Forever Wild, Forever Home: The Story of The Wild Animal Sanctuary of Colorado

By: Melanie Shellenbarger

Narrated by: Emily M Wilson

Forever Wild, Forever Home invites listeners to discover the magic of The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado, the premier large carnivore sanctuary in the world.

In 1980, Pat Craig rescued a baby jaguar he christened Freckles and took his first bold steps on a 40-year journey to combat the growing crisis of exotic animal captivity, abuse, and trafficking - one rescue at a time. Today more than 200 bears, 60 African lions, and 70 tigers, as well as jaguars, leopards, mountain lions, wolves, and other exotic animals, both large and small, enjoy peace, comfort, and contentment in enormous habitats on thousands of acres of The Wild Animal Sanctuary’s prairie and canyonlands. Rescued from mostly horrific situations, they are survivors, with much to teach us about courage, resilience, and hope. Their lives resonate with our own.

Both heartwarming and humorous, Forever Wild, Forever Home honors the nobility and well-being of the animals who call the Sanctuary home, and the heroic and gratifying labors of those who care for them.

Join Sanctuary teams on rescues of giant Alaskan Kodiak bears languishing in the Florida tropics, a lion held captive by a fortune teller in a tiny Mexican town, two big cats marooned and starving on a typhoon-ravaged island in the Pacific Ocean, and 39 tigers owned by Joe Exotic, the “Tiger King” of Netflix fame. Meet Colo Colo, an angry African lion from Bolivia; Tasha Joy, a tiger who didn’t know she was a tiger; the ever-busy grizzly bears, Tiny who tips the scales at 1,000 pounds and his friend Natasha; Diego, a white tiger; Jumanji, a black leopard; Lambert, a lion who finally learns to roar - and many more. Learn how the Mile into the Wild Walkway, the longest elevated pedestrian footbridge in the world, enables sky-high visitors to see wild animals in vast habitats; how staff and volunteers create cozy houses and unique playgrounds for the Sanctuary’s (mostly) furry residents; and what happens when it’s time for a large carnivore to visit the doctor or dentist.

At The Wild Animal Sanctuary, tigers chuff in greeting, bears bask under brilliantly blue skies, mountain lions purr with joy, and African lions roar in winter. The Sanctuary is often seen as the last hope for the animals who are rescued and brought here to their forever home. But the thousands of people who visit, support, work, and volunteer here know that this is the place where hope begins.

©2020 Pyree Square Publishing LLC (P)2022 Pyree Square Publishing LLC

Amazing place and book that tells its story.

This book does a great job at telling the story of this amazing place. I've been to the Sanctuary and highly recommend it and this book helps provide a lot of backstory for it.

Great story, but why does reader ‘do’ voices??

I love this book. Very touching and interesting. But why does she ‘do voices’? It’s so annoying. We need readers who just … read! Please vet readers. We need steady voices, not interpretive once that go loud, quiet and act. Diminishes the value of every book

Beautiful production and introduction

Learn so much of the beauty and the nitty gritty about sanctuaries! finished in 1 night!

What really happened to these animals

It was a great detailed story to find out how these animals ended up in the sanctuary. It helps me appreciate what the sanctuary does for these animals that much more, because the animals deserve it.