Life Lessons from One Man's Best Friend

St. Martin's Press 2001. 8vo. Hardcover & jacket in very good condition. Ex-library with usual stamps & stickers, jacket attached to book; light wear/very light soiling overall, mylar cover. Colour photos. 230 pages. Note: black mark on front has been removed.

REVIEW: Amazon.com
In one of those odd, unplanned moments of fate, David Raber paid a couple of thousand dollars to liberate a depressed and frightened cougar cub from a pet-shop cage. He took Cougar, the eponymous big cat, home, introduced him to the more compact cats that already lived with him, and watched as the household adjusted, bit by bit, to the unlikely newcomer. Everyone eventually did. So, too, did the neighborhood dogs, and most of the neighbors--though a few, Raber writes grumpily, behaved in less than friendly ways when Cougar went out for a stroll or kept vigil in the bushes. All the while, Raber observed his new housemate's behavior, learning how to interpret Cougar's growls and purrs, and how to give Cougar the freedom to act naturally in an unnatural setting.

Bringing Cougar into his home, Raber writes, "would refocus my priorities and change what I had considered important."