If you had said at any point in the last 26 years that I would be doing this, I would have said you were a crazy faced person.

This morning I woke up in my mosquito net, a few new bites on my legs, got dressed, packed my backpack and walked down the Bolivian road next to speeding semi-trucks, motorbikes and, well, jungle. I ate breakfast at the cafe and then headed into the jungle with an Aussie girl and 4 guys to act as security guards while we passed through monkey mirador. She was taking me to meet Gato, the 14 year old male puma I am going to work with for the next 3+ weeks.

Yes, you read correctly, I am working with a puma. Today, we cleaned its cage and then took it for a walk. Sometimes he runs, sometimes he walks, and sometimes he just sits there and chills out. Today we spent over 3 hours sitting in the shade with Gatito (I'm pretty sure it won't always be this easy). Often he needs a little encouragement to keep moving, but usually it's okay to let him just lay. It was absolutely AMAZING. As I learned more about him and his habits I realized it is going to be a tough 3 weeks, but I believe it will all be worth it to help this puma have a better life...and besides, I walked a freakin puma thru the jungle today.

And to top it off, on the walk back to the refuge after we had fed the puma chicken and meat, I had to pick up a tortoise and carry him 200m down the road to put him away in a shed so no locals will steal him. Then a monkey jumped on my friends back and proceeded to empty the contents of her backpack onto the jungle floor. When he was thru with her he jumped on my back, but somewhere along the line picked up some peanuts. So I just walked down the road with him on my back, eating a handful of peanuts.

So yeah, I walked a puma today. If someone had said to me, at any point in the last 26 years, that I would walk a puma through the jungle, I would have called them a crazy faced person. And now, guess what...this is my life.