The body modification world mourns the loss of Dennis “Stalking Cat” Avner, who lived here in Nevada, served in the U.S. Navy and then found work as a computer technician. But his true passion was transformation. Avner grew out his fingernails and hooked a mechanical tail above his butt. He got cheek implants, forehead implants and whiskers. He surgically pointed his ears and split his upper lip.

Shannon Larratt, a friend of Avner and former editor of Body Modification Ezine says that Stalking Cat “transformed himself not just into a tiger, but a female tiger at that, blurring and exploring the gender line as much as the species line.” Avner was 54—about 40 years beyond the average life expectancy of a typical wild tiger.