In the rolling landscapes of Orange County, the traditional boundaries between the human and animal kingdoms are being quietly redrawn. At the Orphaned Wildlife Center, a sprawling 100-acre sanctuary, Marty and Debbie Kowalczik have traded the conventional rhythms of life for a more primal calling: the lifelong care of the injured, the orphaned, and the unreleasable. While the center provides a permanent refuge for a diverse roster of American fauna, it is the sanctuary’s bear population—ranging from Syrian and American black bears to massive Kodiaks—that serves as its emotional heartbeat. And at the center of that heartbeat stands Jimmy, a...
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