Moto and Me: My Year as a Wildcat's Foster Mom

Moto and Me: My Year as a Wildcat's Foster Mom — page 3
My Life in a Bush Camp As a child I used to tell my mom that one day I would live in a tent in Africa So it was a dream come true when I headed to the Masai Mara a wildlife reserve in Kenya to photograph animals I had planned on staying for a few months but wound up living there for almost three years It wasn’t easy When I first arrived at the camp there was no electricity For the first year I used oil lamps for light and charged my camera batteries and laptop using my jeep battery To shower I had to heat water over the fire pour it in a bag and then hang the bag from a tree branch But I loved living in the camp because I was close to animals I’d always dreamed of seeing Nearly every night I fell asleep to a chorus of animal sounds lions roaring jackals yipping zebras stampeding and more One night I woke to the sound of panting outside my tent and looked out to see the spots of a leopard as he slinked by During the day lots of animals wandered in and out of camp hippos hyenas and even a friendly bull elephant Venomous snakes like mambas and cobras were fairly common and sometimes they came into my tent One night I had a close encounter with a spitting cobra on my desk But the most exciting animal encounter I had was with a tiny helpless wildcat named Moto 4