By far the largest and most unusual cat at the Shambala Preserve, Patrick is a liger: the hybrid offspring of a lion father and a tiger mother.

Weighing in at an estimated 650 pounds, his ruddy coat shows faint stripes and he also has a modest mane. He "fuffs" like a tiger and roars like a lion, although without adding the deep grunts at the end that most lions do.

Patrick was born in the summer of 1990 and formerly resided at Deer Path Animal Haven, a roadside zoo in Illinois. Conditions for the animals at the park were deteriorating, and eventually their license was revoked and it was closed. Their animals were placed at other facilities; Patrick and Cujo, a Bengal tiger whom we renamed Jiang, came to Shambala on May 14, 1998.