Moto and Me: My Year as a Wildcat's Foster Mom by Suzi Eszterhas is a children's non fiction book. It tells the firsthand story of wildlife photographer Suzi Eszterhas’s care for an orphaned baby serval (a small, spotted wildcat) in Kenya. When a grass fire separates the serval from his family, a ranger asks Suzi, who is living in a bush camp and is skilled with animals, to be the serval’s foster mom. The book chronicles Suzi’s tender care of Moto, including how she feeds, bathes, and plays with him, and helps him develop hunting skills. Her goal is to help him learn how to survive on his own in the wild. After 6 months, he is ready to leave—a difficult good-bye, but exactly what Suzi had worked for.
Moto and Me is a story that combines emotion and information to nearly perfect effect. I enjoyed reading about the attachment and struggles Suzi faced in balancing the love she had for little Moto with her goal to help him grow up to be able to fend for himself. It was interesting to see how serval are both similar and different from the domestic cats that have always been a part of my life. The photographs of Moto's journey were simply beautiful and the icing on the cake. The information about how servals live, and how we can support the survival of the species was an important bonus. I think that the fact that the proceeds of the books sales going toward protecting the preserve where Moto now lives is a wonderful touch and makes me even more eager to get my hands on a paper (rather than digital) copy.
Moto and Me is a good combination of information and heart warming story. I loved learning more about how a serval grows, and how Suzi lived in Kenya. I need to buy this book for my daughter, who is still determined to live much like Suzi did in Kenya in order to care for wild animals.
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