Alyssa Munson

October 1, 2016: P1B Revised Essay

Professor Bump

 

A WolfÕs World

ÒEvery organism creates a different world in its brain. It lives in that world. We are surrounded by millions of different worlds.Ó [1]

 

            I awoke, in the same world that I had for the past five years. Beside me, in my den, slept my family. They appeared peaceful, unbothered by the cool breeze blowing their coats, although I knew their instincts would make them alert in an instant if necessary. Always the first to rise, I carried my tail much higher now because I had recently become the alpha wolf of our pack, after

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our last leader fell ill and died at the age of nine. Our average life span is around eight years, although some of us live to be thirteen years old.  At only five years of age, I still have nearly half of my life left to lead, guide, and protect my pack, should I not fall ill, injured, or be hunted. I take great pride in my responsibility as the head of the pack because my family means everything to me. Most of us stay with our packs, as well as mate for life. These family groups are very close and our social nature and emotional attachments to each other define our kind. I care for my mate and pups on a much deeper level than I have ever seen amongst other creatures in the forest. We think highly of ourselves, for our intelligence, communication, and our social and emotional relationships separate us from many others. A balance between aggression and cooperation is another characteristic of our kind. Contrary to how most see us, we are not vicious, blood thirsty, savages. We must eat, such is the way of the wild, and we will protect our own, but we have an aversion to fighting and try to avoid aggressive encounters when possible. Most are all agreeable and friendly with one another, such as seen during our daily activities like grooming and play. Each wolf has their own individual and unique personalities, but their behaviors may depend upon the establishment of their social positon through these activities. I know not a wolf brave enough to double cross me.

            Thinking of such a thought, a heard a rustle in the trees nearby and was jolted back to present matters. Though it were nothing, my heightened senses which provided me an immaculate awareness, was unacceptable to let waver. Scanning the surroundings, I see that a fresh snow has fallen overnight, but the chill in the air is hardly noticeable to me through my dense coat. My family is starting to wake and I know that it is almost time for the hunt. Hunting is a collective behavior for the pack, as is almost everything we do. We leave the den, equipped

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with our built in snow shoes and an instinctual way of walking, such as that we do not sink into the fresh snow. Our claws are strong and blunt, not for seizing prey, but to grip the Earth. ÒHow easy it is to sense that the terrain underfoot is the palpable surface of a living presence, and to allow that depth to feel your steps as you walk upon it!Ó[2] I feel at one with the earth and with my pack. I use my most trusted tool, my powerful sense of smell, to locate prey. Although we are no strangers to covering long distances, and at high paces, it takes no time at all before I have quickly picked up a scent and locked onto our prey. Following the very intense scents is no problem, but I am further aided by my other senses. Second to smell, is my hearing. Not only do I hear much higher frequencies than other canine classifications do, but I can hear from six miles away in the forest. My senses are being overloaded as I zone into my hunting mentality and let the floods of overwhelming smells and every small sound I hear take over my brain. If there were leaves left on the trees this time of year, I could hear them rustling in the wind from miles away, I bet. But suddenly I hear a twig snap, and I realize we are beginning to close in on the prey I had been stalking. My yellow golden eyes are quick to detect the slightest of movements. We stay undetected, moving slower than our heartbeats, until we are as close to the deer as possible. At the last moment, we run full speed, making a high speed chase to test the animals and pick out the weak ones from the group. I know not how quickly we run, only that a creature has not outrun me yet. I feel confident and strong and powerful as I sink my teeth into one of the deer. My long, sharp, strong, canine teeth are used to grasp the prey, while my carnassials are used to scissor off pieces of meat that can be swallowed without ever chewing my food. My strong teeth and jaws have a lot of crushing power and allow me to get bone marrow from bones

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and to leave very little waste. I appreciate the taste of the meat, so much more satisfying than that of fruit, and soak in my meal.

