"You began looking for this house right away?" Dave asked curiously.
"Not actually looking for the house, but hammering out the general plan to insure that Molly and I could stay together and I could keep her happy," I answered, "She couldn't live in the center of a large town... it would make her uncomfortable. So I started researching some information on the animal she had been turned into."
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I did my research on my own, as I feared letting Molly know what I was planning would only upset her. I sensed that doing this would be rough, but it had to be done. People wouldn't want her roaring at their dogs or appearing threatening them. That sort of reasoning was why the wolf was wiped out in our state... and Molly being turned into a humanoid tigress was far larger then a wolf and if she found herself trapped with only a tiger's instincts would not need the benefit of a pack or pride to bring down large game.
I started with a web-search and started with site on the top of the list of links that it had. It listed...
BENGAL TIGER: ORDER: Carnivora FAMILY: Felidae GENUS AND SPECIES, AND SUBSPECIES: Panthera Tigris Tigris, formerly Panthera Tigris Bengalensis
WEIGHT: 181.4-263.1 kg (400-580 pounds) Male is larger then the female.
LENGTH: Head and Body: 190.5-221 cm (75-87 in); Tail: 81.3-88.9 cm (32-35 in)
I skipped over some of the next information as since Molly could stand up on her hind legs, things such as the "shoulder height" wasn't necessary, and I was pretty sure she was already sexually mature and at that moment I wasn't actually planning for a family. I also overlooked the sections on what tigers ate in the wild. I figured that we'd have a high expenditure at a butcher, and if Molly did decide to become a hunter, she wouldn't encounter the animals that the Bengal Tiger hunted in the wilds of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.
TERRITORY: Females: 20 square kilometers; Males: 60-100 square kilometers, though this is dependent on availability of food.
BEHAVIOR: Typically solitary, but there have been recorded instances of several tigers feeding and even cooperating with each other from time to time. In contrast with male Lions, male tigers sharing their kills with females and cubs will even let the female and the cubs feed first and reports indicate that when sharing kills, tigers appear to share it rather "amicably". However, tigers prefer to be on their own and male tigers will not tolerate another male in their territories. A male's territory will overlap the territories of several females, though. It is also one of only a few species of cat that actually enjoys water, and has been known to bathe and swim in it, particularly when overheated.
I then read an article from a separate website that I saw in passing before going to the first one, which I had thought to be interesting. It read:
The Bengal Tiger, also known as the Royal Bengal Tiger or the Indian Tiger is one the largest cats in the world, roughly the same size as the African Lion, though the Lion is slightly smaller, but the size difference is only by a couple of pounds. Only the Siberian or Amur Tiger is larger. Through the culture of southern Asia, the Bengal Tiger is well respected and venerated. The Bengal Tiger, specifically, is the national animal of Bangladesh while its species, the Tiger is the national animal of India, where most of the world's tiger population resides.
The Bengal Tiger is the most populace subspecies of tiger with small pockets and parks around Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, and Nepal. However, none of these parks are connected and habitat destruction and poaching for Chinese traditional medicine and for its fur is still a major threat. In fact, as a result of present population decline it is expected to be extinct in 12 years. For information on...
I skipped the information on how to save the tiger in the wild. Not that letting it go extinct was a good thing, but my focus was on Molly.
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"So you and Molly could be the only hope for the future of "wild" tigers," Dave gave a chuckle.
"What?" I turned to him.
"Well, Molly isn't in a zoo, so technically she's a wild tigress, and you've called me here to give me this rundown because you want to marry her," Dave commented, "I guess as you want me to help you two out."
"Dave, I don't think we're genetically compatible anymore," I said weakly, "and I don't think I could even please her... sexually I mean."
"I'm sure, but there's more to life then sex," Dave nodded.
"And at that time, sex was the last thing on my mind," I tried to return to the story I was telling.
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Turning from the information on tigers I turned to various maps of the country, and particularly population density maps. If Molly would need twenty square kilometers to be a tigress if she wanted to... or if she was bothered to much by people who mistreated her, she would have that space to live. According the maps, most of the best areas were in the American "west" around the Rockies. Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. At first I had thought Minnesota might have also been a good choice, as it had plenty of lakes for Molly to swim in, but there were so many small towns that I doubted that there was enough uninterrupted rural land for Molly to have if she wanted it.
I wrote down the possible states she could live in on a sheet of paper and then began to fold up the papers and books I had seated next to the computer I was using.
"What are you up to, George?" a voice asked me from behind.
I turned to see my mother entering the room.
"Nothing," I said weakly.
"Nothing?" she asked looking at the computer screen and the list of states on the paper I was holding, "you're working out something to do with Molly... don't try and hide it."
I looked down.
"I have to help her, mom," I told her weakly, "if the situation was reversed, I know she'd do the same for me."
"I know you care for her, but what is the purpose of all this?" my mother asked, "you've listed a series of "western" states, none of which are close to here and you have web-pages up on tigers. What are you planning?"
"The states are the states where she can live and be free without having to deal too much with people that will fear her or treat her like an animal," I said slowly.
"Why? Those states tend to be extremely conservative," my mother warned, "she'd be more likely to be shot by some rancher claiming she was eating their cattle."
"She wouldn't go after someone's cattle," I argued, "I know she wouldn't... and anyway, I chose these states because they have areas that are sparsely populated. She won't be cramped up there. She can be free and if people or dogs are bothering her, she has the room to simply get away from it all..."
"George..."
"Her parents aren't treating her like she's their daughter anymore!" I said firmly, "it's more like they're zookeepers, and when we've gone out, more the half the people shy away from her... like she's some man-eater..."
"Stories like the Jungle Book tend to do that," my mother sighed, "Shere Khan is the villain in the tale."
"But Shere Khan is a work FICTION!" I countered, "and Kipling wrote a lot of his racism into the book to justify Britain's colonial rule in India and other places. Molly is NOTHING like that character. She deserves to be treated with respect and kindness... not as though she's a mindless animal. And if the people here are going to treat her so poorly... maybe it'll be better for everyone if we move to where she doesn't have to put up with the problem."
"You can't run from your problems son, and neither can Molly," my mother warned again, "I know you love her... but Mr. Changes trial is coming up in a couple of days and you and Molly will be going back to school soon. Running will only look like an easy way out... and Molly may not want to move..."
I only looked down.
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"Moving here had to be rough..." Dave commented.
"It was," I nodded, "and Molly and I would hear my mother's "you can't run away" lecture again, but I wanted to give her what would make her comfortable, and as the trial went on, and as we went back to finish college, Molly become more and more uncomfortable around large groups of people, especially when they ran in fear or treated her like an animal. When we graduated, she did want to be left alone if people weren't going to treat her well."
There was a brief silence for a while before you commented again.
"But we didn't finalize the plans for the move here until later," I told Dave, "so I'll try to leave that for later."