I make this blog to remind you of a woman that should be remembered.Joy Adamson is famous for her books about the lioness Elsa and the cheetah Pippa-her wild friends that Adamson brought back to wildlife.But Joy Adamson did much more than that,she was working for the protection of wild animal species and ecology long before it was modern.And she was doing it with so much love and care that we can only envy and admire her endless caring.

When I talk about Joy Adamson I always feel I knew her.But that's not so far from truth because Joy had enormous heart that is revealed in all of her books.

Elsa, Pippa and Penny- part 3:Penny

Penny the Leopard



Joy always wanted to bring to freedom a leopard too and close the circle with all three kinds of big cats.Joy had tried it once with little Taga who died too early,when fate meet her and Penny.Penny was found after her mother had probably been killed.The little animal was brought to the park and they agreed to give her to Adamson.When Penny's bringing back to freedom was decided there was nothing left but finding her a home,after some searching this home turned out to be Shaba.Penny gave birth to two children but their names aren't mentioned because the book ends when her children are still very small. As with Elsa and Pippa's stories, Joy wanted to continue describe Penny's life (Martin Clarke the assistant of Joy says that : 'Penny was sighted three months after Joys death, still with her two grown up cubs. I like to think she lived a long and happy life...just as Joy wanted.')
 but died in a tragic accident.

The world lost a real angel when Joy Adamson died. If we measure her life in years it wasn't short,but if we measure it with her deeds and everything else she could have done it's very short indeed.I won't talk about her death much because I don't want people to talk about her death more than about her personality as they often do.This blog is dedicated to her deeds.

Joy said leopards are the most difficult to raise because even though Penny trusted her and was tender and easy to work with Joy never felt completely calm when around her.

Elsa, Pippa and Penny- part 2:Pippa

Pippa the Cheetah


After her sucess with Elsa,Joy decided to try it again with Pippa because she thought it's wrong to keep such a beautiful animal for a pet.Pippa had been found when she was 3 weeks old and had lost her mother.The little animal found a home in Danky's family who were looking after it like it was a pet.When Pippa was about 8 months old Dankys had to left Kenya and they asked Joy to take the animal because didn't want to move Pippa out of Africa.As Joy said it was a love from the first sight.A love that had its predictable end.However this time Joy was alone in her efforts because George Adamson was busy with bringing to their wild life lion prides that took a part in the movie "Born free".PIppa spent all of her wild life in Meru national park.She had babies four times-all of the children from first and third time died soon after they were born.The second time she had children she had four-Mbilly,Tatu,Whitey and Dume but he got sick and died.The fourth time she had children Pippa gave birth to one girl-Somba and three boys-Big Boy,Tiny and the third one got killed by another animal when was very young and didn't even has a name yet.Pippa hurt her leg and died in the place where they were taking care of her.Joy brought her back and buried here close to their camp,near the place where Pippa's world was.
During that time Joy had an accident and went through a few operations making everything very hard for her at times but she always put Pippa and her wild children's needs and pains before hers.
Joy never was afraid of Pippa and always trusted her and relied on her because of Pippa's calmness.

Elsa, Pippa and Penny- part 1:Elsa

My blog wouldn't be complete without telling you a little about Elsa,Pippa and Penny.Of course I can't get all of the information described in a couple of books in just few lines so I'll include only basic facts.As I mentioned Joy didn't have children but she treated her animals with mother love and cares.It would be easy if she kept them like her pets,making her happy,saying it's the only way cause they've lost their mothers and there is no other way.But she prefered taking them back to wild life where they truly belong and can be really happy.She put her wild friends before her own comfort and health.Joy said she didn't like spending so much time living away from other people and it was hard to sent off curious visitors sometimes ,cause she really enjoyed some company.But she never allowed herself that because it would make her animals feel bad and it was dangerous for their kids to get used to humans.

