Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Ralph Helfer adopts a four-month lion cub, rescued near the Zambezi River and raises him in California using affection training, rather than punishment training. Helfer's backstory, born poor in Chicago, moving to California, growing up in an apartment building with Carol Burnett as a friend, working in pet stores, eventually building a business caring for and providing "wild" animals for TV/motion picture production. Zamba is perhaps best known as the Dreyfus Funds mascot, but starred in many movies too. A must read for lion lovers, up there with the Born Free trilogy by Joy Adamson and The Lion King. The anecdotes were emotional: Zamba meeting a blind woman, Zamba's close brush with death and blindness, surviving a freak snowstorm, Zamba's working vacation to Africa. Unlike other GR reviewers, I did not find the book preachy: I was too vested in Zamba's life history and co-existence with people.