Sunday, January 15, 2006
Jan. 16, 06 The three Wolves!
Just noticed I put Jan. 14, 05 on the last post instead of `06
Yesterday I was watching "Animal Kingdom" on TV. The subject was about a couple of people who made friends with wild wolves. They would just sit quietly and wait for the wolves to come to them. The lady was even allowed to enter the place to see the new born babies which were all black like their Mother. Most of the wolves in the pack were light brown and black. It was a very interesting program, but it brought back a time when I saw three wild wolves on the property where I was living back then.
Back in 1955, shortly before my twins were born, I got to see real live wolves on the farm where we were living at the time.
It was late at night ( or I should say early morning) and my daughter and step daughter were asleep and I was already in bed sleeping when a loud noise woke me up. When I was more awake I realized the loud high pitched howling was coming from outside. I got up and looked out the dining room window. What I saw was three wolves ( thought they were just dogs at first till I heard their howl and saw them better). They were using their teeth , tearing the boards off one of the rabbit cages so easily. I couldn`t believe how easy they could tear the boards off when it took us a lot of pounding to nail in those long nails.
We were raising rabbits at the time and had several cages containing rabbits. But the cage they were ripping apart held a mother rabbit and her 5 one day old babies. Boy! Was I ever stupid back then. I never gave danger a thought. I just feared for the mother and her babies in that cage. So, I grabbed my heavy long coat, put it on over my night clothes and headed out the door, turning on the porch light as I went out. Only thing handy on the porch was my broom, so I grabbed that. As I was running out to the cage, the three wolves took off on a run back into the woods on the farm. I got a good look at them. WOW! what coldness shown in their eyes- so scarry looking. And the high pitched noises they were making was terrible- ear pierceing.
I went into the house for the hammer and more nails to put the cage back together. I added even more nails to try to make the cage stronger.
I must have looked funny to Walt and the other fellows when they drove in at 5:30 to find me out there. Here I was real huge carrying twins, my night clothes bottom showing below my long coat, bending down pounding the nails. Walt hurried out to see what I was doing outside at that hour. The driver of the car turned his car so the car lights showed up on the cage so I could see better to pound in the rest of the nails. Walt was too busy yelling at me to take over the hammering. He was mad because I had risked my life for a few rabbits. Guess the mother in me just had to help that poor helpless mother and her babies.
Well, the next morning I told my Mother about the three wolves and her reply was " There are no wolves in those woods". My brothers and sisters and I had grown up playing in those woods- swimming in the canal that touched the woods, picking blue berries there, or sliding, ski jacking and skiing in the winter, plus skating on the frozen canal. We never had any reason to be afraid while playing in the woods.
But, here, years later there was danger showing up.
When our local newspaper arrived that evening, on the front page of the local news was a big topic on the wolves. Seems that some people saw the three wolves coming out of our woods and running past the railroad station that was just a short distance from the lower end of the woods. I was glad others had also seen them so my Mother would stop saying "There was no wolfs". No Wolves!!. I sure wish she had heard and saw them herself. Boy I sure did see them. Today I figure what realy scared off the wolfs was probably the porch light being turned on. It is scary wondering what might have happened if that porch light hadn`t worked. I might not be here today to tell about it.
On second thought, I am glad my mother didn`t see them. I remember one time when I heard my mother screaming in the kitchen. I hurried out to see what was wrong. I found my little sister standing on the table and my mother standing in a chair with my step daughter. She kept screaming and I just kept asking her what was wrong. Finally she pointed to the corner behind me. There looking at me was a big rat. The only thing handy was my younger brothers baseball bat. So, you would have laughed to see me chasing that rat back and forth thru the house hitting it with the bat. It finally jumped onto the under support board of the long fancy table in the front room and kept running back and forth on that board with me hitting it all the time. I finally killed it. The neighbors daughter ( who later became my sister-in-law) came over to see what all the yelling was about. When she saw the dead rat, my Mother told her that I had killed it but I wouldn`t take it out of the house. So the neighbor went down cellar, got the coal shovel and carried the rat outside. I was exhausted from chasing it and wasn`t interested in seeing any more of it. Thank goodness that was the only rat ever seen at my parents home. Way out behind where they lived used to be the town dump which at the time had just been closed. So, I guess the rat must have come from the closed up dump looking for food. I wonder if other families that lived closer to the dump had rat problems back then?
I have only seen one other rat in my life and that was after we built out home in a neighboring town. But, that is another story.
After seeing the possum showing up in my driveway a few weeks ago, I am always wondering what other animals might be driven from the mountains looking for food. I tried to take a picture of the possum, but it was so dark out and it was so dark that it didn`t show up very well. I still do have the picture of the moose that walked down our road and laid in the small wooded area across from my house, and the albino wild turkey that was in one of my trees and I finally got it`s picture standing on the fence that separates my property from the neighbors. Never got the one of the young fawn as it only hit the ground twice before it was behind the neighbors home. Dogs barking had scared it off. Years past we never saw any wild animals except for squirrels and birds. The past few years more and more are showing up. Ones I hate the worst is the skunks that show up every spring. Tired of going out in the morning to their odor.
