Zamba

With a creative beginning and a heart-tugging concussion, Ralph Helfer brings readers along on an incredible 18 year journey of his life with an African lion named Zamba.

This true story though tells more than the adventures they share together.  It is a story of a childhood dream of living with animals (from a boy in inner-city Chicago) and how that dream was lived out event after event.

Early on Ralph knew that love, not fear, was the way to effectively communicate with animals and he developed what he called "affection training".  He daily practiced affection training as he  raised up his little cub. Through the years over 1500 animals were also influenced by him and his effective training method.

In chapter 7 Ralph lays out the philosophy behind the training with the key elements which are:
LOVE: a total commitment to each other
PATIENCE: an infinite amount.
UNDERSTANDING: so we know each other's strenghts and weaknesses.
RESPECT: so we don't take advantage of each other.

The book is chronologically layed out and Ralph shares many insights to life as he saw it.  Through various events, triumphs and set-backs of life lived together, Zamba and Ralph grow and depend upon each other.  At times, if you tried, you could almost feel the splender of Zamba's great mane as you read.  Many thanks to Melanie and Sophie for recommending this story to me and I would recommend it to others that love animals the way that they do.

Zamba
Ralph Helfer
256 pages, hardback
2006