The Cowboy and
his Elephant
Malcolm MacPherson
“Friends nicknamed Maguire “Army,” for his neat appearance. An energetic young man with dark hair and a choir-boy's face, a deep voice, and a machine-gun style of delivery, he had trained birds, baboons, chimps, capuchin monkeys, pigs, goats, dogs, camels, horses, ponies, llamas, large cats, cheetahs, lions, and tigers. He had worked for circuses, safari parks, and movie productions. Finding himself with nothing to do one afternoon, he had even taught his own pet shorthair cat how to meow on cue. But elephants were his specialty.”
The paragraph above comes from a wonderful book titled The Cowboy and His Elephant. By Malcolm MacPherson, it's subtitled The Story of a Remarkable Friendship, which it truly is. Bob Norris, the cowboy of the title, and Amy, the orphaned African baby elephant, shared a life that few other people (or elephants) will ever experience.
“Bob watched her from under the brim of his hat. One morning a young horse that was “goofy” and couldn't concentrate on anything stood looking at Amy's hay in front of her stall door. Amy had backed up to Bob, and he was scratching her rump. The radio was playing. The colt entered the paddock and walked over to Amy's hay. Reins looped over his neck held his head from the hay. While Bob was watching her, Amy, looked at the colt. She looked back at Bob as if to say, Excuse me for a minute. She went over to the colt, led him out of the paddock by the reins, and closed the gate. Amy then walked over, picked up a big trunkful of her hay, and walked back to the gate. She held out the food and fed the colt like a mother with her baby. She went back for more and fed him again.”
The Cowboy and His Elephant is a fascinating story of the bond between man and animal. Be sure to read all about it
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