The Puma Years: A Memoir of Love and Transformation in the Bolivian Jungle

Laura was in her early 20s and directionless when she quit her job to backpack in Bolivia. Fate landed her at a wildlife sanctuary on the edge of the Amazon jungle where she was assigned to a beautiful and complex puma named Wayra. Wide-eyed, inexperienced and comically terrified, Laura made the scrappy, make-do camp her home. And in Wayra, she made a friend for life.

They weren’t alone, not with over a hundred quirky animals to care for, each lost and hurt in their own way - a pair of suicidal, bra-stealing monkeys, a frustrated parrot desperate to fly and a pig with a wicked sense of humour. The humans too were cause for laughter and tears. There were animal whisperers, committed staff, wildly devoted volunteers, handsome heartbreakers and a machete-wielding prom queen who carried Laura through. Most of all, there was the jungle - lyrical and alive - and there was Wayra, who would ultimately teach Laura so much about love, healing and the person she was capable of becoming.

Set against a turbulent and poignant backdrop of deforestation, the illegal pet trade and forest fires, The Puma Years explores what happens when two desperate creatures in need of rescue find one another.