ANIMALS: Dick & Buddy

A wrinkled little face stared up from a shapeless bag of black hair. Acid burns had disfigured the baby gorilla's face—its look was malevolent. But the baby, named Buddy, was sick.

Richard Kroener, the man, scowled at the baby. This was the beginning of a strange attachment—an attachment that began more than nine years ago, lasted until one day last week.

Kroener had been a butcher in Germany before he came to the U.S. and got a job as a kennel man with Mrs. Gertrude Lintz, who collected pets. Buddy belonged to...

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