[Note: Rated G. This short story is entirely fictitious.]

Saturday. I arrive on the set of Ghostbusters II to meet my friend Pippa who is one of the Production Assistants. My name is Clare and I work at the local city Zoo as a keeper on the Big Cat section.

Today Rajah, a three-month-old Bengal Tiger cub who was orphaned when his mother died suddenly a few days after giving birth, escorts me. I adopted Rajah and am now hand-rearing him. Not an easy task at first when he required feeds every two hours, even during the night!!

“Hello Clare!” Pippa calls out. “Oh, hi, how are you?” We shake hands. “Fine, fine!” “Is this little Rajah?!” She picks him up and he purrs contentedly. “Yeah, that’s him, the little rascal!” “I caught him in my larder last night!” “Ooh, dear you’ve really got your hands full then!”

We laugh over that and walk with Pippa to her office. I’ve got Rajah on a leash and he trots good-naturedly behind us.

Apparently my arrival was expected and instead of her office we end up in a large room where pretty much all the cast and crew have gathered. Rajah and I have become impromptu celebrities since I adopted him and everyone wanted to see him!!

Rajah loved all the attention and promptly leaped into the lap of a totally unsuspecting seated Bill Murray!!! “Oh! Ooff!” he muttered! Everyone was reduced to fits of laughter!!! Even the normally quite serious Harold Ramis had to chuckle!!

“How old is he now?” Dan Aykroyd asks. “Just over three months now” I reply.

Meanwhile Rajah has settled himself down and is purring quite happily away while Bill strokes the back of his head gently.

“He’s big” Bill says, recovered from the shock! “He’s gonna get a hell of a lot bigger than that!” I add. “By the time he’s 18 months he’ll be almost fully grown.”

“Don’t stay young for long do they?” Harold asks. “No, they’re fully fledged adults by the time they’re 3-4 years old.”

Suddenly Rajah jumps off Bill’s lap and jumps up at Dan who bends down and picks him up. “Geeze, he’s really heavy!” “What will he weigh when he’s adult?” “About 500-600lbs!” I reply. “Wow!”

Rajah props himself up on Dan’s arm and tries to lick his face. “Rajah!” I call, forcefully. He turns and looks at me. “No!” I get the message through and he stops.

“I don’t let him do that because he’d take the skin off your face with his rough tongue!” Dan lets him jump down and he runs back to me and rubs his soft furry body against my legs.

Harold lets out a small cough that startles Rajah. He dashes over to him and puts his front paws up on his shoulders!! Harold is slightly less than pleased to see him and tries to push him away. Rajah meanwhile is bewildered by this apparent lack of enthusiasm and is making throated chirruping noises.

“Come on you!” raising my voice. Rajah jumps down and I put the leash back on him. “I think I’d better take you home before you get into trouble!”

After a tirade of goodbyes and thank you’s, I depart with Rajah happily gamboling behind me.