Member-only story
An Encounter with the Wild
Personal story time.
Some years ago I spent a week riding at Bitterroot Ranch in Wyoming (I highly recommend them for riders of all levels. Know how to ride? They’ll challenge you. Don’t? They’ll teach you).
The Encounter
I was riding a horse named Biscuit, because she was, well, Biscuit colored. She was a former rodeo horse who decided she didn’t want to rodeo no more and had developed a fear of cows, but she was a great trail horse.
We were riding along a ridge above a valley and had stopped for a photo op when I felt Biscuit tense up, every single muscle in her body. A moment later, she relaxed.
That was when I saw the wolf.
She was gliding (no other word for it) through the valley below us, something in her mouth. Something that squirmed slightly and was the same color she was.
A cub!
On her own business of moving her babies from one den to another, as wolves do, she seemed oblivious to us.
It was an amazing moment, an encounter with a species who’s cousins live by our fire and have built part of who we are. (Three species on the planet point as a signal: Humans, dogs, and wolves. Chimpanzees do not point unless taught to do so by humans).