Note: this book is not available in English (yet).
A non-fiction that was written by Boeke but published posthumously by her sister. That's a nice gesture. Let's have a look.
Back in the 1960s in the Netherlands, Maya Boeke, a person fond of animals, decides to raise an American timber wolf pup in her house as her own. Now named Timber, the young wolf soon bonds with the other animals at the farm and his owner. However, him growing up in a small village (with its inhabitants afraid of wolves) also presents problems, especially with Timber soon growing very big and too strong for the author to handle. Eventually, Boeke is faced with the fact that she cannot keep him on the farm any longer, and he has to be relocated to an enclosure with other wolves in Amsterdam.
You guys know how I feel about these exotic/wild animal-pet stories. On the one hand, I can totally buy these animals having a great bond with their owner. Based on Boeke's writing, Timber is incredibly fond of her and some other people as well as Boeke's other pets. However, there's also the whole "exotic/wild animals aren't pets" thing.
And it's not like Timber is being kept as a wolf respectfully, with his own large enclosure where his meets are met like in a sanctuary or modern-day zoo. Instead, he's just kept in Boeke's garden and even expected to walk on a leash like a dog. And I get that this was the '60s and keeping exotic pets was way more commonly accepted back then, but I just feel bad for Timber. He was taken from his parents and grew up as basically a dog, then after he got too big was stuffed in an enclosure in Boeke's garden because he was too strong to be walked on a leash. He did finally end up in a more natural setting in the enclosure in Amsterdam later on in his life, where he luckily finally got to bond with other wolves, but it just feels sad.
Timber doesn't seem sad and does seem to genuinely love Boeke but when you look at is as a wild animal being treated like a common pet, forced into unnatural interactions and never being able to interact with his own kind up until he's already an adult. I'm glad that Timber got to live out the rest of his life in at least a slightly more dignified way later on, but I'm just not a big fan of exotic pet stories like this, much like the other one I read and reviewed about a pet wolf, Chakka.
There's also like...so many irresponsible interactions Boeke lets Timber have with the other pets. Like, leaving him with large shepherd dogs that can defend themselves is one thing. But cats? A rabbit, the literal prey wolves hunt? That's just not responsible pet ownership.
Okay, my moral qualms with the book aside, it was decent. Was it badly written? No. Was the story heartfelt at times? Yes. Does the bond between Timber and Boeke feel real? Absolutely. But I also just facepalmed so many times. It's also a very short read, being only 140 pages or so long. There are a few pages included with photos of Timber throughout his life, which was a nice bonus.
I'm glad that the author got to tell her story even after her death, but overall I just...wouldn't recommend it. Even if we have different standards for exotic pet ownership (or lack thereof) nowadays it just made me uncomfortable to read in quite a few areas because of how the animals were treated. Not outright abused or anything but just still in a way that wouldn't fly today.
Rating: 3/5
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