Although quite a few people gathered at Wildlife West Nature Park last week to remember Bill Brown, there was a notable absence in the group.

For obvious reasons, Moonshadow, a cougar and resident of the park that Brown had a special relationship with, wasn't at Brown's memorial service on Nov. 26. People did talk about the big cat, though.

"That cat is what kept him going," said Cindy Stein, Brown's daughter, who lives in Texas and teaches seventh grade.

She came to Edgewood soon after Brown, a retired firefighter, died in his home on Nov. 22 at the age of 68.

"We always knew him as a firefighter," Stein said, "the satisfaction he got helping out with others."

Terrie Alink, the wife of the park's founder, Roger Alink, said she knew Brown as a very caring person as well.

"He was a little gruff," she said, "but he would give his right arm for you."

Stein said Brown generally preferred animals to people, though.

That's how he spent his retirement. Brown and his wife, Claudia, were active volunteers at Wildlife West. Claudia died in 1999 and has a memorial next to the wolf den, where her ashes were scattered.

"He would rather hang around the animals than the people," Stein said. "This was their dream, to retire to New Mexico."

Over the past eight years, since the cougar came to the park as a 4-month old cub in October 2000, Brown helped to raise Moonshadow and served as the cat's main caretaker. He also worked with Moonshadow's brother, Phantom, a cougar Brown described as "just a cool guy."

Brown would walk Moonshadow on a leash and would transport the cougar in a dog crate to do demonstrations for community outreach.

"When he got to be 120 pounds it was too much to handle," Brown had said in an interview in June.

Brown continued to visit the 175-pound cat once a day at the holding pen at Wildlife West Nature Park. He said his relationship with the cat was rewarding for both of them.

"If I go on vacation or something, he misses me," Brown had said. "I think I'm about the luckiest man alive."

During visits the big cat would purr and stand over Brown, licking the top of his head, then expose his neck for Brown to scratch.

His daughter said she joked with her dad about being licked by Moonshadow. "We would tease him and say, 'You know, he's just tasting you,' " she said.

Stein left some of Brown's hats and clothes at the park for volunteers to take into Moonshadow's cage.

"We worried about how the cat is going to be," she said, "the cat is used to him being gone for a week or so …"

Linda Hill, a volunteer caretaker at the park who was trained by Brown, said there have been reports that Moonshadow is pacing and acting peculiar, but she said she hasn't seen any strange behavior so far.

"Bill was such a part of this park," Hill said.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made in Brown's name to Wildlife West Nature Park, P.O. Box 1359, Edgewood, NM 87015.