Animal Story, Blog, Deep Ecology, Ethics & Whole Community, Wolves | February 10, 2010
We lost Cindar the wolf a few hours ago, a vibrant brilliant black wolf. I can feel her still here. She didn’t want to leave. She was so scared when the vet came, but let us handle her in any way we needed – x rays, pulling fluid from her lungs, putting in an IV. This is a wolf we are talking about, allowing all this without a tranquilizer. Trusting. Sweet. Cooperative. Looking to us for help, pleading in her eyes. The contrast between a cooperative scared creature wanting so to live, and the vicious image of wolves here in Idaho or Alaska as we shoot them for sport suggests an utter madness, the image is so far removed from the fact. Yes wolves are predators – but so are dogs and cats, and we accept the predatory instinct in them. Feral packs of dogs hunt and kill livestock and even kill humans. That doesn’t change our view of dogs, nor do we kill them for fun. Dogs come from wolves and everything we love in a dog is there in a wolf even more intensely – the love, loyalty, sweetness. But if an animal inconveniences us, we demonize it and then feel free to do to it what we will. Wild animals are not convenient. Coyotes, grizzly bears, buffalo on grassland wanted for cows, black bears in our backyard – not convenient. Animals that scare us – not convenient. But that doesn’t mean we need to demonize them or not see the beauty in them or deny them the right to live. To be on this earth with us. What kind of species are we that some of us are devastated by the loss of a single wolf and others take pleasure in killing them? How do we move ahead to become more “human” as a species, in the best sense of the word?
Blog | February 9, 2010
Dawn rises on a bitter cold morning, dark mountains etched sharply against the pale sky. Everything is white and still and frozen – a Jack London far north morning. But it is mid February and the light is already strong as the earth tilts rapidly towards the sun at this latitude. It will warm 40 degrees in a matter of hours and the animals will curl themselves up in the sun, warm and sleepy after a cold cold night. They endure uncomplainingly but it doesn’t mean it was easy on them. I hear loud complaining and scolding – the chickadees are calling for the flies they have come to expect me to release from the log cabin window but my malamute Talkeetna is on the porch and they are annoyed.
Animal Story, Badger, Blog, Children & Families, Seen Thru New Eyes | February 4, 2010
We held a parent-child-animal event recently and everyone was fascinated with Miss Clover. It is rare to get a chance to get up close and personal to a badger. So many people have told us, as they walk up to her, “there’s the meanest thing on four legs.” (And some of these people teach!). Isn’t true. To prove it she usually licks Jean affectionately on his nose. 
A fearsome reputation helps a lot if you are little and flat in a big dangerous world and can’t see too well to boot. It is useful to protect yourself by a shoot-first-and-ask-questions later philosophy. A wild animal feeling threatened protects itself! What a concept! But the tragic part is your bad reputation prevents people from seeing the sweetness that is there when you feel safe. If we approached the wild ones with a different attitude and care, we might have a different experience altogether. They have a huge sense of curiosity when not feeling threatened. They want to know about us, as we do about them – life in one form (badger) meeting itself in another form (human).
Miss Clover, a safe and relaxed badger, has a great sense of play and humor, and is extremely affectionate. She is very verbal and expresses her feelings quite clearly. All of them. She giggles and sings, and positively purrs at the sight of Jean. She follows him around on badger walks ( a bit slow as she stops frequently to dig). And when guests come she charms the pants off of them. ( “I didn’t know a badger could be like that!”). Miss Clover strikes another blow for badger awareness. And perhaps opens our mind to the possibility that other wild animals might have a sweet side too.
Blog | February 2, 2010
The sun rises late over the Tetons in winter, its rays piercing the fog that swaths the mountains on this cold cold January day. The long morning shadows lie blue across the ground. All is quiet this winter morning. The bears are sleeping. Bushes and grasses are silhouetted, their frost – encased limbs glistening. The snow sparkles, the trees sparkle, the whole world is dazzling, magical.
