Summer of the Wolves (12 page)

Nika smiled at Pearl. Communication between these canine cousins was not going to be a problem.

As they were watching the pup and the small dog, Ian said, “When I was in town picking you up, Pearl, I heard some news about Bristo. Remember I mentioned he might have stolen three-three-two's pups?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

Nika's eyes froze on the dog playing with the pup in the straw. Her breath caught. She waited.

“He's been rampaging around town, drinking too much, shouting and carrying on about how the government had really done it this time. They locked him up a couple of days ago, just to get him sober. Fencing was cut, most of his animals escaped, and he was going on about it.”

“Poor man,” Pearl said.

“Right after we found number three-three-two, I made a call to Erv Dunn, the new sheriff, and he made a trip to check for pups at Bristo's place. He didn't find anything. At that time all the other animals were still there. Erv went back yesterday, and all the cages were empty, except for the one holding the ancient cougar.”

“What did Bristo do with the wolf pups?” asked Pearl.

“Well, sold them, I suppose, if they survived. We know he's made money on wolf pups before, selling them as pets.” Ian looked serious. At least he didn't say anything about wire cutters, or kids, or anything like that, Nika thought.

But she'd heard enough. She wished Ian would stop talking.

Ian continued. “In jail, Bristo has been muttering about some “wolf bitch' and how she'd be sorry. When they arrested him, he was leaning against a Dumpster on Main Street, ranting. He was holding an empty rifle and a pair of wire cutters.”

“It's too bad,” Pearl said. “He needs help. Many people have tried, but he always runs them off.”

Wire cutters. Nika felt a squirmy feeling in her stomach. But she couldn't feel sorry for Bristo.

A silence fell as they watched the pup pounce and wrestle with Zeus.

Pearl got up and started into the kitchen, “I brought some special ground meat from the butcher,” she said. “Leftovers from meat cutting with lots of finely ground bone in it. It should be good for Khan's gruel. We'll let Zeus have a little, too.”

“Nika, do you want to try giving him some?” Ian was looking carefully at Nika.

Suddenly she was on her feet. “I'll get a bowl. Shall I get some formula, too?” She asked in a chirpy voice. But for a minute, her feet were riveted to the floor.

“Darling, what is it?” asked Pearl.

“Nothing,” Nika said quickly and headed toward the kitchen.

At least Bristo was in jail. Maybe they would keep him there.

 

The wolf explored the island, chasing snowshoe hares in brown summer coats as they zigzagged through dense trees. She found bits of fish dropped by eagles. Every day she paced the shoreline, then circled to her lookout rock. She felt constant hunger, but she could wait. The days were warmer. Fingers of cool air slipped down the rock as the late sunset simmered at the horizon. The silvery-tan wolf curled tightly and lost herself in sleep.

Khan loved the bone-dust meat from the butcher. They mixed it with vitamins and formula in a small plastic bowl. At forty-two days he weighed eighteen pounds. Some days he gained a whole half a pound. Ian told her that it was time to stop giving him a bottle, but she thought that if he still wanted it, why not? She loved the moments when his gangly body stretched across her lap sucking the formula down in a few strong pulls. Would his wild wolf mom have just turned off the taps one day and said, that's it?

She did know from her reading that this was the age when wolf parents would bring back partially digested food in their stomachs. Pups licked at their mouths and they would regurgitate. So if Khan had been wild, he would have been eating vomit! “If you think I'm going to eat this first and then throw it up, you're wrong,” she told him as she offered the gruel. Khan still preferred to eat it from the cup of her hand. He was always careful with his needle teeth, licking and nibbling the food delicately, not missing a single sticky bit.

 

One night a thunderstorm shook the island. Nika felt the floor vibrate, watching cords of lightning crisscross the sky. The plastic had been removed from the screen porch, so they lowered the heavy canvas shades. In the morning, however, every item in the porch was damp. Her clothes and her sleeping bag sponged up humidity from the air.

