Review: Forever Free by Joy Adamson.

This is a last great book to the Elsa trilogy. The story began with, “Born Free” telling how Elsa, a lioness, was raised with the Adamson’s in a wild reserve environment and then moved on to “Living Free where Elsa was moved to another environment where she could find a mate, which she did and she gave birth to three cubs, Jespah, Gopa and Little Elsa.

At this reserve Elsa took excellent care of her cubs and protected them from all human and animal predators. Poaching was taking place at this reserve as well as the last. Elsa and her cubs were also in peril from another lioness who roamed the same territory. After a few battles Elsa made a great stand and won out that area to rear her cubs. The Adamson’s still frequented this place after the cubs were born to bring them fresh meat they got from hunting to be able to feed and keep the four of them healthy.

Than the sadness of Elsa’s illness and her death haunted me as I read on to see how the cubs where going to survive without her. The cubs were still to young to hunt prey for themselves so the Adamson’s stayed on to keep feeding them and watching how they acted among the other lions and hoping that another lion family would adopt them into their pride in that area. However, the cubs wound up getting in trouble with the small villages that surrounded the reserve by being with a group of lions that were killing the villager’s goats, sheep, etc. Jespah did get hit with an arrow head in the process but it didn’t seem to be life threatening because it was just under the skin on his right hip area. People felt it would sooner or later works its way out.

The Adamson’s received a letter stating that the cubs needed to be transferred somewhere else. They happen to get lucky that a National Reserve Park over six hundred miles away decided to take the cubs. The Adamson’s and their hired help struggled for days to capture the cubs to transport them by crates/cages to their new home. The journey took a toll on the cubs but they did survive and was released to their new environment that held many other animals. This was a huge adjustment for the cubs and it took them some time to find a place where they felt safe. The story goes on about the demands that were put upon the Adamson’s and the struggle to be able to watch over the cubs. There’s plenty more events throughout the book to keep you reading but the story of the cubs is sad because their story has no ending. However this book was as good as the other two and I will probably read them again someday….
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the story of the aftermath of elsa the lioness,s death and the adamson,s efforts to capture elsa,s three cubs and take them to a safe living area where they can live free ( )

This is a follow-up to Born Free and Living Free. Forever Free is the continuing story of Elsa's pride after her death. ( )

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