Roars and Growls

As we passed through Hudson (population 1,565) out on the eastern plains of Colorado, my body flashed back to the sensations of being a young girl in Kansas.  The small town ambiance.  Everything slower than the pace I've been used to for a long time now.  The familiarity was comforting.  My pores would have loved to have stopped there, walked the streets, gone into the library to take in the smell, and checked out the gas station to see if there was a Coke machine that held glass bottles. 

But it was Michael's birthday, and we continued on to our destination.

Why did it take us so long to finally visit the Wild Animal Sanctuary?  It's been in its current location for over twenty years.  Oh, sometimes I marvel at how many things there are to discover in this life.

But we arrived in the land of lions and tigers and bears at just the right time.  And I loved it!

The Wild Animal Sanctuary sits on 720 acres of prairie, and it has an elevated walkway that is almost a mile long. That walkway allowed us to see the bears waaaaaaay out there while also snatching bird's eye views of any big kitties who happen to meander under us.

I didn't know that a lion's roar could not only be heard, but it's also felt.  The feeling and sound are enough to awaken primal nerves - the ones that must be tamed in order to live in suburbia.  RRRROOOAARRRR!  Whew!  It was good to let that out!

The Wild Animal Sanctuary has about 300 animals who have been rescued from abusive situations or from places where they are kept illegally.  These animals' stories helped me to once again realize that people will do about anything.  People who try to make pets out of lions or tigers, so the animals have to live in apartments or horse trailers or trucks.  A man who had two tigers living in his car with him and made money by charging people for photos with the animals. The circus and zoo owners and workers who force animals to live in inhumane conditions.

And then there are the amazing people who rescue these animals, the people who care for them out at the sanctuary, and the people who donate money so that the sanctuary can afford the almost three million dollars necessary for animal care each year.  That's a lot of love and caring!!!

The bears were kind of sleepy and not very social, so my photos of them were not all that exciting. I hope that Dorothy would approve of my "Lions and Tigers and Wolves (oh my!)" story. 

Wolf Yoga

A couple of wolves at the sanctuary were victims of a husband and wife's divorce.  The wolves had been "pets". Children, dogs, and cats suffer from the effects of divorce.  But I think the two wolves benefited.  

Did you know that there is a school somewhere in the eastern U.S. (I can't remember where) who has adopted an animal at the sanctuary by raising money through recycling ink cartridges?  Anyone anywhere who cares about giving these beautiful animals a good life can donate to help them out. 

There is something about remembering that, somewhere - not just at a Colorado sanctuary, but also in the wilds - there are happy lions RROOAARRing, bears doing bear things, and wolves playing.  This is not just a human-centric world, even though we do our best to believe so.


“To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.”
  - Terry Tempest Williams