His self-esteem was low. After all, he had
just lost his pack (his family), and he was sad. Time has a different
meaning in the Arctic, so it is hard to remember just how long it
took before he was up and about. Several days after I started to feed
him, the large male and female showed up again. They seemed surprised
he was still alive. I had hopes they would bond and join together
- but I was disappointed. Once again they just sniffed him over and
continued on their way.
The Nuggie Puppy was soon strong enough to
travel and we began to roam the area together. We were developing
a close bond. I spent all my time with my friend and very little with
the men in the camps. Whilst roaming we started to develop a hunting
technique. The landscape of the Arctic is very fractured, with a great
many large boulders and little valleys - much like a moonscape. The
animals of the Arctic had never seen man before and had no fear of
me so I would walk in the front.
Whenever I spotted an arctic hare I would stop,
tense, quietly point and whisper the word "rabbit". It took the Nuggie
Puppy a while to get it, but I persisted. After about the tenth time
he got it, he would sight along my arm to pick out the target and
off he would go. The hare was lunch.
Nuggie Puppy would wait at the end of the runway
for me to get off my shift. As soon as I finished work I would join
him and away we would go. Even with my help, there was just not enough
hare in the area to support him. Thank goodness for smuggled meat!
One day we couldn't spot any hare, just arctic
fox all over the place. >>From the way Nuggie was looking at me, it
was apparent he was telling me there were just too many foxes in the
area. Simple solution, I thought. Just eat the fox.
So it was back to basics. I would point whenever
I saw a fox, say the word, and after a few times he got it and off
he would go. Since the arctic fox is small, it took several of them
to fill the wolf. This was no problem since the area was swarming
with them. I soon realized that the fox have a group defense strategy
against the wolf. Whenever Nuggie went for one the intended prey would
run toward the nearest fox, which would in turn run towards another,
and so on. Eventually there would be so many foxes milling around
that the wolf would lose focus and get confused. He would end up just
standing there with a disappointed look on his face while the foxes
exited stage left.
My shift had just ended and puppy and I were
off. We would meet at the end of the runway, look into each other's
eyes, then at the same time look toward the frozen wasteland. This
was a little game that we would play. We were getting ourselves into
the frame of mind to hunt. I was trying the best I could to be a wolf
hunting partner for my friend.
Time to work on phase two. Nuggie had perfected
the single attack against the fox and we were now ready to work on
the multiple attack plan. We soon came upon a small group of foxes
and I raised my right arm and said, "fox." He was off like a rocket
and quickly had it. I yelled, "drop it" and pointed to another one,
but he just looked at me and refused to release the one he had. Again
I yelled, "drop it" and pointed. No way would he move. I had just
learned something about the nature of the wolf: when it has successfully
got its prey, it will not leave it to go after another. No matter
how hungry it is, how small the prey is or how many others are available.
No problem, I thought. Patience and encouragement
would do it. As the puppy sat over the one he had and watched the
others run off, I would continue to point and yell, "go." After a
few times I could tell he knew what I was trying to get him to do.
He would quiver with the intensity of the emotion, but he just couldn't
move from the one he had caught. This was harder to do than I thought
it would be, and it was beginning to put a bit of a strain on our
relationship.
Finally, we had a breakthrough. Out hunting,
we saw a small group of foxes, so up went my arm, I whispered "Fox"
and his white body streaked towards them. The selected fox was caught
and as the others began the milling technique one came running toward
me. As it got closer I slammed my foot down with great force onto
the frozen ground, causing it to reverse direction and head directly
toward the wolf. As it got close to Nuggie I pointed and yelled, "drop
it, go!" The fox was now within five feet of him and he just couldn't
help himself; he dropped the fox he had and pounced on the second
one. We did it!
I immediately backed off to let him know that
I was not a threat to his multiple kill, all the while heaping him
with praise. Telling him what a good boy he was and how smart he was.
He deserved it. He had overcome his nature and was learning something
new. Now he had caught two at one time and I did not want him to forget.
So as soon as he eaten, off we went again and perfected our new technique.
