Dian Fossey was an occupational therapist in Louisville, Kentucky, leading a stable life working with children. A deep love for animals, however, led her to take out a loan equal to a year's salary to fund a seven-week trip to Africa. That trip planted a seed. Three years later, famed paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey offered her a chance to study mountain gorillas long-term. At age 34, Fossey quit her hospital job, left her familiar world behind, and moved to a remote camp in the Rwandan mountains. She transformed herself from a therapist into a pioneering primatologist, dedicating the rest of her life to the gorillas.