Untamed Audiobook Excerpt Transcript

Two summers ago, my wife and I took our daughters to the zoo as we walked the grounds. We saw a sign advertising the Park’s big event, the cheetah run. We headed towards the families scouting out their viewing spots and found an empty stretch along the Route. Our youngest Emma hopped up on my wife’s shoulders for a better View, a peppy blonde zookeeper in a khaki vest appeared. She held a megaphone and the leash of a yellow Labrador Retriever.

I was confused. I don’t know much about animals, but if she tried to convince my kids that this dog was a cheetah, I was getting a cheetah run refund. She began welcome everybody. You are about to meet our resident cheetah Tabitha. Do you think this is Tabitha?

No, the kids yelled, this sweet Labrador is mini Tabitha’s best friend. We introduced them when Tabitha was a baby cheetah and we raised many alongside Tabitha to help tame her. Whatever mini. Does Tabitha wants to do The Zookeeper motion toward a parked Jeep behind her a pink stuffed? Bunny was tied to the tailgate with a fraying rope.

She asked who has a labrador at home little hands shot into the air whose lab loves to play Chase mine. The kids shouted well Minnie loves to chase this bunny, so first Minnie will do the cheetah run, while Tabitha watches, to remember how it’s done then we’ll count down I’ll, open, Tabitha’s cage and she’ll take off at the end of the route, just a hundred meters. That way, there will be a delicious steak waiting for Tabitha The Zookeeper uncovered Tabitha’s cage and walked Minnie eager and panting to the starting line she signaled to the Jeep and it took off. She released Minnie’s leash and we all watched a yellow lab joyfully chase. A dirty pink bunny, the kids, applauded earnestly the adults wiped sweat from their foreheads.

Finally, it was time for Tabitha’s big moment. We counted down in unison, five, four, three, two one, The Zookeeper slid open the cage door and the bunny took off once again Tabitha bolted out. Laser focused on the bunny, a spotted blur. She crossed the finish line within seconds The Zookeeper whistled and threw her a stake: Tabitha pinned it to the ground with her oven, mitt, Paws, hunkered down in the dirt and chewed. While the crowd clapped, I didn’t clap.

I felt queasy The Taming of Tabitha felt familiar. I watched Tabitha gnawing that steak in the zoo dirt and thought day after day this wild animal chases dirty pink bunnies down the well-worn, Narrow Path they cleared for her, never looking left or right, never catching that damn bunny settling instead for a store-bought steak and the Distracted approval of sweaty strangers, obeying the zookeeper’s every command, just like Minnie, the lab she’s, been trained to believe. She is unaware that if she remembered her wildness just for a moment, she could tear those zookeepers to shreds when Tabitha finished her steak, the Zookeeper opened a gate that led to a small fenced field. Tabitha walked through and the gate closed behind her The Zookeeper picked up her megaphone again and asked for questions. A young girl may be nine years old, raised her hand and asked, isn’t Tabitha sad.

Doesn’T she miss the wild? I’M sorry. I can’t hear you the Zookeeper said: can you ask that again the child’s mother said louder? She wants to know if Tabitha misses the wild, The Zookeeper smiled and said no Tabitha was born here she doesn’t know any different, she’s, never even seen the wild. This is a good life for Tabitha she’s much safer here than she would be out in the wild.

While the Zookeeper began sharing facts about cheetahs born into captivity. My older daughter, Tish nudged me and pointed to Tabitha there in that field away from many and the zookeepers Tabitha’s posture had changed. Her head was high and she was stalking the periphery tracing the boundaries, the fence created back and forth back and forth, stopping only to stare somewhere beyond the fence. It was like she was remembering something she looked Regal and a little scary, Tish whispered to me Mommy. She turned wild again I nodded a Tish and kept my eyes on Tabitha as she stopped I wished.

I could ask her what’s happening inside you right now. I knew what she’d tell me. She’D say something’s off about my life. I feel restless and frustrated. I have this hunch that everything was supposed to be more beautiful than this.

I imagine fenceless wide open savannas. I want to run and hunt and kill. I want to sleep under an ink black silent Sky filled with stars, it’s also real. I can taste it then she’d, look back at the cage, the only home, she’s ever known, she’d, look at the smiling zookeepers the boards Spectators and the panting bouncing begging, best friend the lab, she’d sigh and say I should be grateful. I have a good enough life here.

It’S crazy to long for what doesn’t even exist. I’D say: Tabitha, you are not crazy.