Yesterday I was watching "Animal Kingdom" on TV. The subject was about a couple of people who made friends with wild wolves. They would just sit quietly and wait for the wolves to come to them. The lady was even allowed to enter the place to see the new born babies which were all black like their Mother. Most of the wolves in the pack were light brown and black. It was a very interesting program, but it brought back a time when I saw three wild wolves on the property where I was living back then.
Back in 1955, shortly before my twins were born, I got to see real live wolves on the farm where we were living at the time.
It was late at night ( or I should say early morning) and my daughter and step daughter were asleep and I was already in bed sleeping when a loud noise woke me up. When I was more awake I realized the loud high pitched howling was coming from outside. I got up and looked out the dining room window. What I saw was three wolves ( thought they were just dogs at first till I heard their howl and saw them better). They were using their teeth , tearing the boards off one of the rabbit cages so easily. I couldn`t believe how easy they could tear the boards off when it took us a lot of pounding to nail in those long nails.
We were raising rabbits at the time and had several cages containing rabbits. But the cage they were ripping apart held a mother rabbit and her 5 one day old babies. Boy! Was I ever stupid back then. I never gave danger a thought. I just feared for the mother and her babies in that cage. So, I grabbed my heavy long coat, put it on over my night clothes and headed out the door, turning on the porch light as I went out. Only thing handy on the porch was my broom, so I grabbed that. As I was running out to the cage, the three wolves took off on a run back into the woods on the farm. I got a good look at them. WOW! what coldness shown in their eyes- so scarry looking. And the high pitched noises they were making was terrible- ear pierceing.
I went into the house for the hammer and more nails to put the cage back together. I added even more nails to try to make the cage stronger.
I must have looked funny to Walt and the other fellows when they drove in at 5:30 to find me out there. Here I was real huge carrying twins, my night clothes bottom showing below my long coat, bending down pounding the nails. Walt hurried out to see what I was doing outside at that hour. The driver of the car turned his car so the car lights showed up on the cage so I could see better to pound in the rest of the nails. Walt was too busy yelling at me to take over the hammering. He was mad because I had risked my life for a few rabbits. Guess the mother in me just had to help that poor helpless mother and her babies.
Well, the next morning I told my Mother about the three wolves and her reply was " There are no wolves in those woods". My brothers and sisters and I had grown up playing in those woods- swimming in the canal that touched the woods, picking blue berries there, or sliding, ski jacking and skiing in the winter, plus skating on the frozen canal. We never had any reason to be afraid while playing in the woods.
But, here, years later there was danger showing up.
When our local newspaper arrived that evening, on the front page of the local news was a big topic on the wolves. Seems that some people saw the three wolves coming out of our woods and running past the railroad station that was just a short distance from the lower end of the woods. I was glad others had also seen them so my Mother would stop saying "There was no wolfs". No Wolves!!. I sure wish she had heard and saw them herself. Boy I sure did see them. Today I figure what realy scared off the wolfs was probably the porch light being turned on. It is scary wondering what might have happened if that porch light hadn`t worked. I might not be here today to tell about it.
On second thought, I am glad my mother didn`t see them. I remember one time when I heard my mother screaming in the kitchen. I hurried out to see what was wrong. I found my little sister standing on the table and my mother standing in a chair with my step daughter. She kept screaming and I just kept asking her what was wrong. Finally she pointed to the corner behind me. There looking at me was a big rat. The only thing handy was my younger brothers baseball bat. So, you would have laughed to see me chasing that rat back and forth thru the house hitting it with the bat. It finally jumped onto the under support board of the long fancy table in the front room and kept running back and forth on that board with me hitting it all the time. I finally killed it. The neighbors daughter ( who later became my sister-in-law) came over to see what all the yelling was about. When she saw the dead rat, my Mother told her that I had killed it but I wouldn`t take it out of the house. So the neighbor went down cellar, got the coal shovel and carried the rat outside. I was exhausted from chasing it and wasn`t interested in seeing any more of it. Thank goodness that was the only rat ever seen at my parents home. Way out behind where they lived used to be the town dump which at the time had just been closed. So, I guess the rat must have come from the closed up dump looking for food. I wonder if other families that lived closer to the dump had rat problems back then?
I have only seen one other rat in my life and that was after we built out home in a neighboring town. But, that is another story.