That morning after feeding, Nika sat watching the pup ferociously shake one paw of the stuffed bear. When Ian came through the barricaded gate from the house, he laughed at Khan. “By the way, it's about time for our growing pup to try the outside world. Zeus's small fenced yard will be perfect for his first adventures. Before long we'll have to build something more secure.” Ian had already put up plywood barricades, leaving the screens open just at the top. The porch was not exactly people-usable anymore, but Pearl didn't seem to mind.

It bothered Nika how things were beginning to change. It had been so nice when Khan was tiny and the screen porch had been a snug den for just the three of them.

“Are you sure it's not too soon for him to go outside?” she asked.

“In the wild he would have been outside before now. He's six weeks old. It's past time.” Ian turned away.

She wondered if Ian would miss those first days with Khan as much as she would. Maybe for him it was just a job.

 

Nika and Zeus led the way into the small fenced yard. Khan followed cautiously, but when he stepped on a stick and it snapped up and hit him on the nose, he raced back into the porch with his tail tucked.

“He's scared,” Nika said.

“Wolf pups are all about being scared and fleeing to safety,” Ian explained. “It's a good way for them to stay alive. That's why it's necessary to socialize pups when they're only a couple of weeks old. If they're older than that, fear usually wins. But curiosity is strong, too. Give him time.”

It didn't take Khan long to creep on bent legs back out of the porch and into the fenced area. He sniffed every inch of bare rock and mossy ground, the sticks, the stumps, and the early grasses. In one corner next to a large white pine, the ground was thick with needles. Khan dug with his front paws and settled beneath this tree. Soon he dug some more, eagerly opening a hole between two outstretched roots until it was big enough to curl down into. Lying in the hole, his woolly black coat filled with dirt and needles, he watched the woods beyond, his ears twitching to small sounds.

“He likes it,” Nika said from her perch on a stump in the middle of the yard. “Look, Ian, his ears are standing up completely now, wolflike.”

“His ears are open now, too, so he can hear pretty well.” Ian sat on a taller stump and tapped the ground with a branch of balsam he'd broken off. Khan leaped up, sidestepped, then ran in jerky dashes until he grabbed the branch. Ian released it, and Khan ran with it, shaking and finally throwing it over his shoulder.

“He looks happy,” Nika said. “Do wolves have emotions?'

“Not like ours. They seem very emotional with each other, but we don't really know how animal feelings work. There are some good books on the subject.”

Nika gently distracted the pup from chewing on her shoes by dragging a mangled piece of hide in front of his nose. She had learned from Ian that shoe-chewing and other biting on humans had to be discouraged. When instructing her, Ian had shown her a moose thighbone as big around as her arm. Then he told her how Khan's powerful jaws would be able to bite through that thighbone in six to eight bites when he was grown. She got the picture.

“How come he's so black?” Nika asked. Before meeting Khan, Nika had always pictured wolves as being mostly gray.

“Remind me to give you the article for your report, but DNA research suggests the black phase wolves came from being crossed with wild dogs as long as ten to fifteen thousand years ago. Dogs came from wolves, now they say black wolves came from dogs!”

Ian stood and headed toward the house. “Nika, I forgot to tell you. At the end of the week I'm going down to St. Paul for an important meeting. Pearl will be here with you while I'm gone. I've lined up people from the college in Red Pine to take shifts with the pup. Elinor, a new researcher who's just joined my study, will be in charge.”

Things were moving too fast. The yard. St. Paul. New people. Someone named Elinor?

“Remember how we talked about making a large fenced run for Khan? So he can explore and really run?”

Nika nodded.

“I've been thinking about the clearing up on the ridge, just beyond those trees edging the house.” He turned to point up the hill. “An old cabin used to be there. It burned down a long time ago. Anyway, it would give Khan a pretty open area to run and burn off some energy. The ground is rocky, so we wouldn't have to worry so much about him digging out along the fences. It's an easy walk from the house for helpers. It'll just be temporary . . .”

