Mary Turzillo's "Pride" (short story, non-genre): Joys & pains of raising a wild carnivore

Readable but stale story.

Kevin takes pity on a hapless baby of a big carnivore, & raises her as a pet (named "Jonesy"). Very minor sf flavor is provided by the kind of wild animal - a "sabertooth tiger", genetically engineered from frozen meat; he's rescued the artificially grown cub from the lab it was born in - they were going to kill it, but he stole it.

We see standard raising issues. One difference with other stories of the ilk is - the tiger kills Sara, the girl friend of Kevin, for reasons we are not told; she had almost mothered her! End is the tiger ran away in the neighborhood jungle, & Kevin is headed for jail.

Full text of this story is available for download.

Fact sheet.

"Pride", short story, review
First published: Lou Anders (Ed)'s "Fast Forward 1", February 2007.
Rating: B
Nebula Awards 2007 finalist in short story category.