wolves have been given a bad reputation.

i just got back from a trip to cocolalla, idaho, where i met some wolves

up close and personal.

check out wolfpeople.com for your own introductions to casper and crystal,

to mimi and legacy, to all the wolves there.

we were allowed to meet mr. alpha wolf himself. he lets you know right off

who he is and where the boundary is. i suggest you go no closer.

however, other wolves, ambassador wolves, are a bit friendlier.

heck, one of them kissed me.

it was a spiritual experience.

this wolf preserve offers the wolves a sanctuary, where they can be wolves

and not pets, and where they wont be slaughtered.

their fate hangs temporarily on a slim reprieve of being saved on the endangered species list. just barely.

my personal favorite, hanta yo, is just a puppy at 130 pounds, a big,

playful puppy. he will not be alpha. but he will have fun and will be a good uncle. wolves have their ways.

if human families were half as devoted, i doubt we would have obese children.

these are intelligent animals, totally in tune with their environment

in ways we cannot know as humans. each wolf has his own unique

personality and while i dont suggest we all make friends,

i suggest they are animals of the wild graces and deserve our respect.

looking into a wolf's eyes, you can see that intelligence and that

sense of being totally alert, that we could only wish we had.

we are benumbed.

we lose our car keys.

we become more artificial and less natural, more dependent on our

"stuff" and less human.

we negotiate thru tangles of hellish traftic, stressed to the max and on overload most of the time.,

while the wolf pads silently down a carpeted trail in a vast wilderness,

aware of every movement, every sound, every smell.

i envy him that kingdom.

yes, i am a woman who runs with wolves, or at least, for them,

to save wild things, always understanding their own savage rules,

(not unlike our own)

always recognizing the beauty of a wild thing,

as a part of the wealth and well being of planet earth

and of us all.

i am proud that i made friends with hanta yo, that he decided that

and not me, or maybe he knew i have always been his friend,

and like to howl at the moon as much as he does,

and run down dark forest trails in the cathedral

of the wilderness.

some of that wilderness belongs to the wild things.

and what left of the wild in us.