When Benjamin Mee decided to uproot his family and move them
to an unlikely new home—a dilapidated zoo where more than 200
exotic animals would be their new neighbors—his friends and
colleagues thought he was crazy. Mee’s dream was to refurbish the
zoo and run it as a family business. The grand reopening was
scheduled for spring, but there was much work to be done and none
of it easy for the novice zookeepers. Tigers broke loose, money was
tight, the staff grew skeptical, and family tensions reached a
boiling point.
Then tragedy struck. Katherine, Ben’s wife, had a recurrence of a
brain tumor, forcing Benjamin and his two young children to face
the heartbreak of illness and the devastating loss of a wife and
mother. But inspired by the memory of Katherine and the healing
power of the incredible family of animals they had grown to love;
Benjamin and his kids resolved to move forward, and today the zoo
is a thriving success.
關於作者:
Benjamin Mee, a former newspaper columnist, is known for his
humorous Do It Yourself column in the UK’s Guardian Weekend. In
2005 he published a collection of these articles in a volume
entitled The Call of DIY: A Toolkit of Practical Wisdom. He holds a
degree in psychology and spends his time studying animal
behavior.