Despite all our successes I could not help
but worry about the Nuggie Puppy. I knew that I could not save him
long term if other wolves could not be found to be with him.I could
not be with him forever. Had I done the right thing? Did I save him
for the short term only to have him die again of loneliness when I
left? About this time we again came across the large male and female.
Hunting had been poor for them, so they had lost a lot of weight and
looked in very poor shape. They seemed astounded to see how plump
the pup was. They spent some time gazing into his eyes. He would pause,
look at me, then look back at them. As he looked at me, they would
also turn to look at me. I just stood quietly, until eventually the
puppy gave me the "lets hunt" look.
"Ok" I nodded, but as I began to move the large
male came towards me. He was not sure how to handle this situation.
I could tell by his body language he was thinking I would be considered
more than a full meal deal. "Yes" I said to him, "you can eat me,
but if you do you won't learn anything." I told the adults how beautiful
I thought they were and slowly circled with them - never allowing
them to get behind me. Caution never hurts!
After a few minutes of this Nuggie and I started
off and the large male and female followed along. I took the lead,
pup was to my right and they stayed behind. We were soon upon a fox
and went through our usual routine.The puppy caught it and the other
two wolves just sat down and watched in wonderment.
Wolves are far smarter than many realise. The
female, who I had been calling the Pretty Girl, came up to me and
smiled - yes, they do actually smile! We set off again, but this time
the female stayed up by my left hand side. After a while I saw several
fox and launched the puppy. I then pointed to another fox, looked
at Pretty Girl, said "go" and she was off! Unfortunately, the milling
technique of the foxes was too much for her, so she lost focus and
missed. After Nuggie Puppy had finished his snack the adult pair approached
him and again gazed into his eyes to talk.
What a day! We continued on our way and by
the end of it both the adults had learnt the technique and enjoyed
a feed on a fox.
The next day I was delighted to find the three
of them waiting for me. Off we went. The positions of the wolves had
now changed. The large Alpha male was on my right, Pretty Girl was
to my left and puppy was on the right hand side of the Alpha male.
The pair learned from Nuggie how to get multiple
kills in a hunt. It was much harder for the Alpha to drop the first
and get the next, but within a short period of time he got it. The
Pretty Girl learned much quicker. Soon there were four of us roaming
the area. What a sight we must have been had anyone seen us.
There was some initial friction between Alpha
and myself. Not from my perspective, but from his. He was born to
be a leader and viewed me firstly with suspicion because I was not
a wolf and secondly as a challenge for the leardership of the group.
Since the puppy just loved me, he would have followed me into fire!
Alpha was possessive of Pretty Girl and she
and I hit it off very quickly. She trusted me - I guess because the
puppy did. Alpha was much more standoffish. Each wolf is a unique
individual, just like people. Nuggie was by far the most spiritual
wolf that I met. He and I would sit and gaze slightly off focus into
each others eyes and then astral travel. Going on an astral trip with
a wolf is a quite an experience!
In humanity I find that women go to spirit
far easier than men. This is the same with wolves, I could astral
travel with the Pretty Girl, but whenever we did this Alpha would
get a bit upset. To stare at or make direct eye contact with a wolf
is viewed as a challenge and though the pup and Pretty Girl knew that
I was not challenging them , Alpha was not so sure.He had a hard time
overcoming his nature and I only astral travelled with Alpha once,
shortly before I left the Arctic.
To get him to accept that I would not challenge
him for leadership I would always ask him before we set out to hunt
which direction he wanted. I would stand there and look at him, then
look away, then look at him, and again look away in another direction.
He would get up, stretch slowly, smile and look in the direction that
he wanted us to go.
There came a time when they were no longer
always waiting at the end of the runway for me. If they were not there
I would call to them and since I can't whistle I would sing an old
Catherine Mackinnon song called "Farewell to Novia Scotia." I would
just sing and wait - sometimes it took five minutes and sometimes
more like half-an-hour. I am a poor singer, so it was a good job there
was no-one around but the wolves to hear me.
