FROM THE DESK OF… Gordon K. Smith
Back to Wolves, Man, & Truth
To the general public — So many of you are embarking upon the effort of raising wolves or wolf-hybrids. Many of you are starting out with very little knowledge of the creature. I admire your wishes to promote a better psychological climate for the Wolf throughout the USA. I am positive that most of you are truly dedicated and really love the Big Bastard. It’s beauty, intelligence, and complex social order are certainly fascinating. However, so many of you are finding out that you have bitten off a big mouthful and consequently become baffled and discouraged after delving into Wolf needs and behavioral traits. Thus the reason for my publishing this little booklet.
I must assure you that though I DO want to help you and do wish to see you become knowledgeable of old Canis Lupus, it is rather a hardship upon me to get up in the middle of the night, or some other inappropriate time when I might be working with my own packs, and spend an hour or so trying to straighten out your little or even major problems. This plus the fact that you are spending far more than what this booklet costs to feed Ma Bell, plus the fact that I am only reaching one individual case each time, compels me to look for a better way to communicate with you, via the printed word.
Enclosed within this missive are the answers that I have arrived at from 50 years of studying, hands on, the Wolf. Also, the answers to the most frequently asked questions from you. Perhaps this booklet will ease the cost and time for you and the costs and time for me in detailed one-on- one phone or postal inquiry. I do hope so. These words are written in very clearly and easily interpreted Man to Man phrases. I am sure that your 6th grade child can fully understand them.
Now I do not wish to appear here as an expert (there are none). I do not tell you that this knowledge is infallible. I merely contend that this is the way that I did it. This is what I have learned from my own success. This is the way I am doing it now. And though I might interpret a “Know It All” attitude to you, this is not my intention, and I write ONLY of what I have learned personally.
I will not give you what someone else does. No other opinions, only mine. You evidently WANT what I have learned in the past one-half century, or you wouldn’t come to me when you have problems. Therefore, here they are. I shall begin with some straightening out of what the Wolf really is. How dangerous he is. How compatible he is. How intelligent, how complex, how really easy to get along with, with just a bit of Lupus psychology. Then we will dig into his requirements.
Don’t misinterpret my calling it “HE.” I am not a sexist and only use the male analogy for convenience and to avoid the he or she, extra effort. I, like the Wolf, seek the easier way out and abbreviate as much as possible without detracting from your expected know how.
However, there is very little equal rights movement in the Lupus breeds and poor old Mom must stay home and tend the kids usually, while old Dad is out scrounging and salvaging in order to sustain his family and Mom has to kind of kneel down and plead for her place in the pack, BUT in return she is given the best of everything. Like a big belly full of semi-digested meat from the leader’s stomach and she gets the best. Like protection. Like even a semi-reverence during the reproduction cycle. Plus doting on, and babying from ALL the pack members, so though ERA doesn’t fit very well into Wolf Society, at least dear old Mom and Grandma have got it pretty soft, huh?
Hang in there, don’t let my analysis discourage you. I did it and I’m just a dumb old country boy with a high school education. Right?