And then what?
Nika thought but was afraid to ask. She looked at the pup as he curled at her feet, his head resting on her shoe.

“We can teach him to walk on a lead to go up and back,” Ian said.

“He'll follow.” She felt certain of that.

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Ian gave her a long look, both hands in his back pockets. “Anyway, on Friday several guys I know from forestry are coming. They'll make short work of the fencing. Elinor's coming with a couple of pup volunteers, to get to know you and Khan.” He headed into the porch.

“Not Lorna, I hope.” Nika scooped up Khan from where he'd fallen asleep and carried him back into the porch, where she placed him in his den box. He groaned and stretched his long legs. She touched his ears and mouth and paws for a few minutes. It was one of the things Ian suggested they do so when the vet needed to handle him when he was older, he could. Now she had to let other people handle him, too.

She sat beside the den box drenched with Khan's puppy smells and watched Ian step over the baby gate. He hadn't really said anything about taking Khan away from here. Her mind clouded at this point. She needed to know more, go to the library, look on the Internet. Maybe she could keep Khan, if she had a special fenced area, even in California? An ache filled her, and she tried to sweep away the inner warnings about not getting her hopes up.

 

By Thursday Khan was enjoying playing chase with Zeus around their small yard. But by Friday it was already clear he needed more space. He had grown another half pound as well. The crew came early that morning, and the hill pen was finished by dinner, complete with logs holding the bottom of the fencing to keep Khan from digging out.

Pearl rewarded the volunteers with lunch. Everyone talked at once, and their voices filled the open room. Nika helped serve platters of roast beef and cream cheese sandwiches, fresh salad and raw veggies, cold sweet potato fries, and pitchers of iced tea. When all of the food was on the tables, she headed for the kitchen.

“Don't you want to join us?” Ian called after her. Pearl sat down with the crew, sharing in their laughter.

“That's okay,” Nika answered, and waved a sandwich in the air.

Standing in the kitchen, she ate quickly. She didn't want to carry human food when she went to see Khan.

Ian came to the kitchen door. “Wait on feeding Khan,” he said. “I want Elinor to give him the meat today, and Will and Abby, the two volunteers from the college, will watch. Elinor is going to give them an orientation about wolf pup development. Okay?”

Nika turned to look at him and nodded, but he was already heading back to join the others at the table. It was hard to believe, but here it was, turning out just as she feared. Let the kid play with the pup for a while, then the adults take over. She hardly knew what to say. Maybe this Elinor knew stuff from books, but why didn't Ian ask
her
to show the college kids how to care for Khan? She knew Khan. Her feelings of trust for Ian had started to sprout small pale roots, but now they felt like they'd been ripped from the ground.

Avoiding the crowd at the table, Nika went over the gate and through the porch to the screen door leading outside. Khan was lying on the tattered stuffed bear. “C'mon, little one. Let's go, pup. Hey, puppy, pup . . .”

The pup looked at her with interest, pulled to his feet, and followed her to the door. She opened it, and they crossed the small dog yard. “Now. Let's go see the new fence,” she said, quietly, opening the gate out of the yard. She had grabbed a strip of raw deer hide from the freezer and now held it out for him.

Nika jogged up toward the new hill pen, holding the hide behind her and looking over her shoulder. Khan followed, stopping to sniff the trail a few times, then racing to catch up. A path well packed by the forestry crew led up to the open spot on the hill. She ran through the new gate, then turned to wait for Khan, tossing the hide. He chased, pounced on the hide, shook it fiercely back and forth, then carried it around the new enclosure, running faster than she'd ever seen him run before. After several loops at high speed, he found a large flat rock, jumped up, and settled to chew the hide. Nika closed the gate and fastened the latch. Watching him run was a thrill. She always loved being with him, but watching him run like the wind was a whole new level of happiness. It was as though he already knew inside what it was to be a wolf.