A Tiger in the House Summary

Summary of A Tiger in the House

In this article, you will be reading the summary of A Tiger in the house written by Ruskin Bond. This is a story of a tiger cub, Timothy who was brought to their home by his grandfather. Initially, when Timothy was a cub, he was very friendly with the other two pets in the house. One was Toto, a monkey and the other was a puppy. But as he grew up, he became dangerous. At this point in time, the grandfather decided to leave him in a zoo. Thus, he took him to a zoo in Lucknow.

After about six months, the author’s grandfather visited the zoo. He patted the tiger and the tiger also licked his hands. The tiger was fearing a leopard in the cage next to him. Thus, the grandfather decides to request the authorities to change its cage. Here, he comes to know that this is a wild tiger. He also became aware that Timothy passed away two months ago due to pneumonia. He bid the tiger ‘Goodnight’ and returned to his home.

A Tiger in the House Summary in English

A Tiger in the House is a story by the famous author Ruskin Bond. Also, the narrator of the story is Ruskin Bond himself. The story is about a tiger cub, Timothy. One day, when the author’s grandfather was walking down the forest path along with his party, he found a tiger cub. He decided to bring that cub home. It was named Timothy by his grandmother and was brought up on bottle-milk. As Timothy grew, he was fed raw mutton, cod liver oil, pigeons, and rabbits also.

When Timothy was a cub, he was friends with Toto, the monkey, and a puppy. Timothy was initially afraid of the puppy but later on, he became friends with the puppy and allowed him to rest on his back. The author became Timothy’s favourite when he came to live with his grandparents. He would be all around the author and would pretend to bite his ankles.

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Timothy would sleep in the cook’s quarters. When he became six months old, he became less friendly. He ate small animals, sometimes pulled his chain hard, and also snarled at everybody. However, he had clean habits and scrubbed his face with his paws like a cat.

As he grew, he became dangerous and thus the grandfather decided to take him to the zoo at Lucknow. He took Timothy in a first-class compartment. After six months grandfather visited Timothy in the zoo. He patted the tiger’s forehead, prickled his ears and whacked his mouth. The tiger started to lick his hands but sprang away when a leopard in the neighbouring cage snarled at him. Seeing this the grandfather decided to meet the superintendent and request him to transfer Timothy to another cage. But, he was unlucky and could not meet him.

He went to the tiger’s cage disappointed to bid him goodbye. Once again he patted the tiger. A keeper recognised the grandfather and told him that Timothy died of pneumonia. He also told him that this tiger was trapped only last month and is very dangerous. The grandfather’s arm was still in the cage and the tiger was licking it. He somehow withdrew his arm from the cage. He gave a disrespectful look to the keeper and bid the tiger ‘Goodnight’.