Whoa, this is a really old story

It was winter and the snow had come down quite early this year. I was fuming over what had just happened. My parents refused to allow me to have a dog as a pet. I had been pestering them for months and at last, “No means no and that’s final!”

This winter proved to be much more interesting than the previous winters. Mum and dad brought me to Uncle Jesse’s ranch for the holiday. On the second morning, I went exploring around the ranch. I noticed a little unusual heap with a little pinkish, red colour that looked like blood…it really was blood. The pile started to move and two eyes stared at me, I was petrified. Shaking of the snow and standing up, I could see the blood-soaked underside of that of a wolf, an albino wolf.

It was a female and apparently, she was giving birth. It turned out that she gave birth to two live pups and one dead pup. My heart went out to her. She was weak and hungry, and she laid back down on the snowy ground and her pups just suckled on without a care. They were both males, almost hairless except for a hint of grayish white fur here and there.

I quickly ran back into the bamboo house to get a piece of steak (as I always do when I meet a stray, except that this time, it was a wolf) from the fridge. My instinct warned me not to tell my parents and uncle for they might shoot the wolves. Hurriedly, I strode back to the wolf and her pups. At first, she didn’t quite trust me and flinched when I held out the steak towards her. However, hunger overcame her and she eventually took it gently but hastily from my hand, and gobbled it down gratefully. I fed her till she was full.

I named her Arianne but I call her Ari. Soon, we became great friends and I was quite blessed for a solitary animal to become tame enough for me to hug and cuddle. Sometimes, I had to hide her when one of my family members showed up. Her pups were getting stronger and of course, fatter and cuter too! They were so so so cute. I named one Ken and the other, Copper. Besides that, Ari’s deep wolf call is extremely eerie. One time, Uncle Jesse came into my hut and told me he had heard a wolf call, and he looked outside and caught a glimpse of a white wolf trotting near the trees, and that he was planning to shoot it and sell its fur. I almost jumped out of my seat with fright and anger. I guess I was lucky as the holiday had almost come to an end. It was time that I planned a way to bring Ari and her family with me to California.

Mum found out that the package of steak we brought down from home was almost empty. She questioned me and well, I lied, all the way. Lied, lied, lied. I didn’t want Ari, Ken and Copper to get caught and shot. It’s a smaller evil for a greater good, right? Then, came the time the hols ended and I had to go back to Cali. I had already planned everything and I certainly wasn’t going to leave the wolves behind. I silently smuggled the heavy wolf and her month old pups up the truck that was going to take us home and camouflaged them with some brown and white rugs. Quite soon, we said our goodbyes and I nervously sat in the back seat with my teeth chattering partly because I was afraid and partly because it was darn cold.

Just when I was calming down, the wolf pups started to scratch the back screen of our truck. Dad stopped at the roadside and went to check out what was happening. “Ahhh *&^%#!!!” Came from his lips and my mum scolded him for using foul language in front of me. “Honey, what is wrong with you?” My mum was puzzled when he rushed back and got a gun out of the gun compartment. I immediately stepped out of the car, tugged at the gun and yelled at him. “You can’t shoot them! Don’t, please don’t. They’re my friends, see…” I said, while petting Ari’s head, soothing her as she growled deeply, knowing the danger she was in. My parents were astounded. Mum started to talk to daddy about this issue and I just sat at the back of the truck, fingers crossed.

The long awaited time at last, came. Both mummy and daddy were smiling. So, it went like this. Dad decided that since I wanted a pet so much, I’ll take responsibility for feeding, cleaning, washing and house training the wolves. But, I had to promise that once we got home, I was to bring them to the vet and get them injected just in case of rabies and such. Of course, using my pocket money which wasn’t much. I hugged him and bounced around, I just couldn’t stop talking! I guess that that’s what happens when you are just so happy.

So now, here they are: Arianne, Ken, Copper and Copper’s mate, Delilah (a purebred German Shepherd) with their 3 lively puppies. Ken and Copper are both grown up now, it seems that time passes very fast indeed. And Ari, my big girl, just seems as majestic as before.