This was yet another book I stumbled across while browsing audiobooks, and as I’m currently really interested in outdoor life (more gardening, but I’ll extend that to farming or homesteading or, in this case, animal rescue farms), this caught my attention. It was even further piqued when I read the subtitle – my reaction going something along the lines of, “wait, what? six HUNDRED rescue animals? How???”
Though this book does deal with the animals, it is also a memoir of Laurie Zaleski’s life. It hops back and forth between her story and the stories of animals in her care – how they came to her, what their particular personalities or needs are. I loved that format, because it interweaves the difficult times of Zaleski’s life with the rescue of another animal, most of whom came to be another huge personality and presence on her farm.
Zaleski’s life story is rough. It just is, and there’s no way to sugar coat it. Her mother ran from a violently abusive partner with her four kids, and landed them all in a run down cabin in the woods with no running water or power, and full of the detritus of teenaged partying. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was a roof over their heads and it was cheap. Despite having no money or marketable skills, her mother (Annie) managed to keep that roof over their heads and food in their bellies, no matter how difficult that would prove to be (spoiler: very). And she did it with an irrepressible spirit and an unwillingness to bow to any blow that hit her.
You can’t help but adore Zaleski’s mother. She’s not perfect – terrible taste in men being at the top of the list – but she was a powerhouse of a woman who was able to adapt to and thrive in the most adverse of circumstances. She went from fancy homemaker in the suburbs to someone who was capable of raising and butchering her own animals to feed her kids, all while living under the threat of violence from her ex husband and with no support from him. She kept her kids going, taught them how to be tough, how to tackle any problem and how to follow their own paths in life, no matter how rocky the ground got. She’s the kind of fierce mama bear you’d never want to cross, that’s for sure.
Zaleski’s life wasn’t without trouble or difficulty, but true to her mother’s example, she became doggedly determined, unwavering in her decisions, and not one to balk at a challenging situation. Which is just as well, because plenty of those came her way in the form of animals she didn’t have space for or knowledge to care for. She had to teach herself how to maintain a farm, care for a vastly varied array of animals and how to become an organization with funding and volunteers just to keep her farm afloat.
I ended up loving this book much more than I expected. I connected to Zaleski and to her mom, I loved each animal story (even the sad ones) and I felt like I was right there with her every step of the way. Even the audiobook narration was quite good. I’m so glad I randomly stumbled across this book and decided to give it a try – these are exactly the indomitable women I needed in my life!
An inspiring and moving memoir of the author’s turbulent life with 600 rescue animals.
Laurie Zaleski never aspired to run an animal rescue; that was her mother Annie’s dream. But from girlhood, Laurie was determined to make the dream come true. Thirty years later as a successful businesswoman, she did it, buying a 15-acre farm deep in the Pinelands of South Jersey. She was planning to relocate Annie and her caravan of ragtag rescues–horses and goats, dogs and cats, chickens and pigs–when Annie died, just two weeks before moving day. In her heartbreak, Laurie resolved to make her mother’s dream her own. In 2001, she established the Funny Farm Animal Rescue outside Mays Landing, New Jersey. Today, she carries on Annie’s mission to save abused and neglected animals.
Funny Farm is Laurie’s story: of promises kept, dreams fulfilled, and animals lost and found. It’s the story of Annie McNulty, who fled a nightmarish marriage with few skills, no money and no resources, dragging three kids behind her, and accumulating hundreds of cast-off animals on the way. And lastly, it’s the story of the brave, incredible, and adorable animals that were rescued. – Goodreads
Book Title: Funny Farm
Author: Laurie Zaleski
Series: No
Edition: Audiobook
Published By: St. Martin’s Press
Released: February 22, 2022
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir, Family, Starting Over, Animals, Life Purpose, Domestic Violence
Pages: 256
Date Read: July 23-28, 2023
Rating: 8/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.28/5 (6,167 ratings)