After seeing the possum showing up in my driveway a few weeks ago, I am always wondering what other animals might be driven from the mountains looking for food. I tried to take a picture of the possum, but it was so dark out and it was so dark that it didn`t show up very well. I still do have the picture of the moose that walked down our road and laid in the small wooded area across from my house, and the albino wild turkey that was in one of my trees and I finally got it`s picture standing on the fence that separates my property from the neighbors. Never got the one of the young fawn as it only hit the ground twice before it was behind the neighbors home. Dogs barking had scared it off. Years past we never saw any wild animals except for squirrels and birds. The past few years more and more are showing up. Ones I hate the worst is the skunks that show up every spring. Tired of going out in the morning to their odor.
# posted by Dotm @ 1/15/2006 12:11:00 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
i have never seen any wolves dot but i hace seen and smelled a lot of skunks here in ga. and in massachusetts. we ased to live in the country when i was young. have a great day and take care of yourself.
I have never seen any wolves. I did see a dead coyote once in our area. It had been hit by a car. When I was a kid, there used to be a dump on the way to my grandma's and we used to see bears picking through the dump. I cannot imagine doing what you did for your rabbits, though. Maybe if it had of been one wolf, but three would have been two to many for me!!
good morning dot. i just wanted to drop by and say hello. i told you in an e-mail that my daughter gave my wife and i some money after she sold her condo. well yesterday i went and bought some a bose headset. i have always wanted a pair but never could see me paying the price they wanted. i decided to use the money for my birthday present which is next month. they sure do sound good, especially when i listen to some of my favorites. i like all the big band music and people like ella fitzgerald and louis armstrong and sinatra and a bunch ot others. well, have a great day.
Mr Haney, I love most animals, but sure wish the skunks would find a better place away from my street. As for wolves, I also hope I never see another one. I will never forget those cold eyes they have or their awful noise.
Thanks for dropping by. As for skunks, that is another story to tell!!
Glad you found something nice to spend the money on. My youngest son likes all kinds of musical items. He is forever trading something with his friends for better equipment, plus he likes tinkering to make them produce better sounding music. He has his own apartment, so dioesn`t dround out what i am listening to today. No more going to the stairs and yelling up " Ron, please turn it down so i can hear the TV."/ :):)
Thanks for dropping by. As for skunks, that is another story to tell!!
Glad you found something nice to spend the money on. My youngest son likes all kinds of musical items. He is forever trading something with his friends for better equipment, plus he likes tinkering to make them produce better sounding music. He has his own apartment, so dioesn`t dround out what i am listening to today. No more going to the stairs and yelling up " Ron, please turn it down so i can hear the TV."/ :):)
Hi Denny, Thanks for dropping by and thanks for the compliment. I remember feeling embarrased that others saw me outside in my nightclothes even though they were covered with a long heavy coat-- and my Mother not believing me in the beginning-- those stay with you more often.
Hi itisi, I was still young ( about 24) and didn`t take time to think before acting in an emergency , back then. Today, I am much smarter and would never even think of doing something that dangerous.
I was always the defender type who was used to being left to handle emergencies. Like my Mom with the rat and my mom haveing me check to see what was wrong with our family dog, my first time touching something that was cold and stiff. Was about 14 at that time. Guess I inherited it from my Dad, plus Walt was good at saying " Ask your Mother, or your Mother will do it for you". Only once did I resent that remark-- over 40 years after we married, when his daughter ( my step daughter) stopped asking her Dad to find her mother for her and he said I would do it. I had met her birth mother about 12 yrs after our marriage when she kicked her son out to live with us, and I knew she had skitzophrenia . She had married a neighbors son and his Mother called me for protection saying she was trying to kill her. I ended up calling her son home to take her to the hosp. as knew she had a stroke and she wouldn`t let me call the ambulance, insisting I take her. But we had an old Desota that needed timing and shook to much. I found her Mother for her- I had raised the step D since she was 4 yrs old and at this time she was in her early 40`s. What a mess that turned out to be. When Walt died, his D never even cared enough to show up. If I lived to be 100, I still wouldn`t figure her out- but she is an alcholic today. She dumped her kids same as her mother had. I am in close touch with her kids and their families-- great kids, she doesn`t know what she is missing..
There is a dump in a town way north of us where bears hang out, but none so far around here.
I was always the defender type who was used to being left to handle emergencies. Like my Mom with the rat and my mom haveing me check to see what was wrong with our family dog, my first time touching something that was cold and stiff. Was about 14 at that time. Guess I inherited it from my Dad, plus Walt was good at saying " Ask your Mother, or your Mother will do it for you". Only once did I resent that remark-- over 40 years after we married, when his daughter ( my step daughter) stopped asking her Dad to find her mother for her and he said I would do it. I had met her birth mother about 12 yrs after our marriage when she kicked her son out to live with us, and I knew she had skitzophrenia . She had married a neighbors son and his Mother called me for protection saying she was trying to kill her. I ended up calling her son home to take her to the hosp. as knew she had a stroke and she wouldn`t let me call the ambulance, insisting I take her. But we had an old Desota that needed timing and shook to much. I found her Mother for her- I had raised the step D since she was 4 yrs old and at this time she was in her early 40`s. What a mess that turned out to be. When Walt died, his D never even cared enough to show up. If I lived to be 100, I still wouldn`t figure her out- but she is an alcholic today. She dumped her kids same as her mother had. I am in close touch with her kids and their families-- great kids, she doesn`t know what she is missing..
