A pet tiger got loose in Houston and an off-duty deputy confronted it with a gun because Texas doesn't mess around

Image for article: A pet tiger got loose in Houston and an off-duty deputy confronted it with a gun because Texas doesn't mess around

Joel Abbott

May 10, 2021

On Sunday night, residents of a Houston suburb looked down their quiet street to see an abnormally large cat stalking their well manicured lawns:

"Why is there a tiger???" 😂

Another angle (language warning for this one):

The gentleman confronting the tiger in this video was an off-duty deputy, but it could have been anyone because this is Texas and everyone has a pistol:

Residents quickly noticed that the tiger had a collar and was likely someone's pet. That assumption was proved correct a few minutes later when the tiger's owner came and rescued it from the cowboy who was about to make it into a nice living-room rug:

Take a moment to appreciate the beauty of this photo. This is almost as "Texas" as it gets:

If you're wondering, it is legal for Texans to own tigers (because freedom), but it's not legal within Houston city limits.

The tiger's owner reportedly got in a car and fled with the tiger before police could show up. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Kudos to the beast-of-a-man-deputy who stood up to that tiger like Mowgli staring down Shere Khan. Handling that situation calmly was dang impressive.