Sleeping Tiger, Snoring Dragon

By all appearances, it is a normal Monday morning in July (1989) at the Wagon City Police Station in Central Pennsylvania. Even the one dead body seems to be the result of neglect on the account of a careless animal owner rather than the end result of a successful murder plot. After hearing about the unfortunate incident, the Wagon City Police Chief, Joshua Ackerman, dispatches the normal personell, which includes a coroner, a squad car with two detectives, a morgue crew to remove the trainer's body and an animal control unit to get rid of the tiger carcass. The police chief also sends over Harry Martini, a local private detective, who has found a niche investigating large animal homicides. This assignment appears to be run-of-the-mill, as the trainer was only trying to bond with the treacherous feline and in the process was devoured by his pet. As the crew gathers at the crime scene, breakfast pizza is delivered and enjoyed by many, along with the mandatory morning cup of java. The peaceful tranqility of a warm summer morning is suddenly shattered, when the comatose tiger stirs and shows faint signs of life. The gang scatters as the tiger arises, leaves the private residence and goes on the prowl. Now, the sleepy, small city, situated at the edge of Pennsylvania Dutch country has a dangerous wild animal on the loose. After the tiger's escape, Harry and the two detectives, assigned to the case, are called back to headquarters by Chief Ackerman. Not only does the Chief have a loose tiger on his hands, but local news affiliates have also picked up on the story. In no time the tiger's dilemma goes national and the police switchboard gets bombarded with ”Save the Tiger” phone calls. Chief Ackerman is livid and demands that the three men begin plans to round up the live cat right away. Since the detectives are city employees, they have no choice, but as a “freelancer” Harry explains to the chief that he does not “do live animal rescues”. The chief explodes and only after some hardcore verbal arm-twisting and black-mailing, does Harry agree to take part in a tiger chase. Part of the blackmail involves Rita Mack, Harry's girlfriend, who is also employed by the city as a “meter maid”. Harry storms out of the Chief's office, irate that he is being forced to partake in something that he wants no part of. First efforts to bring in the tiger are unsuccessful, as a makeshift posse, armed with tranquilizer guns and police canines, chases the tiger across the local countryside, but fail to even get close to the cunning beast. After the chase, Harry returns to his Wagon City P.I. office, only to find his main squeeze, Rita Mack and her first cousin, Cousin Jenny, hanging out, drinking beer. Harry joins the two women in their liquid refreshment. At this point, Harry is informed that Rita and her first cousin, have inquired about renting an elephant from the traveling circus to aid in tracking down the wild tiger. Harry thinks the idea is crazy, but this does not deter the two women in the least bit. Rita and Cousin Jenny leave Harry's office and head straight for Claude's Circus to meet the owners of the elephant. The owners, two young men, Joey and Sam, are into renting out the elephant, named Bubba, but the big top manager, a little person, named Jimmy French has different ideas. He wants a simple poker game to determine the fate of the two women. If they win, they get to use Bubba to hunt the tiger, but if they lose, they have to perform a striptease act for all the circus folk. Much to Rita's chagrin, Cousin Jenny accepts the challenge. When questioned by Rita about the game, Cousin Jenny replies that she is a card shark that can beat any man in a fair poker game. That night Rita and Cousin Jenny return for the much-anticipated card game. The gambling match takes place right after the night's performance and to everyone's surprise, especially Rita, Cousin Jenny wins the game and the two gals get to rent “Bubba” to hunt down a wild tiger. The next day the two women return with Harry, as it has been decided that Harry, along with the two elephant trainers, will hunt the tiger from the back of an elephant. After crossing paths with a TV crew, the three hunters (plus elephant) pick up the trail of the tiger in a nearby park. Unfortunately, the elusive prey circles around the hunting party and knocks one of the trainers (Sam) off the elephant. Sam is taken to the hospital, but survives with a long claw mark down his back. The Police Chief is enraged and sends the whole force after the tiger with instuctions of “shoot to kill”. At about the same, the free-roaming tiger discovers the local zoo, where there just happens to be a lonely female tiger. The tiger manages to climb inside her cage and thus avoid the deadly hunting partly.