There is a dump in a town way north of us where bears hang out, but none so far around here.
As we encroch upon the domain of many creatures we shouldn't be suprised to see animals we normally wouldn't.
They were probably loosing their food supply and were wandering around to find something to eat when they came upon your farm.
I live miles and miles away from any forest but we have had moose in the towntown core charging through the Sears store window.
We have cons and skunks living in yards and last year the was this huge porcupine at the school yard across the street from my place.
Bears at he local dump
Welcome to the new jungle, down town any town.
They were probably loosing their food supply and were wandering around to find something to eat when they came upon your farm.
I live miles and miles away from any forest but we have had moose in the towntown core charging through the Sears store window.
We have cons and skunks living in yards and last year the was this huge porcupine at the school yard across the street from my place.
Bears at he local dump
Welcome to the new jungle, down town any town.
You are so right Walker. My oldest brother owns the farm and wooded area today and he has deer and all kinds of smaller animals that we never had there before.
Where I live today most of the wooded areas have been removed for homes, so that helps push some more animals into my small wooded area and the one across the road from me. I live just a few miles from the mountain which has a ski resort on it with all the noisy crowds and those bright lights, it`s no wonder animals are looking for a quieter more peaceful place to live. I realy wasn`t for them restocking the mountains with wolves again. Years ago they were all shot to protect the farm animals and peoples pets. There wasn`t enough food for them back then, so with all the building up, there will be even less food now than there used to be. So, I figure it won`t be long before people will have them to worry about again. History repeating itself, only worse.
Where I live today most of the wooded areas have been removed for homes, so that helps push some more animals into my small wooded area and the one across the road from me. I live just a few miles from the mountain which has a ski resort on it with all the noisy crowds and those bright lights, it`s no wonder animals are looking for a quieter more peaceful place to live. I realy wasn`t for them restocking the mountains with wolves again. Years ago they were all shot to protect the farm animals and peoples pets. There wasn`t enough food for them back then, so with all the building up, there will be even less food now than there used to be. So, I figure it won`t be long before people will have them to worry about again. History repeating itself, only worse.
I saw that program, I don't watch much tv, but hubby was watching it and I found it interesting.
That was an interesting story you told, it's amazing what we do without thinking about it.
As for chasing a rat though, I probably would have been on the table too, that is just one critter I can't stand. I can handle anything else, but I have an unreasonable fear of rats since I was a little girl.
That was an interesting story you told, it's amazing what we do without thinking about it.
As for chasing a rat though, I probably would have been on the table too, that is just one critter I can't stand. I can handle anything else, but I have an unreasonable fear of rats since I was a little girl.
Deni, I agree with you. Think thats why I wanted it dead to keep my family safe from it. I had a worse scare years ago when they tore apart a condemmed house on the next street above me. One night I heard a noise in my sons bedroom. He was 3 yrs old at the time. I got up to check on him. Had a flashlight that went out if you shook it. There was an upright piano ahead of me on one wall, the bunkbed on the right and I was walking down the hall. The light hit on a large rat- fat like a mole. It was cornered between the piano side and me and it jumped into the air. It scared me so much the flashlight went out and I leaped over the end of the bunk bed. Luckily I didn`t land on my son. I never went to sleep that night and first thing next morning I made my Hubby go to the store and buy a box of rat poison before I let him go to work. The next two days he told everyone I was afraid of a little mouse. I was scared every time I went down cellar to do the washings for fear it was there. A few days later, I was going down celler to do the laundry, looking everywhere about half way down, when I spied it with its head halfway into the coil spring on an old bed spring. It was dead. As soon as my older kids came home from school I took them to see the tiny mouse their mother was afraid of. One son offered to take it from the cellar for me. I said No, your father is going to see and remove that little mouse he was making fun of me over. It was so large that only his head up to his eyes fit into those large round springs. I wish you could have seen Walt`s face when he saw it. I told him he could take care of it. he kept asking over and over "Are you sure it`s dead". Other neighbors had problems too when that houses insides were tore out. They ended up bombing the house on the next road to kill anything else that might be there and we never had even a mouse since then. Thank goodness that family moved far away. That 3 yr old will be 43 in Feb.. long time ago, but too scarry to ever forget. Never again is my prayer.
Post a Comment
<< Home
