeder. Jody is already on a leg of lamb a day.
All went well between the family and Jody until three weeks ago, when something snapped. It was Jody. She was still "very cuddly", but what big teeth she had, and then there were those claws. The family became "a little afraid" and contacted the Friends of Dublin Zoo confidentially, to whom they passed Jody.
Jody was probably relieved too. She was malnourished, her growth had been retarded, she had rickets, and had not being getting enough sleep because she was being cuddled so much.
All this, Mr Price believes, was the result of "neglect through ignorance on the part of a family who "genuinely felt they were giving her a good home". He commends the family for passing the tiger cub to the Friends, rather than trading her for something else.
So Jody resides, and eats, temporarily at Garristown in north Co Dublin, while Mr Price seeks sponsorship to send her to the Wildlife Waystation sanctuary in California.
He estimates the cost of Jody's trip to California at "between £400 and £500", but the expense will be greater as Jody grows older and bigger.
Mr Price said last night he knew of 30 privately owned wild animals in Ireland, "including larger cats and bears".