            As night falls and we head back to our den, a horrific scene unfolds as we walk right into human laid traps. We knew that the humans sometimes set up traps in these parts of the forest, but how did they outsmart us? My clever intelligence, upright ears, inquiring eyes, and sharp senses should have been able to see this. A wave of feelings and nausea, thicker than the waves of the swiftest moving rivers in the forest, washed over me as I watched my loved ones being caught in more animalistic traps than any animal had ever known. Their pleading eyes and whimpers and howls of pain made my stomach churn. The earth seemed to turn on us, as traps she had been concealing became revealed and snatched up member after member of my pack. The beast inside of me began to come out, but it was soon clear that even at my most ferocious, I was no match for these monsters. Hunters followed us as we fled and shot at some of the younger members of the pack with something I had never seen before. It was so loud. It pierced the air, sending any birds resting in the trees flying out in all directions. My ears echoed the sound of its fire through my head for what seemed like an eternity. I could hardly feel my legs, but I kept running. I donÕt know how long I ran, but it was almost sun rise when I noticed I was alone. I had led my pack into danger, been unable to save them, was a coward and ran away. I lost my pack, the thing that mattered the most to me. I felt lost without them. After a while, I started to notice some intriguingly unusual smells in the air and found myself aimlessly following them, having no other purpose anymore. I crouched and walked wearily near the edge of the tree line, where a Native American tribe lived. I had never been here before, but they did not feel threatening like the other humans. My eyes saw a lot of things, but had never seen

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anything like them before. They had these small trees, with no leaves or branches, that they had carved and painted. Atop of these trees were a figure that I recognized. They looked like my pack, like my brothers and sisters, like my own reflection that I had seen in the river before. What did this mean? My curiosity led me to keep observing them for a while longer.

 

            I noticed that Òthe human family is a good analogy for the wolf packÓ[3] and that they did many things such as we did. After watching these kind, gentle humans, I began to feel a connection with them, particularly with one young man who I noticed had been watching me as well. Our eyes would catch each otherÕs glances and we would hold our gaze, mesmerized and fascinated with one another. It was a few days later that we met face to face in the forest and he spoke to me. To my amazement, I understood him. He explained to me that the wolf was the totem animal of his people and that he felt a connection to me. He believed that I had come into his life at this time because I had lessons to teach him and he asked for my guidance. Intuitive of

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my still timid behavior, he tried to put my mind at ease, by telling me that ÒThe totem is worshipped or esteemed by members of the clan bearing its name. É.A totemic animal may be neither killed nor harmed by those who consider themselves to be its descendants, except on certain occasions when the animal might be eaten sacramentally.Ó[4] ÉBut they certainly had no plans of doing that. I believed the things that he said to me, and I felt them as well. I visited him often after that day, and it turned out that I did have lessons to teach him. From losing my own pack, I became very wise about love and relationships, and was also seen as a guardian figure.[5] I watched over him, and was also able to teach him, and send messages to the rest of the human world through him, about how he must treat and respect animals and the earth. I found myself in a completely different world than the one I had woken in just a few days prior, but our relationship awakened a new world for many.

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ÒWhen we learn to speak with the animals, to listen with animal ears and to see through animal eyes, we experience the phenomena, the power, and the potential of the human essence, and it is then that the animals are no longer our subordinates. They become our teachers, our friends, and

our companions. They show us the true majesty of life itself. They restore our forgotten childlike wonder at the world, and they awaken our lost belief in magic, dreams, and possibilities.Ó[6]

LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01

 

 

Word Count: 1,794; Word Count Without Quotes: 1,584

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Bibliography

Abram, David. Becoming Animal. Pantheon Books, 2010.

Andrews, Ted. Animal Speak, Illustrated. Dragonhawk Publishing, 2002.

Benet, Sula. ÒTotemismÓ.

Foster, Charles. Being a Beast, Illustrated. Profile Books Limited, 2016.

Mech, David. Boitani, Louigi. Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. The University of

            Chicago Press, 2003.

 

Images

http://userscontent2.emaze.com/images/f93d7781-2dd0-4c80-a800-185f28440ff5/5312a86c-07b5-4c11-918f-92f0d780d278.jpg

https://thejesusquestion.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/easter-totem-pole_peter-and-the-wolf.jpg

http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/wolf-clan-totem-pole-sally-weigand.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/G7CI1j_zBpQFUcNHukK5ov3Jm9IhgQNYzhPdZ1CUOaT05ra2HLEgG5FVbsWbMC-dU7GaEx6GjVf2N6uU5IehN9zfnhn5ZnLGlWLk_ZYUEd95TdMq9GU

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[1] Charles Foster, Being a Beast, Illustrated. (Profile Books Limited, 2016), 2.

[2] David Abram, Becoming Animal. (Pantheon Books, 2010).

[3] David Mech, Luigi Boitani, Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. (The University of Chicago Press, 2003), 6.

[4] Sula Benet, ÒTotemismÓ. Course Anthology, 351.

[5] Course Anthology, 367,369.

[6] Ted Andrews, Animal Speak, Illustrated. (Dragonhawk Publishing, 2002), 356 (in Course Anthology).