Imagine your everyday house cat, tiny with its innocent whiskers and tiny soft paws. He sleeps with you at night, and the loudest noise he makes is a meow.

Now, imagine in that cat's place there is a tiger. A baby tiger, incapable of meowing, but making a throaty chirping hello. The paws of this tiger cub are bigger than the rest of its face. You feed them a bottle and every piece of meat they eat, by hand. They sleep next to you until they are too big.

This is the life of the workers at the Myrtle Beach Safari Tours have. They get to work alongside a 900-pound Liger. They get to watch their wolf pups grow, listening to their howls change with age. They create bonds of trust and love with these beautiful and otherwise dangerous animals. And they get to watch these animals create interesting animal friendships.

Everyone has seen the Android commercial...you know the one of strange animal friendships?

Yeah, that one. Two of the friendships shown in this advertisement are in fact from The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, aka T.I.G.E.R.S. Bubbles the elephant, and Bella the dog, as well as Suryia the orangutan and Roscoe the dog that appear multiple times through this commercial live at the Myrtle Beach T.I.G.E.R.S. Preserve.

This is a place that I was lucky enough to visit during my spring break. I had an incredible hands-on experience. I got to hold and pet baby tigers and wolf pups. I got to sit with Sugriva the chimpanzee. I sat five feet from the 900-pound Liger. I got to pet a lynx! They are so soft! I watched a black leopard cub roll around a foot in front of me, its soft tail thunking against my legs. I got to howl with the wolf cubs. Who can say they've done that? Not many people.

(Excuse all of the ridiculous faces I'm making. Apparently I look silly when struck with pure elation)

That's a black wolf. I promise, not a German Shepard, though they are just as sweet and clumsy.

That was me saying, "No, where are you going? Come back and love me!"

Sweet little angel face with giant paws and soft ears. Excuse me, I am now crying.

Tears were actually in my eyes when I got to meet this sweet precious angel of perfection. His eyes were barely open because he was half asleep. He did that cute little chirp sound when I pet him. Can I keep him?!

I swear to you I am not bragging. I want you people to go experience this! It was worth every hard-earned penny, and I can't wait to go again.

Not only did I get to pet these beautiful fur babies, but I learned all about them and the danger they are in. I watched a fully grown tiger sprint at top speeds. Did you know that in three seconds they can reach up to 45 MPH running? But they have absolutely no endurance. They sleep for 18-22 hours a day, and they will only hunt if they know they don't have to work too hard for their prey.

Did you know elephants like carrots? Bubbles the elephant loves them, and guests get to feed them to her. Bubbles also loves Hawaiian Punch. Who knew?

Did you know that there are only 3,000 tigers left in the world? We can save the tigers. By going to this experience, you become part of the contributors to saving the animals. There are bracelets you can buy that say "Save the tigers, save the world," and the proceeds go to bringing light to small villages surrounding animal, especially tiger, reserves. These villages do not have electricity so they are constantly going out to cut down the trees of the rain forest. When they do this, they are putting themselves in danger. They are also putting the animals of the forest in danger. The tigers hunt the people, the people hunt the tigers and no one wins. The T.I.G.E.R.S. foundation has given solar powered lanterns to these villages, and their goal is to light them all.

T.I.G.E.R.S. is part of the Rare Species Fund, and they work relentlessly to care and repopulate these species that are in danger. They taught us that we should avoid palm oil in our groceries. They are cutting down the last rain forests to plant the trees to harvest palm oil, changing the entire ecosystem of the forests.

I really needed to share this experience with anyone willing to listen. It was the greatest experience of my life, and I can't wait to do it again.

Also, these are the softest animals I have ever pet. I wanted to live there. These people have the most amazing jobs. They said so many times: they eat, sleep and breathe this job. Every moment of their lives revolves around these animals. In my opinion, it's worth it.