Evening Magazine

Her face screams cuteness. Just about anything this tiger baby does says "I'm adorable."

Looking into her eyes, it's hard to believe anyone could ever reject her, let alone her own mother.

The cub's story of survival starts with a Sumatran tiger named Jojo - an experienced mom who had her first pair of cubs at Woodland Park Zoo four years ago.

When Jojo got pregnant again, there was no reason to question her parenting instincts. Not until she gave birth last December to a single female cub.

"Everything looked good with the cub," says Harmony Frazier, a zoo vet. "She was doing great and it was the next week when Jojo was spending less time with the cub and the cub was becoming more demanding for food."

Shunned and without mother's milk, the cub can't survive. Her fragile, four-pound body begins to lose weight and shut down.

On Christmas Eve, the zoo vets put holiday plans on hold and race to save the baby tiger after it is placed in an incubator.

Vets feed the cub every two hours to keep it alive. Now they've become the mother. But they must teach the cub to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a tiger.

Check out the video to see this adorable cub and the steps zoo vets take to save its life, while preparing it to become a tiger.

The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle is holding a coming-out party on Monday, April 9, at 11:30 a.m. for the Sumatran tiger club born December 12. It will be on display for daily viewing.

The cub has been raised by the zoo staff since December 24 because it was abandoned by its 15-year-old mother, JoJo. The zoo also will announce the name for the cub, selected in an online poll of choices in the language of Sumatra: Hadiah (gift), Senang (happy), Sendiri (single), Berani (courageous) or Satu (one).