Sakura caused some surprise to her parents, a true liger with muted tiger stripes and lion tail-tuft, her pelt seemed to glow with vibrant reds, so they named her Sakura, for the blossom of the cherry.
As she grew up she developed a love of the Japanese culture her name hails from and the vibrant pink petals of the cherry blossom marking the return of spring. Though as ligers tend to grow very tall her school thought she might like to play basketball...
Kendo might have been more appropriate
College gave her the chance to take up fencing, some day she hopes to learn to wield a real katana and do the slicing bamboo thing.

Cherry liger design created by  sanguinary.animism and as I'm a liger I had to adopt her