[FEL-L] Nook the liger, longtime resident at Valley of the Kings animal refuge, dies

[BigCatSimba at aol.com]

:-( sad  he was an awsome feline.
 
By Chris Schultz
cschultz at gazetteextra.com

SHARON-One of Walworth County's biggest celebrities died earlier this month, 
without fanfare or obituary.

Nook, a 22-year-old liger, was the offspring of a lion father and tiger 
mother weighing as much as 1,400 pounds. He could eat 150 pounds of meat in a 
sitting. 

He lived at the Valley of the Kings, a 10-acre animal refuge in Sharon 
Township.

Nook was euthanized Sept. 3 when it was discovered that he had bone cancer. 
Old age and the sudden onset of disease took a lot out of Nook, said Jill 
Carnegie, who runs the Valley of the Kings with her husband, Jim Tomasi. The big 
cat was down to 550 pounds when the decision was made to put him down, she said.

The biggest cat in the valley, Nook was also the gentlest, Carnegie said.
 
"He was a loving, monstrous, loveable, huggable creature," she said. At 13 
feet from nose to tail, Nook had claws the size of thumbs and feet that could 
cover a 9-inch pie plate.

Nook lived most of his life at Valley of the Kings. He developed a friendship 
with Ieshia, a female Siberian Tiger, who misses her friend.

"She still cries for him," Carnegie said.

Nook was only 4 months old when he came to the shelter came from a breeder in 
Indiana. The breeder could no longer keep him, and Nook was slated to be 
auctioned, most likely to be raised and then harvested for his pelt, Carnegie said.

Instead, Nook was brought to the shelter.

Nook was cremated by a professional cremation service. Carnegie said she 
keeps the ashes in a large urn in her house. When Ieshia dies, her cremains will 
be added in the urn, and it will be buried on the shelter's grounds.

Carnegie and Tomasi have been running Valley of the Kings for 36 years.

According to the Valley of the Kings Web site, about 1,000 members nationwide 
contribute to the nonprofit shelter.

Members are allowed to visit Saturdays and Sundays only from 1:30 p.m. until 
sundown. About 25 regular volunteers help all year. 

The shelter keeps about 35 lions, tigers, bears and smaller cats. Many were 
bred as exotic pets, were left over after circuses and carnivals went out of 
business, or were simply put up for auction after being used in television 
shows, commercials or movies. 
 

_http://www.gazetteextra.com/liger092207.asp_ 
(http://www.gazetteextra.com/liger092207.asp) 




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