Mike’s friends

Photo sale will help fund school for tiger’s caretakers

Mike the Tiger has friends in the veterinary students who look after the LSU mascot. The caretakers have a friend in School of Veterinary Medicine library director Christine Mitchell.

Mitchell will sell her photographs of Mike and take orders for porcelain tiles made from the images from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday during the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine’s 30th annual open house. The vet school is at the corner of River Road and Skip Bertman Drive.

The LSU licensing office gave Mitchell permission to sell photographs and take orders for tiles from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday only.

“I have to sell the photos and take orders for the tiles in person,” Mitchell said.

“You can’t buy them online” per agreement with the university’s licensing office, she said.

Mitchell has four poses of Mike. Prints sell for $20 for a 5-by-7, $40 for an 8-by-10 and $50 a tile.

Mitchell put up $1,500 of her own money to pay to print the photos, buy photograph mailers and postage. She hopes to get her money back, with no profit, from Saturday’s sales.

“All of the money we make will go to a scholarship for Mike’s student caretakers,” she said.

The caretakers are paid by the Tiger Athletic Foundation, Mitchell said, but they do a lot for what they’re paid.

“The cost of a veterinary school education can be staggering,” she said, “and I know the caretakers appreciate all the help they can get.”

You can’t order Mitchell’s photos or tiles online, but you can donate to the Mike the Tiger caretaker scholarship at http://www.vetmed.lsu.edu.

“I’d love to have tiles on hand Saturday,” Mitchell said, “but I don’t have that kind of money. I will have photos for sale. When we run out of photos, you can order them, along with tiles, but only from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.”

Saturday’s open house is free and open to the public. Visitors will take a self-guided tour with students, faculty and staff to talk about the anatomy lab, intensive care units, surgery and radiology suites and the cancer treatment unit.

Children can have their stuffed animals sutured at the Teddy Bear Repair Station, fish for prizes at the endoscopy station and see animal parades and equine treadmill demonstrations.

For more information, call [phone] or go to the vet school’s website, http://www.vetmed.lsu.edu.

“If Mike feels like it,” Mitchell said, “he’ll be here between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.”