We Bought A Zoo by Benjamin Mee

 

It was 2006 and Benjamin Mee's family was used to him taking on big projects.  He had been a journalist and tv writer, swimming with dolphins in Florida one day and visiting the Amazon another.  Then he picked up his family from England and moved to France where he went about restoring a farmhouse and barns for their family complex.  But Mee wasn't done yet.  He heard about a zoo for sale in Dartmoor.  It was the perfect time for his family to take on a project like buying and restoring a zoo.  His father had just died and his mother was selling the family home, giving them capital.  Eventually, Mee, his wife and children, his mother and one of his brothers all moved to the zoo.

It was in bad shape.  The former owner had gotten old and stopped renovating.  The exhibits were old and in need of repair and the animals had to be fed daily.  In order to open as a tourist attraction, everything had to be repaired.  The house was barely liveable and the animals were getting older as well.  It was a huge struggle to find the money and over and over banks promised loans and then reneged.  

Benjamin Mee has devoted his life to animals and conservation.  Before he bought the zoo, it was just a tourist attraction.  Mee turned it into a vibrant center where animals had the correct habitat and the focus was on preserving animals and breeding endangered species.  There were lots of problems, family problems, money problems and animal problems.  One was always getting sick, starting to fight with the other inhabitants in its enclosure, or escaping.  Mee did a masterful job, hiring the correct people and putting his whole life into helping these animals.  This book is recommended for memoir readers.