*
"Hey, I know you. You're one of our rivals. I recognize you from the last time we drove you and yours out of our home. Listen, I have nothing personal against you, but you're not supposed to be here. You Can't Be Here, don't you understand? They Will Kill You If They Find You Here! You must go NOW!! Go Back To Your Own Pack!.....unless.....Are you a lone wolf? Have they driven you out?....Oh god, I'm feeling you. It's true isn't it. You're an outcast,..... Well, you're safe now. Just follow my lead and I'm sure that I can convince my pack to accept you. I have only one rule: Keep Your F'ing Distance From Me! Don't get me wrong, there is nothing more that I would love to do than to romp and play fight with you, but you must, and I can't emphasize this enough, you must Always Maintain A Healthy Fear Of My Kind, because we will destroy you in more horrific ways than any rival pack or nemesis predator ever could. Do we have a deal?"
We did. This lone wolf followed me everywhere, always maintaining a comfortable distant barrier separating the two of us, just like we agreed. Even with my own pack, I always reinforced to all of them that I, or rather my kind was not to be trusted ever and that they should Never get too comfortable with us, and must always, always be cautious of my kind.
After my pack would make a kill, it's not like I was cutting off a share side by side with them while they gnawed and squabbled over the kill or that I would show up to take my share and play with them while I was there. Neither was the case. The procedure was whenever I arrived after they made a kill, they would all disperse to a safe distance, settle down and just watch me do my thing. My thing was not just to take a share and leave, it also included butchering the carcass to pieces so that after I left every member of the pack could quickly grab a share without having to squabble among each other, run off somewhere they could eat in peace and probably most important of all, none of my pack would ever have to risk losing their hard earned kill to a grizzly bear or rival pack ever again, or rather never again for as long as I was there. That is the only reason they accepted me, they realized that I was an asset to them, but if any of them ever got too close or showed me any sign that they wanted to get more familiar with me, I would immediately scare them off, often screaming at the top of my lungs. You have no idea how many times I had to do that and how much it broke my heart, but I loved my pack and I knew that it could very well be their undoing if they ever got too comfortable with me. My Pack in its truest sense wasn't my pack at all. Our status with each other was that they accepted me but I was a separate entity and not part of their hierarchy.
I began taking extra shares for the lone wolf, always something with a nice thick bone. When she was done with her meal I would retrieve the bone, which had her scent all over it and rubbed it on myself so that my scent would be on it as well. I inevitably would toss the bone to my pack and they would always be playing with it as I walked off back to my camp site. After doing this for about two weeks I figured it was time for me to introduce this lone beauty to my pack.
Without going into great detail as to how the introduction came about, suffice it to say that the introduction was made and she was not only immediately without hesitation accepted, but later went on to become my pack's alpha female.
It was at that time when I had to end my little survival excursion and return back to society, and as far as I'm concerned,
It Couldn't Have Ended Any Better Than That For Me.
*
Not Inspired by,
but I was motivated to write this by JAN ALLISON,
because she once refered to me as a Lone Wolf.
The term "lone wolf" is often interpreted the wrong way.
I just wanted to clarify on behalf of my canine family
that the lone wolf lives a very dark solitary lifestyle,
yes, even darker and more solitary than mine.