FUNNY FARM :: Laurie Zaleski

Who doesn't love a good animal rescue story. Of course, animal rescue stories come with their share of pain, anguish, and difficult times. I still had no idea the depths of storytelling I was in for when I cracked open Laurie Zaleski's Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals. Zaleski didn't start the rescue, but continued it as a labor of love for her indomitable mother, Anne McNulty, who started it accidentally, borne out of kindness and necessity. Anne McNulty may be one of the greatest people I've ever read about and Zaleski did a brilliant job of painting a full-color portrait any mother would be proud of.

Zaleski was born into wealth. Before they were thirty, her parents had three homes with a housekeeper and nanny for the kids. Her father, however, was  domineering, controlling and violent. At twenty-six, Anne McNulty took her three children and ran for their lives. With no child support or alimony, the foursome ended up living in a run-down structure (I can't even call it a house) with no electricity or functioning bathroom. 

What Anne did to create even one loving, united, warm memory of that time is nothing short of amazing. She had multiple low-paying jobs, but her main position was cleaning cages for the local animal control (you see where this is going). Despite scraping the bottom of the barrel for their own existence, Anne McNulty couldn't say no to an animal in need. 

With plenty of them, the "Funny Farm" turned into a free-range free-for-all full of assorted rejects who lived together, often in the house and on the couch. Eventually, the farm opened to the public and donations helped the family and the continued growth of the rescue.

Zaleski, "a tomboy, an ass-kicker, Tarzan and Jane rolled up into one propulsive locomotive of a girl," turned into a force of nature just like her mother. She became a successful designer and founded her own graphic design company, Art-Z Graphics, of which she is also the President and CEO. Her life goal, however, was to fulfill a promise to her mother to buy a real farm where she could retire and rescue animals full-time. Of course, in McNulty fashion, that road wasn't smooth either.

Told in alternating chapters, Zaleski weaves the tale of her family's horrific (and beautiful) past into the present, where, in 2019, the Funny Farm's 600+ denizens welcomed over 100,000 visitors from all over the world. A story of hardscrabble existence, exhausting work, ongoing terror, and the power of family, love, and the healing nature of animals, Funny Farm is a triumph. It made me want to get on the next plane to the remote Jersey Pinelands and wish I could meet and hug Anne McNulty. Laurie Zaleski's writing is smart and engaging, informal and welcoming while flowing with ease. It uplifts and drops the bottom out, over and over, until you are both in love and can't take anymore. Highly recommended.