THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE WOLF

As the title suggests, this book grew out of the decade that Rowlands spent in the company of a magnificent wolf. He named the wolf cub Brenin, having bought it on a whim, from an advert in his local newspaper. Brenin made his mark immediately by ripping up Rowlands’ furniture and destroyed the air conditioning. However it didn’t take long for a bonding process to set in. Within weeks they became inseparable and the wolf adapted to Rowlands’ rootless life as a philosopher.

In their early days together he and Brenin used to take off some weekends to Little River Canyon and spend time just chilling and howling at the moon. Since Rowlands is a philosophy professor, the wolf had to attend his lectures or be left at home alone.

Wolves get bored quickly – about 30 seconds of being left to their own devices being as much as they can cope with. So Brenin would lie in the corner of the lecture room and doze, but when the lectures became particularly tedious he would sit up and howl – a habit that endeared him to the students.

There is nothing whimsical about this book. Besides giving an account of their life together, Rowlands examines the fundamental questions of existence through the antics of a well-travelled wolf and its relationship with a philosopher whom the animal came to see as the Alpha male.

It is an amusing, yet profound story that is both thought-provoking and informative.