The Cowboy and His Elephant: The Story of a Remarkable Friendship » (Large Type)

Malcolm MacPherson lives in the countryside of Virginia with his children Molly and Fraser, and his wife Charlie. He has worked on the staffs of New York Magazine and Premiere, and has contributed stories and articles to publications from The New York Times to Readers' Digest. For nearly fifteen years, he was a staff correspondent for Newsweek, based in the U.S., Europe, and Africa, where he took every opportunity to observe elephants in the wild.

In the late 1980s, a female baby elephant was born on the plains of Southern Africa. In a "cull," her family was slaughtered. Only the newborn female's life was spared. Terrified and bewildered the young elephant was transported to America to be sold.

Bob Norris is a cowboy with an enormous empathy for animals. Handsome as a movie star, he was the Marlboro Man, with his face appearing on billboards around the world. But something was missing. When the hurt, vulnerable little elephant, Amy, came into his life, an incredible bond between the most unlikely of friends was forged.

Bob adopted Amy and through close observation, gentle training, humor, and endless perseverance, this accomplished horseman gradually coaxed Amy into overcoming her mistrust of humans, and her fear of the world. Amy became a beloved member of the Norris family, and partner to the ranch hands, but Bob knew from the start that the ultimate goal was for Amy to regain her confidence and her independence - even, if it were possible, to go back to the savannahs of Africa.

Amy may have left the cowboy's life, but she never left his heart. This is a story of mutual friendship, of genuine love and compassion, and foremost, this is an American story with roots that run deep in the values and traditions of the American West.

Publishers Weekly

Bob Norris was a cowboy, and he also played one on TV. But this former Marlboro Man set himself apart from the pack when he solved his midlife crisis by adopting an elephant named Amy. While Bob had a devoted wife and children and worked with horses, dogs and goats on his ranch in the Rockies, he had started to become disheartened and bored. For kicks, he rented out some of his barn stalls to house six orphan elephant babies taken from a herd in Africa and destined for zoos and circuses. He fell in love with the sickly yet beautiful Amy, and paid $18,000 to keep her. In this straightforward account of Bob and Amy's uncannily close relationship, veteran journalist and author MacPherson (Prot g ) details how Amy cavorted, danced and even purred and made fast friends with Bob's cowdogs and a goat, Michelle, who followed her everywhere. Bob once tried to ride her, but decided he "wanted to keep her untamed nature, her wildness and beauty as an animal completely separate from human interference. He never asked her to carry him again." The story, bolstered by elephant fact and lore, is more captivating than its simplistic, casual prose. Written from the point of view of the elephant, the first chapter reads like a children's book. But intrepid animal lovers will find Amy's unexpected journey at the end of the book rewarding. (May 7) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.