BATON ROUGE, La. — Two days before the annual Alabama-LSU game, Mike the Tiger paces in his peaceful habitat.

Back-and-forth he goes, the same route up and down the side of his 15,000 square foot lush environment complete with a waterfall, stream, rocks, trees and a pumpkin that once had “LSU” carved into it, but has since been chewed up by Mike VI.

Fans walk by and take pictures.

“I don’t even think the San Diego Zoo has a thing on this cage,” chimes a woman in a purple dress.

For about 30 minutes, Mike roams and puts on a show for students walking to class and alums with little kids. This is the same tiger that hasn’t felt like attending a single LSU football game all season. Traditionally, Mike the Tiger will get into a trailer and sit outside the opponent’s locker room on the field as an intimidation factor. And it works.

Former Alabama defensive end Marcell Dareus was terrified of it when he made the trip to Death Valley in 2010.

“That thing, that thing scared the life out of me,” he said at the time.

But this is the first season the mascot hasn’t attended a single game. Les Miles wishes he would though. During his weekly radio show Wednesday, the LSU coach offered an idea.

“Looking for volunteers to shoo him into his travel carriage,” Miles said. “Four to five slow-moving adults need to encourage him into the cage.”

But it’s not that simple. Dr. David Baker, Director of the Division of Laboratory Animals at LSU who serves as the primary veterinarian for Mike the Tiger, was defensive—surly even—when asked why the 9½-year-old jungle cat hasn’t been going to games this year.

“Cat people know that cats do what cats are going to do,” he said. “Life is on their terms. You can’t force them and we have no way of forcing him. OK? I’ll say that again. We have no way of forcing him. We wouldn’t if we did. You can’t entice them.

“People call me with brilliant ideas. ‘Put a steak in the trailer!’ Oh wow, 20 years we never thought of that. When cats think something is up, they’re very wary animals and this is an apex predator. He’s a fully mature tiger. He’s perfectly normal. They’re secretive animals. Why would he ever come out of his night house and get in the trailer? The fact that he ever does amazes me.

“He’s exhibiting perfectly normal behavior and that’s to stay put. End of story.”

Baker said he and his staff have received a lot of criticism from fans about Mike’s lack of attendance. They call with suggestions like using a hot-shot, similar to a cattle prod, to get him into the trailer, write on Mike’s Facebook wall, and ask why he’s so lazy.

They also blame the caretakers. But the fact is, there’s nothing they can do.

“He doesn’t care, he’s an animal,” Baker said. “He doesn’t read his Facebook page, and this might come as a surprise to some people. Or, ‘Oh man I’ve gotta go to the Alabama game.’ He doesn’t know these things. He’s just a tiger.”

The times he has been on the field, Baker said the Death Valley environment hasn’t been a stressful experience for him. So why doesn’t he go?

“I don’t know,” Baker said. “He hasn’t said.”