I learned that some Eskimos made sweaters out of the hair that their Huskies shed. If I knew how to make sweaters I could have made a fortune. Shawnee was a hair shedding machine. I shed a lot, too, but nothing like her. Seriously, I took to keeping a leaf rake in my closet next to the vacuum cleaner. I would rake the carpet before vacuuming. If I didn’t do that I’d have to buy a new vacuum cleaner every year. I kept her hair in a bag and then every few months I would take the bag out in nature and dump it out there to return to nature in a natural way rather than putting it in a landfill.

I once knew a couple who purchased a male wolf-dog because they thought it would be cool. Well, that dog ended up destroying their entire house. They eventually got rid of it.

I also once knew a man who ran a wolf sanctuary. He took in wolf-dogs that were discarded by owners who didn’t know what they were doing. He was very much against wolves and wolf-dogs as pets. He said that he knew the person who owned the breeding farm where Shawnee escaped from, saying that it had been closed down by the authorities. I was glad to hear that.

I also once knew a woman who also ran a wolf sanctuary but it was only for wolves, not wolf-dogs. There apparently is a market for pure wolves, which is strictly illegal. Most of the people who get wolves discover quickly what a horrible idea that is and end up giving them to her. Many of them were old wolves.

Once a year she would bring three or four wolves — all female only — into town for educational purposes. She would set up in a local park and invite people to bring their children to come see the wolves. They were all in large separate cages; big enough for a child to go into the cage to be with the wolf. Dogs were not allowed in the park during the showing.

It was all very carefully supervised. I went a couple of years to see the wolves. It amazed me to see little children go into the cages to pet the wolves (one of the sanctuary workers went in with them). The wolves were mostly old crone beta females. They just sat there letting the children pet and play with them. The sanctuary was trying to show kids that wolves are not the mean, bad animals portrayed in children’s stories and popular culture. It was so amazing to watch the children light up in joy having such direct exposure to these giant wolves. Some of them not only petted the wolves but hugged them. A few of them didn’t want to leave the cages when their time was up.

One cannot understand wolves without knowing about wolf society. Native people were very aware of wolf society. Siberian Huskies all have a teeny bit of wolf in them. The natives there would stake a female husky who was in heat out in the forest so that she would be impregnated by wolves. They did this once in every fifteen generations and they did it so that the wolf genetics would imprint them with wolf society characteristics.

Having watched wolf society for thousands of years, the natives could tell whether their huskies were either alpha or beta male or alpha or beta female and used the dogs accordingly. They took the males and alpha females hunting and left the beta females behind to watch the human children in camp. For thousands of years of training and utilizing their huskies this way along with the wolf genetics the dogs instinctively know their roles. This is vital information for any human with a wolf-dog but most humans don’t have a clue. Like you said, Nalini, they are not pets or something we own. They are very sacred beings with very specific needs.