Left Hand Laurel – Liz Stroh-Coughlin

More than 550 lions, tigers, bears, and other carnivores call 800 acres on The Wild Animal Sanctuary (TWAS) just outside of Keenesburg their forever home. It's the first and longest operating facility of its kind in the world.

Niwot, where Liz Stroh-Coughlin lives, is just 45 minutes from this incredible zoological non-profit facility. A Colorado native who lived in Los Gatos, Calif for 32 years, Stroh-Coughlin decided to make Niwot her family's home two-and-a-half years ago when she and her husband Dick retired.

Stroh-Coughlin, 68, felt at home again as soon as she returned to Colorado. "I just feel closer to my roots," she said. And in a huge gesture of reciprocation, she's helping to make the animals at the sanctuary feel at home too.

Stroh-Coughlin's family members are Colorado cattle ranchers and while growing up she always enjoyed being "out on the farm." During her years in California, along with their two now grown daughters (Sasha and Lexi), the family cared for donkeys, rabbits, and always dogs on their 22-acre property. This fall in Niwot, two new dogs are joining the family.

Being in wide open settings just feels right to Stroh-Coughlin. She loves to be outside and moving. She was a runner until her knees gave her trouble, so now she walks upwards of 35 miles a week and, along with her husband, she climbed Kilimanjaro a couple of years ago.

Caring for others is also part of who Stroh-Coughlin is. Home health and hospice care were especially near and dear to her heart during the quarter century she was in nursing. Her career as a nurse practitioner led her to an array of situations. She worked in private practice, as well as being a case manager with a visiting nurse association.

She's worked in Morocco at the US embassy, volunteered with the Peace Corp in Micronesia, and in the Marshall Islands on a medical sailing vessel where she helped to set up clinics. In California, she worked to raise money for an organization that rehabilitated people with mental health issues and brain disorders, and with her children she volunteered with the National Charity League.

For the last 16 months, Stroh-Coughlin has turned her nurturing skills toward a whole new realm of living beings. She now works with the wildest of animals at TWAS.

"We admire all of her hard work," Abby Matzke, volunteer coordinator at TWAS wrote. "Whether it's cleaning out dens and performing habitat maintenance, or educating the public on the captive wildlife crisis, Liz will always go above and beyond to make sure it is done properly and with a smile."

It was an article in an airline magazine that brought the unique facility to Stroh-Couglin's attention. Having been on safaris in Tanzania and Kenya, her eyes were wide open to the ever-present dangers of animal capture and poaching. She wanted to have a positive impact on how these animals are treated so she decided to take a tour of TWAS.

"Sure enough, I fell in love with the sanctuary," Stroh-Coughlin said. She completed two days of training learning about the animals, rules, and precautions.

Around 150 volunteers spend 16 hours per month at the sanctuary. Stroh-Coughlin has been known to give 40 hours a month at TWAS, because she enjoys it so much, and she's not alone. It's easy to get hooked on helping out. She said some of the volunteers have been coming for 10 years. That's what's needed to care for these beautiful animals that have lived through horrendous experiences and now just need a safe home.

"The more I'm there, the more I want to go back," she said. "I think about it every day."

Volunteers choose their own schedules and spend half of their time in the nutrition center unpacking and sorting food. When the bears aren't in hibernation, the animals need 80,000 pounds of meat and produce each week.

A good part of volunteer time is also spent educating guests. The Mile into the Wild elevated walkway (now expanded to 1.5 miles) provides an amazing vantage point into each habitat while not adding stress to the rescues' lives, unlike zoos. It's where volunteers inform the public about the global wild animal crisis, the sanctuary's rehabilitation process, and tell stories of individual rescues.

Her favorite animal is a white lion named Rio, a rescue from Guam a few months ago. He'd been used in a magic act and lived in a cage on a hot, humid rooftop. He was kept in an anorexic state so he could more easily slip through contraptions used in the show, Stroh-Coughlin said. Now he's stronger, healthier, and living happily with other lions.

Stroh-Coughlin especially enjoys working on special projects such as improving the animals' habitats. She likens it to farm work – digging weeds, changing the materials, and making sure it's clean for the resident animals. It helps her to understand more about each animal as she does the work. .

Founded in 1980 by Boulderite Pat Craig, TWAS's mission is to stop the suffering of large exotic and endangered wild animals living in rundown, abusive, and neglected situations. The sanctuary provides them with permanent care and large natural habitats, while educating the public about the crisis of animals being in captivity which has led to tens of thousands of big cats, bears, wolves and other animals living in poor conditions around the globe.

Stroh-Coughlin said, "Sadly we keep getting more rescues." That's why TWAS has grown to include two additional facilities for rescued animals – a 10,000-acre refuge in southern Colorado and 71 acres in Texas. Recently, the sanctuary took in 150 animals from the infamous Tiger King Park.

There's much to know about the animals and Stroh-Coughlin gleans a lot of information from being with other volunteers. All of the helpers share a love and concern for animals and the planet, Stroh-Coughlin said, and she senses a great deal of camaraderie within the team.

"I love it, it's just a wonderful place to go," Stroh-Coughlin said. "I truly feel like it's a blessing for me to be there."

Matzke wrote, "The only way The Wild Animal Sanctuary is able to operate is by having a group of dedicated volunteers who really care and want to help the animals, and she definitely fits that description."

To learn more about the Wild Animal Sanctuary, visit http://www.wildanimalsanctuary.org.