If the tiger lifts his tail, stand aside.

After we'd visited the bridge over the river Kwai we took a side trip to the Tiger Temple. It's become an animal sanctuary housing water buffalo, cattle, wild hogs, pea fowl, 4 kinds of deer, a leopard, two lions and 38 tigers. One tiger is Bengal, the others are the slightly smaller Asiatic Tigers. Most of the tigers have been born on the temple grounds. They are taken from their mothers at 4 weeks and raised by people so they are accustomed to people so that their mothers don't teach them to hunt, though they continue to have contact with their mothers. The tigers were being fed chicken until the advent of bird flu, now they are fed cat food.
We arrived at the temple about noon and at 1pm the tigers were walked to the canyon (sort of like a gravel pit) for their afternoon exercise which is a romp in the pool. Tigers act like cats in many ways except they love water. We walked down to the canyon with four of the tigers the others had been brought down previously. At the canyon we were divided into two lines for photos. The right hand line paid 1000baht ($28.50) to have their pictures taken with a tiger's head in their lap. Once the picture was taken a handler would lift the Tiger's head, and not very gently, and the person would get up. If the tiger was too sleepy for the 'head in the lap' routine the tourist would lie down using the tiger as a pillow. We were told that tigers usually attack the smaller object so I tried to stay close to a small Thai person. :) The left hand line was for those of us who just wanted to pose with a tiger. I thought, "Well that's cool, I'll have my picture taken with a tiger". As it turned out I had my picture taken with a half dozen or more and lived to tell about it.
We had an excellent guide for our trip to the bridge and temple giving us wonderful information about crops, religion, culture, life and Thailand. She suggested we not accept the offer to bottle feed the cubs because on previous trips some of her customers had been injured. The cubs rolled over quickly and raked the women doing the feeding with their claws though not intending any harm. We all, there were 8 of us, 6 Australians and 2 Americans, on a large bus with a 'happy room' (toilet) in the back, took her advice.
Oh yes, the tail...walking to the canyon we were told, "If the tiger raises his tail step aside, he's about to mark his territory." I'm not aware that anyone got sprayed.