Help T-Swift to Begin Again

One day, while standing in the bathroom brushing our teeth, my husband and I were talking about how Cheetah Conservation Fund’s work in Somaliland and Namibia could get more exposure. I may have also been simultaneously complaining that I never got Eras Tour tickets…

I said, “Taylor Swift loves cats—I wonder if she would love cheetahs too? If someone as powerful and amazing as her even said one thing about CCF, we could get so many people to learn about these gorgeous creatures.”
My husband replied, “Why not name a cub Swift?”
🤯
“Swift is the BEST name for a cheetah!” I screamed. After working with over 150 of them, I’ve also never met one named Swift! I thought, Even if she doesn’t see it—how great is that name?

So here we are, with a beautiful cub in Somaliland we named T-Swift, honoring the amazing woman she’s named after and her love of felines. I’m hoping to use her story to show the world how horrible the illegal pet trade is—and hopefully get just a little bit closer to stopping it.

Backstory

But before I tell you where we are now, let me take you back to where it all began. I first saw Taylor Swift perform in August of 2008. My sister Savannah and I went to a Rascal Flatts concert in Raleigh, North Carolina (where I went to college), and this stunning girl in a sparkly silver dress with matching microphone and guitar opened for them. We listened to her sing “Just Another Picture To Burn” and talk about how every guy she dated was prefaced in the relationship knowing that they’d be written about if the couple ever broke up. Everyone loved her so much at this concert that I vividly remember my sister and I buying Taylor Swift t-shirts and bracelets instead of anything from Rascal Flatts. We’ve been fans ever since.

To me, Taylor Swift represents so much of what many women aspire to— gorgeous, intelligent, self-sustaining, vulnerable, powerful, kind, and strong. Her songs resonate with such a wide audience on a personal level. I mean, who hasn’t had a relationship that they only saw in the color Red? She’s a queen in all the best ways, yet she stays humble and genuinely seems to care about making the world a better place.

As for my other great love, cheetahs, that passion started when I was just six years old. My mom bought me a book about them and that was all she wrote (pun intended!). I was desperate to work with them, to help save them from their impending doom, terrified they might not survive long enough for me to ever see one as an adult. I finally saw my first cheetah at 18 (there aren’t any in North Carolina) at the Smithsonian National Zoo during my first internship and followed that up with an internship in Namibia at CCF. And here we are today: I’m now on staff at the Cheetah Conservation Fund – Dreams do come true!

Although I spent my entire life working towards this goal, I didn’t know what road it would take me down in the end. After obtaining my first animal care position working for a private wildlife reserve owned by a Sheikh in Qatar, I became aware of the Illegal Wildlife/Pet Trade firsthand. Ads for cheetah cubs and other animals were everywhere online – on Facebook, Craigslist-like sites, and in chat rooms. I couldn’t believe this was such a big problem. People thought they had what it took to care for a wild cheetah in their home where some of the best zoos struggle to keep them healthy? The trend continued, and I saw this illegal pet trade everywhere. I worked in Qatar for one year and then worked in Abu Dhabi for another five years. Guest after guest told me that they had cheetahs and other wild animals at home. My boss made me pick up a cheetah from a house on the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, a poor nine-month-old creature that walked like a crab due to nutritional problems from being fed the wrong diet. What could I do about this?

On February 6, 2014 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, we got a call that there had been 15 cheetah cubs confiscated/rescued at the border of Dubai/Saudi Arabia. Several zoos in the region were called to assist. When we arrived only four out of the 15 were left. Three of them (clearly brothers) were stowed away in one crate, shaking and huddled together. Then there was a single male in a crate of his own, sitting right at the front. I walked over, leaned down and opened the door and then sat on the floor. This little ragged, dirty and emaciated cub, who couldn’t have been more than 8 weeks old, walked over to me and put his paws on each of my shoulders and “hugged” me. I sat on the floor holding this tiny baby and crying until I couldn’t breathe, promising him that he was safe and nothing was ever going to happen to him again. I told him how sorry I was that he had been taken from his mother, and I promised to do my best to make it up to him.

Together, we spent three years educating the public about the plight of the cheetah and the Illegal Wildlife/Pet Trade and raising money for conservation. Jasper had lit a fire in me that couldn’t be tamped out. Something more had to be done.

When I got the first chance to go to Somaliland for the Cheetah Conservation Fund in 2018, I jumped at the opportunity. I had been a CCF Namibia intern and kept in contact with Dr. Laurie Marker my entire career, but this was the chance of a lifetime. CCF had started playing a more active role in the care for confiscated cheetahs in Somaliland. The first safe house had just been built, housing eight cubs from two to six months old. Before I could make it to SOmaliland, another three cubs had been confiscated. We lost two of the three despite all our efforts. I missed days of sleep and became sick as a dog, but I had never felt so alive. I was now working for the organization that was actively trying to stop this horrific trade.

In 2022, I finally got the absolute honor of joining the CCF team as a Development Associate after my son was born, and I stopped zookeeping. I had been one of the first visitors to the Cheetah Rescue and Conservation Centre (CRCC) in Somaliland, and have been able to continue playing an active role in bringing in more volunteers and coordinating needed supplies and staff; and it fuels me.

Now, the Cheetah Rescue and Conservation Centre (CRCC) in Somaliland houses over 100 cheetahs that have been rescued from the Illegal Wildlife/Pet Trade in very large, natural enclosures. I got the pleasure of revisiting in January 2024 to see the difference since the beginning six years earlier. My mind was blown. Despite the amazing facilities we have and the dedicated staff, I can’t believe more people didn’t know about Illegal Wildlife Wildlife/Pet Trade and the problems for cheetahs. How can CCF raise awareness?

Fellow Swifties, band together. T-Swift the cheetah and her cheetah pals need your help, and I know you can deliver.