In muralist Joy Blackburn's home the tiger not only came to tea, he stayed.

There are porcelain tigers in every corner of the room, and they stretch out across the furniture. They have even left little footprints across the ornaments on the Christmas tree.

The reason for all the tigerishness at the Blackburn residence is simple, the artist is mad about the animal.

Recently, she realised a dream when she got to cuddle a real tiger at a sanctuary in Thailand called Tiger Temple.

The Theravada Buddhist temple can be found not far from the border with Myanmar. In 1994, it was started as a forest temple and sanctuary for numerous wild animals. Tigers in the temples are thought to be mostly hybrids and Indochinese tigers.

There are an estimated 1,785 Indochinese tigers left in parts of Asia including Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

All populations of tigers in the wild are under extreme threat from poaching, habitat destruction and also poaching of their prey which is deer and wild pigs.

Many of the poached tigers are used in Chinese medicine. Some environmentalists have theorised that tourist outlets like Tiger Temple give people a financial incentive to support and protect tigers

"I think I have been interested in tigers all my life," Mrs. Blackburn, of Smith's, said. "I worked in a circus with tigers. The circus was called Cirque Knie. I am from Holland originally, but I was studying in Neuchâtel, Switzerland."

But she was still interested in the theatre, and when the circus came to town, she went with it, for a little while.

"In the circus, I swam with tigers," she said. "I like the beauty of tigers. I like their independence and that they are not afraid of water. They are the only cats that love to swim."

She was never afraid of tigers, not in the circus, and not in Thailand. "I had seen pictures of Tiger Temple in photos that people had sent me, but it was pretty amazing to go there and touch tigers," she said. "Then at the end I had this amazing experience where they unchained the tiger, and he put his head in my lap."

Tiger Temple takes in orphaned tiger cubs, also breeds tigers. "They only feed the tigers on cooked meat so they have never tasted blood," said Mrs. Blackburn. "They always need money so they started allowing tourists in.

"They take you in to see the tigers after they have had lunch and they are nice and sleepy.

"The guide takes a photo with your camera. Another guy stands behind to make sure everything is alright."

She said it wasn't that expensive to enter Tiger Temple. "Once you are inside, you can buy other experiences like a group photograph.

"I was in there with a friend, but she was petrified that she might have the tiger in her lap. I had quite a good interaction with the tigers."

Mrs. Blackburn has painted murals all over Bermuda, and is currently working on one for the Tucker's Point Club.

She has been in Bermuda for 42 years. She met her husband Robin skiing. After moving to Bermuda she left off her dreams of the theatre and concentrated on her art. Many of her acrylics and watercolours focus on her two passions horses and tigers.

Unfortunately, Tiger Temple is not without controversy. An animal rights organisation called Care for the Wild International (CWI) published a report in June 2008 that claimed the tigers at the temple were not rescued wild tigers, but were obtained by illegally trading with black market tiger farms.

CWI claimed the purpose was really to make money and not to help tigers.

The groups also criticised the Tiger Temple for interbreeding different subspecies of tigers, which they said violated conservation principles.

For more on Tiger Temple see www.tigertemple.org. For more on CWI see http://www.careforthewild.com.