The sun rises above the fog and pours into my window. Soon it will be above the porch roof in its inexorable travels across the sky. There is no stopping it; no stopping the passage of light, of time. The only choice is to be in it, enjoying each moment, enjoying the rhythm of dawn, morning, day, dusk, night rolling again into dawn…
It is now February, the return of the light. The full moon over the Tetons shines on a snow-scape, the myriad facets of the snow reflecting winter nights that the moonlit landscape glitters with it own reflected light. One of our wolves is named Moonlit.
I write this looking out the window of the 10×14′ log cabin where I write and dream…
Animal Tales, Blog, Seen Thru New Eyes, Wolves | January 28, 2010
A wolf pair often moves in perfect unison. In one photo I took, the wolves are in full run, the left front paw of one in precisely the same position as the left front paw of the other. The first time I caught it in a photograph I thought I was brilliant, but since then realized it is a frequent form of communication. They hunt as one unit, in some wondrous form of exchange with one another. Stunning harmony. It is a beautiful thing to see. 
Blog | January 27, 2010
Time for dinner!!
Any malamute owner knows appetite is not a problem. Food is primary on their mind at all times. My own malamute, Talkeetna, has a clock in her stomach that say dinner is at 6 pm. Admittedly she insists it is 6pm starting at 4 pm but it gets increasingly desperate as the minutes tick on. One evening I brought her in from the garden at her usual feeding time – she was expecting it, but I was very busy so she waited in expectancy for some time. Then I again got ready to feed her and was interrupted. By the time I finally got to give her her dinner she was practically shaking. We might note that she is hardly skinny, she eats breakfast snacks and an evening dinner (not to mention various snacks through the day) and has never gone hungry a day in her life.
But she was primed, and then delayed. After she ate I realized her nervous system was still all worked up; she was frazzled by the intensity of her need and waiting. Still panting after guzzling her meal… It took some time to sooth her and calm her. Eventually she feel into a deep sleep on the bed in exhaustion.
This is only partly a cute tale. It makes me wonder what we do when we breed dogs to our human specifications. That some set points perhaps are off a bit – in this case the appetite of a malamute. Still within a functional range, but driven, positively driven, by the biology we created when her meal was delayed.
Nature does her own selection for traits that will help animals survive. She does not select for ability to fetch, for hair coat, ear length, etc. I wonder what it is like to be a malamute, so driven by food even when well fed.
Animal Story, Animal Tales, Bears, Blog, about | January 26, 2010
He was found at a roadside zoo that was closing down, just a few weeks old. It was clear even then that he was a differently-abled bear. As we watched him play, sweetly, innocently, not too coordinated, not too quick on the draw, the name just came out – Humble Bumble. Life scares him. Anything new scares him. Without encouragement he would rock himself endlessly in a corner. But he trusts his mentor Boychuk the German Shepherd. It was Boychuk who gave him the courage to go to the Wildlife Garden and play. To see the care and affection with which he plays with Boychuk, holding back his strength, adds a new dimension to one’s perception of grizzly bears. Humble Bumble, is a bear of character.
Animal Story, Blog, Wolves | January 21, 2010
We take Windsong, a 16 year old wolf, out to a safe fenced area every day to get her dose of sun and fresh air. But dimmed as her senses are, when we approach to bring her back in she gets quite lively and makes it very clear where she wants to be. Each day more so. Her home, she decreed, has moved. As we lead her back to the cabin she races as fast as 112 year old legs can and makes her intentions and desires quite apparent. We are getting worried. First Cucumber, then Little White Girl, now Windsong. Is word getting out that if you get sick or infirm you get to go in the cabin and if you behave in there they don’t have the heart to put you back out? Our cabin is not big enough for two dozen wolves…..
Animal Story, Animal Tales, Blog, Coyotes | January 14, 2010
Willow the coyote was on her back screaming bloody murder as Streak stood over her growling mightily, touching not a hair on her body. But she certainly was making him feel powerful! It wouldn’t matter where we were on the ranch, we could hear those screams and picture exactly what was happening.
The drama started very early in their relationship. Willow had been rescued from a den at a golf course and we were taking care of her in our cabin. After a couple of weeks young Streak arrived. In spite of the fact that the cabin was already her territory and he was smaller and younger, when he approached her for the first time, she looked at him, paused a moment, flipped on her back and submitted. Male-female relations determined at that age? We only know what we observed.
