A Buffalo in the House (2007)

Veryl Goodnight and her husband, Roger Brooks, didn't intend to adopt the orphaned bison calf that Veryl was using as a model for her latest sculpture. But fate persuaded them to keep the woolly creature, at first in the barn outside their suburban Santa Fe home. Charlie, in turn, invites himself into the couple's kitchen, their bedroom, and (you knew it was coming) their hearts. But this is more than a touching man-beast buddy tale. In addition to wittily recounting other bison owners' lessons ''in human hubris, Large Mammal Division,'' In A Buffalo in the House R.D. Rosen lovingly chronicles the history of an embattled species and its importance in the American West. A-