It all started with a bear...not even much of a bear, at that. A cub, frightened and separated from its mother, running amuck sampling crackers and jams at a small convenience store and gas station, in a dust bowl called Ridgecrest. But then, Dawne was there so maybe it wasn't so strange after all.

It wasn't that Dawne caused trouble, it just seem to follow her, tripping her up on regular basis. It was almost like life often picked Dawne up and rolled her around in its earthly mouth and spit her out again. But like the animals she handled she always seemed to land on her feet. Now none of this would be important to the story if it weren't combined with Dawne's blue eyes, waist length curly blond hair, and a build on her that appeared to make grown men stammer.

At the time, I was licensed by the State and Federal Governments to handle, care and rehabilitate both native and exotic wildlife. The facility's undisputed king was "Dandy Lion," the 18 month old African Lion who loved to practice roaring at the wild burros, who came down from the surrounding hills to bray at the strange assortment of birds and mammals on the compound.

Between jobs, Dawne and I would train the "big" cats and other animals for movies. The native wildlife, who had been injured and brought to me, were rehabilitated and released back into the wild.

Usually, Dawne would be the one to go on the road, while I ran the compound. Now this did not mean that I missed out on the excitement because there were always ""the calls" like when Dawne jack-knifed the rig on the North / South Carolina state borders and three mountain lions escaped. But of course, many kindly Southern gentlemen were willing to hike through the night with Dawne and they soon gathered up the cats, and the truck was straightened out and on the road home.

Feeling like she had earned a vacation, Dawne dropped off the cats and headed out to visit her dad in the high desert below the South Sierras.

There is something special about the early morning hours before children and animals wake up and need to be fed. There are those who greet the rising sun with elation, but personally I think that extra half hour when you snuggle deeper into the warmth of covers is sacred and I treasure it like a miser hoarding gold.

The jangling of the phone insistently drilled in my ear and as my hand fumbled for it, my mind raced through the possibilities. It couldn't be Dawne; she was in the middle of nowhere, miles from any conceivable trouble.

"You gotta get out here. They're going to shoot the bear!" errupted the voice on the other end. My mind frantically tried to scramble up through the layers of sleep, "Bear? What bear?" I croaked.

"The bear in the store" Dawne explained quite rationally, as if it was perfectly reasonable that she should be calling me at the crack of dawn about a bear. "It's a cub and it's inside a store. "Fish and feathers" are here and they want to shoot it. They don't have a tranquilizer gun and they won't turn it over to me because I don't have permits to handle it. I need you up here now and bring your permits."

"But Dawne, it will take me at least 4 hours to get there! Can't you get a net on it or some ropes? Isn't there anybody up there who can rope? Maybe you can cross-rope it then get the vet to come in and knock it out until I can get there with a cage."

"I'll get the cowboys up at the corrals and hold off the cops till you get here" Dawne offered.

"Corrals? What corrals? " I asked , still trying to picture this whole thing in my head.

" Remember when you picked up all those burros up for the Park Service at the fairgrounds? Well, the Park Service, the BLM and the Naval Weapons Center built a whole holding area for all the horses and burros down the road."

Dawne plus a bunch of cowboys plus a loose bear cub... pictures formed and whirled in my head. Hopping out the front door, I pulled on my boots while throwing nets, come-a-longs, ropes, heavy moving blankets, medical supplies and a cage into the back of the pickup.

"How does she do it?" I thought to myself, feeling like the cavalry charging to the battle. Visions of the police, Fish and Game, local animal control, circling as Dawne guarded the bear cub, lambasting the officials with words which would fit in with charges of inciting a riot, interfering with the police.... I knew my friend and knew that beneath all the rough edges was a commitment running so deep and true that she would protect the cub at all costs.

Sometimes when you run headlong in your mind in one direction, reality takes a turn leaving you with either mud on your face or a smile. In this case, it was both. By the time I arrived the bear cub was gone, whether dead or alive, I didn't know. Fearing the worst, I headed over to Dawne's parent's place, where her dad said she had gone out to the wild horse and burro corrals. Could they have taken the cub there? Maybe it was in a horse trailer?

I arrived to find Dawne surrounded by cowboys, laughing and joking. I, on the other hand, rolled out of the truck with my uncombed hair surrounding my head like I had put my finger in an electrical socket, wearing an unironed shirt I had grabbed while half-asleep, and the look of a harried mother chasing an unruly child. "But...but where is the cub?" I stammered.

With a smile on her face, Dawne casually noted that it had been tranquilized by a local vet and taken back up to the Sierras. "But look at all these burros!" she soberly observed and then with her great earthy laugh added, "And all those darlin' little ole cowboys!"

"Oh God" I moaned.

And so began a change in my life so profound that it affected not only myself but my family. Wild horses and burros would become our focus and that of the LIFE Foundation for the next two decades.