Elsa the Lioness



Elsa is probably the most famous of Joy's animals.The interest people showed in the book about Elsa encouraged Adamson to continue working with other wild animals.Joy got Elsa when the lion lost her mum.When George Adamson was sent to take care of a dangerous human-eating lion,he and his co-workers were attacked by a lioness and it led to her death.Later George and his co-workers found out she was a mother and just trying to protect her children.So George felt it was his duty to take care of her children.When baby lions got too big and Adamsons couldn't no longer keep them they had to send 2 of the lions to zoo.George,Joy and they workers all agreed to keep the smallest one-Elsa.Since Adamson's way of life and work allowed Elsa to be close to wild,she felt it calling her and the family decided it's better to bring her back to wild life.
Of course an animal brought up by people can't become completely independent so Joy and George had to continue giving her food.Even when she learnt to pray Elsa continues to depend on them.But she managed to brought up 3 completely independent children.First Elsa was freed in Masai Mara but couldn't stand the climate there and had to be moved in Meru national park.The local people however disliked the many guardians in the region of Elsa's home and insisted on her removal saying that since she had lived with human beings local people were endangered.Sadly Elsa got sick and had Babesia felis.She died before they had to move her gain.She had 2 children,2 boys- Jespah and Gopa and one girl-little Elsa,they all were moved to national park Serengetti after Elsa's death.Elsa is buried under the tree where she and her children used to play.Later Joy Adamson's body has also been moved there.Joy said she has never been afraid of Elsa,even when she was sick and angry,she could always trust her and depend on her and her loyalty.

Joy's connection to Kenya is deeply emotional,based on strong love and admiration for Kenya's beauty.Her heart,as she said more than once,belongs to Kenya and it was like her second mother coutry.Adamson enjoyed all shapes and forms of African beauty and shows it in her portraits,photographs and mostly in her books.Art is not the only thing she did to reach her goal of preserving this beauty.Her whole life,all of her efforts were for preserving the wildlife.Except her work with the big cats,that gave worthy information about their lives and habits,she made the world think about lots of important topics.The fund she made where money from her books sales went was used for Kenyas' parks needs.Encyclopedia Britanica includes Joy Adamson's name in "300 women who changed the world".She is one of the people who showed their contemporaries that nature is in pain,that human beings are ruining unique plant and animal species every day with their activities,that our world has serious problems we need to open our eyes for.She made lots of young people care about ecology.Joy Adamson and her contemporaries opened the eyes of the long blind for harmful human activities society and made then care more.Her motive for doing all this was the love for her wild friends and Kenya.

Joy Adamson had married three times,she found her true love in her third husband-George Adamson.He was also in love with Kenya and african culture like her.They raised and brought back to freedom Elsa,a female lion.Later when Joy tried the same thing with a leopard and a cheetah,George was still raising and bringing back to free life other lions.Although they often spent time away from each other because of their work,the distance and little time they spent together couldn't break their love and care for each other.Their common goals and ideals made their love even stronger.They didn't have their own children but were giving all the love and care to their wild kids.Sometimes Joy and George were even sacrifising their own health,busy with too much work to do for their wild friends.While George was working at Kenyan parks they lived in houses where the workers were living.After he retired, they moved to a beautiful house on lake Naivasha.Today the house is a museum and educational center.Even there Joy enjoyed wild animals' company.She dedicates her book "Friends from the forest" to them.
Juliet Hukslie,a friend of Adamsons,says Joy didn't like having too many things in her house,she liked simple life with as little as possible.As Joy often says she regrets people left their wild nature and she had always tried living as close as nature as possible.

Her real name is Friederike Victoria Gressner.She was born in Trropau,Austria-Hungary(now Opava,Czech Republic).She considered herself austrian.Joy Adamson was born in a wealthy family that always supported her love of art,ever since she was a kid.Her talent for arts is really amazing-she studied music,art(paintings),made sculptures.People who knew her when she was a kid say even back then she had a deep connection and true love for nature.Some of her later portraits of local african people were in Kenya's president residency,rest of them in Nairobi's national museum.
Joy was often drawing and photographing her wild friends.She also made a few short documentary movies.Art was in her blood,it was always a part of her.Of course her books are the best of her art that reached people all over the world.