The Spotted Sphinx

The first of Joy Adamson's books about Pippa, a domesticated cheetah given to the author at the age of seven months in the hope that she, like the lioness Elsa, could be returned to the wild. Set in Kenya's Meru National Park, the book recounts the unusual friendship that developed between Adamson and the elegant, affectionate but enigmatic cheetah — the "spotted sphinx" — as she is taught to hunt and survive on her own, and follows Pippa through several litters of cubs born in the wild.