Finished reading A Buffalo in the House: The True Story of a Man, an Animal, and the American West last night, and early this morning e-mailed one of the book's main subjects, Roger Brooks (above, with his pet buffalo, Charlie), detailing my feelings about the book. Roger, a retired commercial airline pilot who had flown secret missions for the CIA over Laos in the Vietnam era, had a first-degree black belt in karate, and although now in his 60s still plays competitive soccer, is described in the book by author R.D. Rosen as a "handsome, big-boned man, over six feet, thick as a linebacker" and "just the sort of man you'd want by your side in a war or mud slide or barroom brawl." Roger and his wife adopted an orphaned buffalo, whom he named Charlie, that was wandering near Yellowstone National Park in the spring of 2000 and brought the calf to their ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico.Basically, what was initially going to be a temporary situation turned into many months, and the reddish-orange buffalo calf grew up to be part dog, part kid and close companion to Roger. The book details raising Charlie and having him as a pet, interwoven with a history of the plight of buffalo in American history. There is a sad ending to Charlie, which I found very emotionally tough to read, but today Roger, who was devastated by the loss of Charlie, continues his respect for buffalo by trying to better the situation of the mistreated Yellowstone herd.
Roger returned my e-mail this morning almost immediately, attaching a six-page letter he wrote to the Governor of Montana about problems and solutions of the Yellowstone bison. He also promised to send me a DVD that "parallels" the book about himself and Charlie. I look forward to receiving that.
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