The Cowboy and his Elephant (24 page)

S
ometimes stories are just waiting to be found. This one about Bob and Amy appeared on a visit to my mother-in-law. An enlarged photograph lying on her kitchen counter showed a cowboy, his legs draped in chaps, on a horse, with what appeared to be a baby elephant standing horse-flank-high by his side. “Oh, that’s my friend Bob Norris, and that’s his elephant, Amy,” my mother-in-law told me, sounding as if all her friends had an elephant in their yard.

I called Bob soon after, introduced myself, and asked him to tell me whether it was true that he had adopted an orphan elephant? His voice over the telephone at first conjured up images of the Old West. As he confirmed the facts, I formed the impression of a nonconformist who was a symbol of a unique and disappearing part of the American experience.
Indeed, he said, the story of him and Amy was every bit true.

I thought that others might share my curiosity about this odd and unlikely relationship. I put the idea in the able hands of Michael Carlisle of the literary agency Carlisle
& Co.,
who has shepherded into print interesting and different stories, like those of the giraffe
Zarafa
by Michael Allin and
Longitude
by Dava Sobel. Thomas Dunne and Peter Wolverton, editors at St. Martin’s Press and Thomas Dunne Books, both had the imagination to see this story as a book before it was written.

To begin with, I traveled several times for long durations out to Colorado and Nevada to be with Bob and Jane and their ranch hands at T Cross. Bob gave generously of his time and patience and relived to the best of his ability his days with Amy. Buckles and Barbara Woodcock allowed me to tag along with them and the Big Apple Circus, and Buckles’s companionship and the oral history of the circus he carries around in his head provided for many pleasurable and informative days. The Big Apple’s management, especially Paul Binder and Gary Dunning, gave me all the access to their circus that I could have wished.

On a research trip to Africa, Randall Moore showed me parts of the continent I’d not visited before. I had lived in Nairobi, Kenya, for three years in the 1970s as a correspondent for
Newsweek
magazine and in the early 1980s as a book writer. In those days I traveled more or less continuously
over black Africa on assignment, often trying to find occasions to observe elephants, which have fascinated me for a very long time. I did not ever study elephants in those years in Africa—far from it. I observed them as anyone would, and I listened to the people who did study them, hunt them, and live among them.

In my research for this book, Randall Moore loaned me a tent at his Abu’s Camp in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. I observed his elephants up close. I also watched other wild elephants in Botswana. Those observations helped to bring me up-to-date. I drew quite a bit of knowledge from long conversations with Moore, his mahouts, and with hunters around the campfire. Moore’s expertise and long history with elephants were especially valuable.

In Zimbabwe, Buck and Rita deVries were my generous hosts on their farm in the Gwayi Valley. Buck introduced me to Siwelo Bvathlomoy Dingani and some of the neighboring Tonga tribesmen. Buck shared a wealth of knowledge about elephants, the cull, and about Amy’s early years. His kindness and generosity toward me will be long remembered. He introduced me to elephant and other animal researchers in his area, and to officials in Zimbabwe’s Game Department who carried out the culls that orphaned Amy. They helped me to put together a fairly accurate picture of Amy’s family and its last days.

Last, I hung around with Amy. She was always a pleasure to watch, to sit with, and interact with. She is a remarkable
creature. She has a great future to look forward to in Botswana, where she will stay at Abu’s Camp until she can be released into the wild.

I would especially like to thank the travel company Abercrombie
&
Kent, Oak Park, Illinois—Christa Bradsch, Rosemary Kinyanjui of the Abercrombie
&
Kent Global Foundation, and Mrs. Jorie Butler Kent—for their spirited cooperation and their kindness toward Amy.

As always I owe my love and everlasting appreciation to my wife, Charlie, who believed in the goodness of this tale from the very start and kept the book on track, as she usually does with the author—with humor, tolerance, and love.

Bazé, W.
Just Elephants
. London: Elek books, 1955.

Bell, W. D. M.
Karamojo Safari
. London: Safari Press, 1989.

Blunt, D. E.
Elephant
. Suffolk, UK: Major Books, 1933.

Campbell, R.
Elephant King
. New York: Junior Literary Guild, 1931.

Cooper, C. R.
Boss Elephant
. Boston: Little, Brown, 1939.

Echlin, Kim.
Elephant Winter
. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1990.

Fletcher, S. E.
The Cowboy and His Horse
. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1951.

Masson, J. M. and S. McCarthy.
When Elephants Weep
. New York: Delacorte Press, 1995.

Moore, Randall.
Back to Africa
. Cape Town: Southern Book Publishers, 1989.

Moss, C.
Portraits in the Wild: Behavior Studies of East African Mammals
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.

Payne, Katy.
Silent Thunder. In the Presence of Elephants
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Petzinger, T., Jr.
Oil and Honor
. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1987.

Poole, Joyce.
Coming of Age with Elephants
. New York: Hyperion, 1996.

Sanderson, I. T.
The Dynasty of Abu
. New York: Knopf, 1962.

Sillar, F. C., and R.M. Meyler
Elephants: Ancient and Modern
. New York: Viking, 1968.

Smith, E. C.
Kongo the Elephant
. New York: Knopf, 1939.

Symons, R. D.
Where the Wagon Led
. New York: Doubleday, 1973.

Szechenyi, Z.
Land of Elephants
. New York: Putnam, 1935.

Ward, F. E.
The Working Cowboy’s Manual
. New York: Bonanza Books, 1983.

White, E. L.
The Elephant Never Forgets
. London: Harper and Brothers, 1938.

Williams, J. H.
Elephant Bill
. New York: Doubleday, 1950.