Every struthious detail of my book owes a debt of gratitude to Doug Osborne, who quit his job as a stockbroker in 1992 to become an ostrich rancher without any experience or know-how.
Way back when I was in grad school, I wrote an article about Mr. Osborne for AmericanWestTravel.com: Hard Times at the O.K. Corral. That visit with Mr. Osborne shaped my story in so many ways. If you’ve read the book, you’ll recognize many of the details I used in my story.
Here’s a short clip from the Discovery Channel that show Mr. Osborne demonstrating how to wrangle an ostrich:
He was a kind man, who spent days sharing the details of his business with me. I regret that he died on July 23, 2012, long before I ever finished a draft.