Legacy

Photograph courtesy of Darrell Bezet.

A 54-year-old man rolls around on the red bricks in front of the glass of Mike the Tiger’s habitat. He ignores the smudges that appear on his khaki slacks from the water leaking out of Mike’s pond. Mike VI, the Bengal-Siberian mix that resides on LSU’s campus, watches from atop a rock near his pool.

Mike’s regal head leans toward the ground as he stalks forward. Mike watches as the man wobbles precariously, steadied slightly by the use of a black cane. His eyes follow him around one of the habitat’s pillars as he disappears from sight. The tiger’s head drops another couple of inches as he lifts his paws to move closer and closer to this man.

Suddenly, Mike runs and leaps as the man peers around the next pillar, jumping and pawing at the net that confines him.

“That’s my buddy! I love you, too! That’s my buddy!” the man shouts, giggling loudly and pawing right back at Mike.

Darrell Bezet is not a shy man. This is the kind of guy who calls everyone “bay” and keeps cat food in his car for strays he sees at gas stations. Accessorized by a thatch of thinning brown hair, dark Ray-Ban sunglasses, a downward curving mustache and that ever-present black cane, Bezet proudly displays a shirt his sister-in-law made for him. Embroidered in gold thread, the black shirt designates him “Darrell, Tiger Whisperer.”

Made famous on campus through YouTube and word-of-mouth, Bezet is an early-morning staple at Mike’s habitat.

“I say he’s my tiger and I just let LSU take care of him,” Bezet says as he circles the habitat. “I try to come every day … I was sick for three days … I had Mike withdrawals. I finally made it here on the third day, and he was so ecstatic. He was like, ‘Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you.’ And I felt the same way.”

Bezet came to see Mike for the first time about a year ago — a time he recalls as especially difficult. After getting in “a stupid little fender bender wreck,” Bezet began feeling pain throughout his body. A doctor soon discovered a four-inch long bone spur threatening to sever Bezet’s spinal cord.

“I worked in nursing [and] took care of quadriplegics. And I thought, ‘Oh my God, there’s no good deed goes unpunished. Since I cared for quadriplegics, now I’m going to be one,’’’ Bezet recalls. He was living alone and in constant pain when Bezet says he had a life-changing experience.

Mike VI responds to Darrell's commands as much as any domestic house cat would. Photograph by Erin Arledge

“I was home praying, just praying and praying and a voice spoke to my heart … the voice said, ‘Come on, we have to go now,’” Bezet says. That voice, which he recognizes as “when the Lord spoke,” directed him to immediately leave his one bedroom shotgun home in Spanish Town — where he still lives with three of his own cats. When he drove away Bezet “didn’t know where [he] was going” but soon found himself on Nicholson Drive.

“I thought, ‘Well, Lord, there’s nothing here but Mike the Tiger,’ and he said, ‘That’s right, that’s where we’re going,’” Bezet explains. So he pulled his white Lincoln Towncar into the lot by Mike’s habitat, and there was the tiger — waiting.

A corrective surgery took care of the bone spur, but Bezet continues to live in constant pain due to other health issues, which causes him to take narcotic medication daily. He altered how he takes his medication so he is able to play with Mike every morning.

“Mike is such a blessing, and I know with all my heart he is a gift from God,” Bezet will say to anyone who will listen, and lots of people have. Though Mike has other loyal friends who visit as often as Bezet does, Bezet is quick to say that he knows he’s “number one on [Mike’s] list.”

Bezet has made other new friends in his visits to Mike, even from outside the state. One woman, a gospel singer from Florida, heard Bezet’s story. She saw videos on YouTube of the connection between the two friends and drove all the way to the University to see Bezet in action. She shared her own story with Bezet before returning home to Florida.

“She was telling me about how she was left behind a house in a basket under a tree. I just looked at her and said, ‘God leaves some of his most precious gifts in broken vessels,’” Bezet remembers fondly. “Tears were just streaming down her face because I touched her so much.”

Darlene Woodford, a Baton Rouge resident who met Bezet at Mike’s habitat, has become an avid fan as well.

“This tiger just relates to him so well. Mike knows his car. It’s like therapy for [Bezet]. It’s not a bad thing for the tiger,” Woodford says. “One time he came in the afternoon, and that’s when Mike sleeps in the corner. There were people in the corner calling and as soon as [Bezet said], ‘Hey buddy,’ boom! He’s right up.”

Most people, like Woodford, have usually responded well to Bezet’s visits, Bezet says. When he arrives, shouting and pawing at the glass toward Mike, crowds will usually form.

On Friday, February 19 Darrell Bezet comes as close as he ever will to petting his best friend Mike VI. Photograph by Erin Arledge

“It’s almost like a circus act, and that’s not what I want. It’s about Mike loving me,” Bezet says. “I tell everybody when they come out here and they see me playing with him. I encourage them, just talk to him. I say, ‘You’ve got to talk to him.’ He understands more than you realize.”

Mike certainly does understand Bezet. On a recent afternoon, Bezet instructed Mike to bite his toy tire, and Mike grabbed it with his teeth, tearing and biting. Bezet then asked him how high he could climb, and Mike pattered over to the center support pole to climb and jump upon it. Other visitors stood nearby in wonder, snapping photos on their cameras.

“I believe Mike has a great personality, as in people. Animals all have different personalities, and Mike just has a great personality,” Bezet says.

However, the young tiger’s personality is expected to change as he ages.

“Mike is going to be five in July,” Woodford says. “When he gets to be five, he may not be as playful, but really he’s just been adorable. Like [Bezet] says, well, we’ll see.”

Dr. David Baker, director and professor of the division of laboratory animal science at the University School of Veterinary Medicine, is in charge of Mike’s care. Dr. Baker has told many of Mike’s friends that Mike will probably be less playful as he ages.

Bezet staunchly contends Mike “will always love” him.

“All I can say,” wrote Dr. Baker in an email, “is that nobody, including Mike, can have too many friends.”

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