Kisses from a wolf

My mom has friends who have two wolves - gray wolves. They're about six years old now and they are just the most beautiful animals around.

Wolves were brought into South Africa many years ago by the military in the hope of using them for border patrols, as wolves just keep on going and they run and cover vast distances. The primary problem was that wolves bond with their initial handler and they won't take instructions from a second person - lovely pack hierachy. So, it didn't work very well.

As beautiful as they are and as much as I'd love one, wolves are not 'normal' pets. These two were trained from when they were pups (and for years) - not just puppy socialisation classes; intensive training at home. They live on a farm; they hunt anything that bounds on to the property (bunnies and bokkies, beware! - wolves eat every morsel); and they're kept stimulated.

Kisses from a wolf.
When sitting up straight she is taller than me seated on the floor.

I was so taken with these wolves yesterday - I haven't seen them for a few years. I just couldn't get enough of touching them - and they lap up loves. They're sharp too - not just smart 'dogs' - really, really clever. They watch everything and they reason too.

Wolves are not dogs. As a result, many have ended up in sanctuaries because people just can't handle them once they progress from the cute puppy stage.

On this point... my new ex-house tenants (they moved in to the house beginning Dec, I moved out of the cottage this past week) have a young border collie. She's probably 18 months to two years old. In the week when I returned from Abu Dhabi, I didn't see the children play with her once and it doesn't seem like she was taken for any walks, even though there's a big and lovely park a block away. They left the day after xmas to go away and they asked a nephew to stay at night and also feed the dog. He was not there even one night and on Wednesday Layla had no food.

Border Collies are high maintenance dogs; they're athletic, agile and intelligent so they need to be run and stimulated. This poor lass does not even have one toy in the garden. She hung out with me a lot, coming to my door to ask for loves, tickles, conversation and attention. Very sad :(

I heard at least a handful of other similar stories during the festive season from people with neighbours went away leaving bowls of food and water for their animals while they hit the beach 1000km away...

I look at the wolves and I feel happy and at peace because they live in a wonderful environment with people who are committed to their care; and then I look at Layla, a sad and lonely dog, and I want to kidnap her - after giving her 'folks' a good hiding for neglecting this beautiful dog.


This is a time of year when many people get puppies and kittens - either for themselves or for their children. Peeps, it is wrong! It is a big responsibility to be a guardian of an animal and I think that people take it too lightly. It is not enough to provide shelter and food so unless you're really going to be committed to your pet for the next 12 to 18 years, please don't get one.