Shawnee the Bookstore Dog
My best friend in the world
Shawnee was 84% Siberian Husky and 16% Gray Wolf. She was one and a half years old when we met and fell in love. She was born in a private wolf-dog breeding center that bred wolf-dogs for sale as pets. (This is not necessarily a good thing.) The center was only interested in breeding for male wolf-dogs because that is what everyone who wants a wolf-dog wants. But male wolf-dogs make terrible pets! Terrible! But that’s what people wanted so that is what they bred for. The females were considered almost disposable since no one wants them. (Female wold-dogs — especially beta females — make fantastic pets but everyone wants males.)
At around the age of one Shawnee escaped from the breeding center. Since she was female they didn’t care and just let her go. She ran around in the wild for a while then she was picked up by Animal Control at a rest stop along a nearby highway. Then a woman rescued her from the pound and named her Shawnee. Shawnee lived with this woman for about six months but it was a real problem because Shawnee kept running away every chance she got.
You see, Shawnee was a beta female. In wolf society when the alpha male and the other males along with the alpha female went off hunting it was the beta females who stayed home in the den taking care of all the children. That is why beta female wolves are known as the baby-sitter females.
Beta females are all about family. Lone beta female wolves are extremely rare. They need to be part of a family, a pack. Very importantly, they need an alpha male to be loyal to and to feel fulfilled. Every beta female needs an alpha male to make their lives complete.
That is why Shawnee kept running away from the woman who rescued her. Because she was a woman! Shawnee needed to find her alpha male.
And that turned out to be me. At the time I owned and ran a bookstore. My wife, our daughter and our cat lived in an apartment upstairs from the bookstore. One day I was taking out the garbage to the dumpster in the alleyway. I opened the back door to the bookstore and was about to step onto the porch when I saw a big round ball of fur just in front of the door. It was a sleeping animal who sprang up into the air, flipped around and was suddenly staring at me. My first…
