So, yesterday a friend an I took our families out sliding and ended up having a little more excitement than we had anticipated.
There we were having a good time......Rod was towing 3 of the kids (2 four yr olds and a 3 yr old) on a tobogan behind the quad, at the bottom of the hill. I was in the Argo with my 3 month old at the other end of the hill. Rods wife was warming up in the truck with there 2 yr old and my wife was at the top of the hill with our dog...........we had no idea that all hell was about to break loose.........
Two wolves appear out of nowere............and they are heading toward the kids dragging behind the quad.... at first I had no idea what was up, but I heard my wife start yelling. I look up at her and see the dog break out of her arms and start running like mad, diagonally down the hill toward the truck (the direction Rod was heading with the kids). Rod sees the wolves coming, just as he is getting close to the truck, he speeds up a little, but can't go too hard for fear that one of the kids might fall off. As he gets to the truck the wolves are about 20 feet from the kids, on the tobogan. Rod bolts back toward the kids, just as my dog "Shadow" intercepts the lead wolf. Teeth flash and the battle is started............
Rods wife leaps from the truck and starts throwing kids inside, as Rod grabs a shovel from the back of the truck, smashing the shovel blade off as he goes to help the dog. Second wolf is joining the fight, and although Shadow is a very heafty 120lbs+ Rotty Cross, he is not faring all too well. The wolves break away as Rod gets close, but they are not afraid, they circle around and stay about 50 feet out of reach.
I knew I was too far away to be of much use, so at the first sign of the wolves, I wheeled the Argo around and headed toward our little camp. As I arived at the camp, I looked back and caught a glimps of the onset of the fight.........First thought through my mind-"
GOOD DOG, If you make it, you get steak dinners for the rest of the month"........I grab my Ruger 10/22 and head back into the fray. By the time I get within range, Rod is making use of his weapons of choice, his Quad, and the shovel handle..... Before I could shoot, he had driven the wolves into the bush. I take a quick look around, make sure everyone is OK, and head in after them.......NO Luck, so I go back. Some decisions must have been made while I was gone, becouse everyone was packed up and headed back to camp......No more sliding today. So, the families are safe in camp, and Rod and I take the ATV's to the shop, to put them away (about 400 yrds from camp). As we walked back, we both see movement by the camp. I never thought much about it for a second, then I thought, "there is NO WAY that my wife would let Shadow out alone right now, what was that". Turns out that Wolf #1 was already back.........Rod and I fall into SNEAKY MODE to get closer........Yup, that is a wolf............My gun comes up, CRACK CRACK, the wolf drops............It's starting to get a little dark by now, and as we get closer to the wolf I say to Rod......."I really hope that's not my dog I just shot" (I knew it wasn't the dog
). Rod looks at me, Eyes wide, "If you just shot your dog, I'm going to be
really mad at you".
It wasn't my dog, it was a really nice Silver/Black wolf. Everyone came out to have a look at it, lots of oooohs and aaaaaaww's.
We drag it down to the shop for the night, planning to skin it out in the morning.
The next morning, we had a little problem...............The Wolf Was GONE!!!!
OK, time to put our "Mantracker" skills to the test.........we found some "drag marks" and followed. Turns out that the second wolf was not above a little "Canibalism"........We only found
part of the first wolf, but, the second wolf was still in the area, and I just happened to have brought my rifle. Long story short, I got the second one too.
Both wolves were very skinny, although the second one did fill out quite a bit over night.
Shadow managed to get a couple in on this one:
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