Walk #243: Of Wolves I Sing...

Dogs were domesticated around 12,000 years ago. When you think of all the animals we have domesticated: cattle, sheep, cats, llamas, horses...I think we did the best job with dogs. Loyal. True. Doesn't bark back (often).

The root DNA for the dog is the Wolf. Angel, my dog, was a wolf a mere 12,000 years ago.

Every walk with her is an adventure. A stick brings pure joy. Tonight she led me into the woods to find?

Bear scat!

Can you find the two wild turkeys in the photo above?

And I held on to her leash (she gets to be off the leash until her first major infraction) when we came across these wild turkeys.

In Idaho, today, they started a hunting season on wolves. Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone back in the 90's. Since then they have done reasonably well...establishing packs in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Fore more see Jeffrey St. Clair's excellent piece in Counterpunch.

I've been thinking alot about canines since seeing the coyotes yesterday. Coyotes have done well. Smart. Wiley. Brave. Cunning. Their range has expanded with humans around.

But not wolves. Finally, some viable packs are established and now they are being hunted. Anti-wolf propaganda has flooded the news (including a mass slaughter of 160 sheep allegedly done by wolves the day before environmentalists went to court to stop the hunting). It has become a States Rights issue (for Idaho and Montana) to be for hunting wolves.

Pity the wolf. Like the mountain lion, their sins are much less than their reputations. The other day, Joni chose not to run over a rattlesnake. She has the wit to understand that big, big rattlesnakes are good for our ridge. The same goes for the large predator.

Boycott Idaho potatoes, hell, boycott Idaho-- until the hunting has stopped. May the Enviro Lawyers carry the day!!