When they were old enough, we moved them outside together. As they matured Streak dominated her more and more. She responded with more and more drama, shrieking as if she were being ripped apart, legs waving piteously in the air, Streak on his tiptoes standing astride her snarling ferociously. It all looked so very real. Kind visitors would worry.
One day I was standing there getting ready to feed them juicy green grapes. Willow was on her back waving and screaming. I was standing behind her head as she carried on. I accidently dropped a grape and it rolled past Willow’s left ear. Without missing a beat she turned her head, snapped up the grape and returned to her original position, continuing with her ear-piercing yelps. Streak, concentrating on his growling, never knew a thing.
How did she do it? She couldn’t even see the grape until it became level with the corner of her left eye, and it was rolling pretty fast. There was a nanosecond of opportunity between when she could have seen the movement, recognize it as food, roll her head to the left, and grab it. But to be able to notice it in the midst of such drama, focus on it, realize what it was, act on it while carrying on for Streak . . . I don’t think the emotions were running very high, truly. I don’t think there was fear and trembling. And to have the presence of mind to snap back into position as if nothing had happened . . . I wish I could have seen the look in her eye but I wasn’t in the right position. I would bet it was satisfaction, on many levels, one a bit unflattering to females of a certain type. But after witnessing that event, whenever I heard the cries from anywhere on the ranch, I would have a little thrill of appreciation for the sheer acting skill of it. Talent should always be appreciated.
Animal Story, Blog, Wellness & Spirtuality, Wolves | January 13, 2010
As she recovered, Little White Girl became a handful in the cabin, It was clear that there was no way a big healthy lively wolf of her caliber could stay in any longer, much as she loved the camaraderie. We had the additional reason that ancient Windsong, Earthfire’s last living sibling, was having trouble getting up on her aged legs in the cold. We brought her in to the warmth and comfort and smells of living/room/kitchen. It is interesting how different animals age. Stardance, another sister, who just passed away a few weeks ago, had the same parents, life events and treatment. She was graceful and quick until her last five days, and alert right to the end. Windsong has been half in another world for several months now. Yet she continues living on, slow and steady. The only thing that claims her attention in this world, as with any good wolf, is food. She totters her way around looking for it when not sleeping.
Watching her lying quietly one early morning I thought about how rare it is for a wolf to be able to be on this earth to such a great age. An intuitive friend of mine, given to such things, said she feels Windsong is gathering wolf wisdom to share with the Great Council of departed wolves. With my mother, as she became less and less aware, less able to speak, her spirit started to shine through She became more luminous. Ancient trees seem to have a wisdom and dignity too. I wonder about the universality across species of gathering quiet wisdom as one ages.
We lost Cindar the wolf a few hours ago, a vibrant brilliant black wolf. I can feel her still here. She didn’t want to leave. She was so scared when the vet came, but let us handle her in any way we needed – x rays, pulling fluid from her lungs, putting in an IV. This is a wolf we are talking about, allowing all this without a tranquilizer. Trusting. Sweet. Cooperative. Looking to us for help, pleading in her eyes. The contrast between a cooperative scared creature wanting so to live, and the vicious image of wolves here in Idaho or Alaska as we shoot them for sport suggests an utter madness, the image is so far removed from the fact. Yes wolves are predators – but so are dogs and cats, and we accept the predatory instinct in them. Feral packs of dogs hunt and kill livestock and even kill humans. That doesn’t change our view of dogs, nor do we kill them for fun. Dogs come from wolves and everything we love in a dog is there in a wolf even more intensely – the love, loyalty, sweetness. But if an animal inconveniences us, we demonize it and then feel free to do to it what we will. Wild animals are not convenient. Coyotes, grizzly bears, buffalo on grassland wanted for cows, black bears in our backyard – not convenient. Animals that scare us – not convenient. But that doesn’t mean we need to demonize them or not see the beauty in them or deny them the right to live. To be on this earth with us. What kind of species are we that some of us are devastated by the loss of a single wolf and others take pleasure in killing them? How do we move ahead to become more “human” as a species, in the best sense of the word?
Animal Magic – By Judith Austin
Digital Storytelling Workshop
