The Wilderness Warrior - Douglas Brinkley [205]
IV
An odd feature of Roosevelt’s leadership of the Rough Riders was his continued biophilic obsession with animals, even when preparing for combat. In fact, this distinguishes his war memoir The Rough Riders from all other accounts of the 1898 Cuban campaign. And in his autobiography, Roosevelt presents his theory about the role of pets in sustaining military morale. Compared with military tactics and the toll of yellow fever, such passages can seem frivolous, but they do offer a valuable perspective on Roosevelt as a war leader and as a person. Largely at Roosevelt’s instigation, his First Volunteer Cavalry Regiment had three animal mascots, brought all the way from San Antonio through their stay in Tampa Bay. Most famously, there was a young mountain lion, Josephine, brought in by an Arizona trooper named Charles Green, a gift from a supportive citizen in Prescott.56
Roosevelt adored everything about the cougar cub: her sand-colored coat, dark rounded ears, white muzzle, and piercing blue eyes, which would turn brown as she matured. He knew that as an adult, Josephine would be able to run elusively at thirty-five miles per hour and leap from boulder to boulder with breathtaking grace. Eventually Josephine would weigh at least ninety pounds and be able to pull down a 750-pound elk with her powerful jaw.57 But for now she was domesticated, though at times surly. (Roosevelt wrote in The Rough Riders that she had an “infernal temper.”) As the New York Times wrote of Josephine, she “rejoiced” when her name was uttered. She was, in turn, beloved by all the men.58 Purrs were commonplace, even though Josephine learned to distrust anybody who wasn’t wearing a military uniform. As the reporter Edward Marshall put it, Josephine “hated civilians.”59
Roosevelt spent as much time with the cougar cub as he could. She became something of a shadow cat. One evening when they were in Montauk, Josephine got loose, climbed into bed with a soldier, and began playfully chewing on his toes. Roosevelt later chuckled in The Rough Riders that the volunteer “fled into the darkness with yells, much more unnerved than he would have been by the arrival of any number of Spaniards.” 60 Writing to his children from Tampa Bay, Roosevelt told how their mother, Edith, who had visited him for a few days, was stunned to find him with a cougar at his side. “The mountain lion is not much more than a kitten yet,” he explained, “but it was very cross and treacherous.” 61
Another steadfast companion in the Rough Riders was a golden eagle, one of the largest bird species in North America and the national emblem of Mexico. The volunteers named it Teddy in Roosevelt’s honor. As in N. Scott Momaday’s novel House Made of Dawn, Roosevelt considered himself a charter member of the Eagle Watchers Society.62 Roosevelt loved following these raptors as they swooped down to pluck up snakes and darting prey, and he had even managed to learn a little about the art of falconry. Wearing leather gloves in order not to get clawed, he would hold his arm out for Teddy, calling the New Mexican–born eagle back to camp after it had had its fill of lizards and squirrels. “The eagle was let loose and not only walked at will up and down the company streets, but also at times flew wherever he wished,” Roosevelt recalled. “He was a young bird, having been taken out of his nest when a fledgling. Josephine hated him and was always trying to make a meal of him, especially when we endeavored