We remember Sandy Gleichmann (Thompson) as an athlete artist who drew many of the caricatures and cartoons for our yearbook and who has her own gallery in West Palm Beach.  Florida and marriage also turned her into a writer.  In 1996 she published a big book in a limited edition (557 pages and 1000 copies)--the biography tells the story of French born Robert Baudy who became both a respected and sometimes reviled keeper of big cats in Florida.  

Early this year Oxford Scientific films called from London and asked Sandy if they could include her in a segment they were shooting for Animal Planet's "Fatal Attractions" series.  The crew came to Florida in May, shot scenes with Sandy and as the months passed she assumed she had been left "on the cutting room floor."  

At a mid November wedding in the Florida Keys, Sandy's son said, "Mom, you're on TV."  

Baudy ran Savage Kingdom in Florida breeding big cats and other animals for zoos and exhibits.  Among the animals was a Siberian tiger, the largest feline species in the world.  It was Baudy's Siberian tiger that mauled and killed a worker in 2001.  

Sandy saw in Baudy a much more complex story than yet another big cat handler.  She feels the TV program presents her views well, but unfortunately confounds Baudy's story with an unrelated story of a tiger escape with which he had no connection.  

The Animal Planet segment will be repeated often.  See http://animal.discovery.com/tv/fatal-attractions/episode-guide.html  for times and preview.