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CJ Rogers is known for her nonprofit facility that studies and provides a home for wolves in the wilds of New Mexico. This book tells the saga of how taking ownership of a female hybrid-wolf pup, Mantra. in 1992 began this practicing therapist's journey into a pack odyssey. Taking on additional wolves provided the backdrop for research into the lives of wolf packs that had never been done.
Rogers literally lived with her wolf pack, spending much of her day inside their containment area, napping with them in their den made from hay bales and plywood, and taking the wolves for long walks on the mesa. Hand-written notes on scraps of paper or napkins grew into notebooks full of recorded data and became the basis for a doctoral thesis. Rogers defended her wolves from irate landlords, neighbors, and farmers. Her doctorate group understood this motivation and love, but others did not. Wolves howl, play, investigate, and hunt prey. They looked to Rogers for praise. They mourned and escaped whenever she left for school or family events. And their feelings became hers.
Throughout this easy and informative read, the author utilizes multiple definitions of the word "raise" as a kind of wordplay. Searching for these instances in the book reveals how the wolves—especially Mantra, their pack leader—raised Rogers' own views about life. As part of her PhD, Rogers developed a wolf-centric philosophy: man and wolf as partners in humankind's rise. She argues against the accepted demarcation between animals man has domesticated and those that are wild. Rogers ties in Darwin's theory along with many wolf-related, books, stories, and fables. She compares her early experience with Mantra to the adventures of Dorothy and Totem in Oz. Readers might notice that neither the Roman wolves fable nor the Eden Garden story are mentioned.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review