The next day came and the wolves indeed had the wonderful heavily praised berry salad. Soon after they feasted, Reggie was entrusted to survey the territory parameter while Rex was with his best friend, Elfie.
Reggie hummed a little tune as he patrolled. He soon came to the part of their land that was a gate to grassy open land. The same area the humans were at the previous day.
He approached the edge of the territory carefully. Who knew what type of lunacy the humans could have laid in the early morning.
As he got closer, he noticed an aroma he had never smelled before. He was curious but not curious enough to get caught. The closer he got, the stronger the scent grew. Then another weird scent appeared. Reggie felt silly constantly poking his snout of the bush he hid in to detect what was going on.
He got closer and saw that the strange and unsteady caves were still there.
“Oh squirrel droppings!” Reggie said as he saw the humans emerge from their caves. One walked passed a fire. “What?” Reggie exclaimed, “What kind of moron just leaves an open flame in the middle of dry grass beside a forest?!”
He huffed as he crawled around to see if any traps were laid. The fact that he could not find any traps confused him, “How unhuman of the humans to not lay traps for anything other than a human…” He got closer still noticing the two converging strong scents. As he cleared the territory parameter from having any traps, he returned to observe the humans be completely irresponsible with fire.
As he stood observing, he heard a bizarre yelp come from the distance and crouched to investigate. He spotted an animal that appeared to be running directly at him.
Any normal wolf or animal would have left at this point, however, Reggie is far from normal and so, he stood there looking at the unknown creature making its way closer and closer.
Finally, there it was. It looked like a wolf but it did not smell like a wolf. Reggie would know.
“Ok, you there, what do you want? My people are here and you need to get away!” Shouted the funny looking not wolf.
“Uh, excuse me, you’re intruding on our land. It’s you who needs to go away, and scare those humans while you’re at it. They’re clearly not the brightest toad in the pond, I mean look at that moron flaming the fire in that direction! It’s asking for a wildfire…” Reggie yelled.
“Watch your snout! That’s my human.” The unwolf said.
Reggie simply stared at the deranged creature.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” It demanded.
“It, the human, it’s yours?” Reggie asked.
“Yes, of course. Why are you having a hard time with this?”
“Look here, you weird not wolf. This is not how we do things, we’re civilized animals in this forest. If you don’t want your human, you can’t just leave it here. We don’t want it and it’s making a huge mess.”
“I’m not leaving it here…” It firmly stated, “And I’m not a wolf. I’m a dog.”
“Oh bless you. Take a moment to catch your breath.” Reggie insisted on being polite, after all a sneeze is a sneeze, no matter how funny sounding or how small it seemed.
“Catch my… Listen here buster..”
“Reggie.”
“What?”
“My name is Reggie. Buster lives in another pack down the river. You can make it there today if you go through those trees over there, wait no, you gotta put the humans back first, then you can go to Buster.”
“What on earth is wrong with you?”
“Wrong with me? It’s you who has a human, like it’s a pet or something.” Reggie mocked.
“Look, oh ye confused and deranged wild thing…”
“Reggie will do.”
“Fine, Reggie. I’m getting the feeling that we’re somehow not on the same page. So, I’ll start over. This is my people’s camp site. I was brought to watch over them today because yesterday they had a scare in the middle of the night. You’re gonna have to go get breakfast somewhere else.”
“Oh that’s very kind of you to offer but I couldn’t possibly take another bite. I had berry salad this morning and it was quite filling.”
“Berry salad?”
“But as for the humans, this isn’t a ‘camp fight’ this is our part of the forest. They are really close to coming over and yesterday we found traps. We don’t allow those here, so yeah they gotta go. They don’t know how to live with other animals.” “They set the traps to keep wild animals away.” Dog said.
“They put traps to trap and hurt animals. You forget dog, that this is our home not theirs. You should abide by our rules, not barge in here and set traps.”
“Ok, first of all, I don’t set traps, the people do. They need them for their protection. Second, my name isn’t dog.” “But you said…” Reggie said in a perplexed tone.
“I said I am a dog, as in that’s what kind of animal I am. My name is Kai, you know, like Cobra Kai.” “Oh my goodness, you were bitten by a cobra and survived?!”
“No, no. Never mind. The more I explain the more I need to explain. Listen, Reggie. Ya gotta keep away, the people get really worried around wild animals.”
“I’m not going anywhere! This is my home and I will protect it from lunatics like humans. And why do you say wild?” “Well, like you’re wild and I’m not. You’ll attack and I won’t.” Kai explained.
“Why don’t you attack? Clearly you weren’t born into the human’s bloodline, you aren’t the same species…” “Oh no, they adopted me from a shelter. They’re so kind.”
“If you had shelter, then you didn’t need to leave. They kidnapped you.”
“No, no, the shelter was a horrible place.”
“Hey, we don’t always get the home of our dreams but it’s not an excuse to kidnap animals and… Wait,” Reggie paused tilting his head at the strange looking wolf, “Now I know why you look like an almost wolf, oh my sweet honey suckle, you’re one of the wolves that were kidnapped by the humans and,” Reggie then gulped, “And brainwashed.”
“Kidnapped and brainwashed, whoa whoa. Slow down… I wasn’t kidnapped. I was bred at a puppy mill. When no one wanted to buy me, they threw me out and I ended up in a shelter until my people found me and gave me a loving home.”
“Who bred you?” Reggie asked.
“The puppy mill.”
“No, I mean who did it?”
“Um, I don’t know these people who get pure breeds of…”
“People!” Reggie shouted.
“Yeah, then when no one wanted to buy me..”
“Who?”
“No one, why are you rubbing this in. It’s not a fun memory. No one, not a soul, not a single person…”
“Person!” Reggie shouted again.
“Yeah, then I was thrown on the side of the road…”
“By who?”
“My goodness, is your brain made of bricks! The people at the…”
“The people threw you out…” Reggie said quietly.
“Then, then some people found me and took me to that awful shelter.”
“Who took you where you didn’t like?”
“Some people I don’t know, they…”
“People! You see, from the beginning it was humans who put you in misery and just because one decided to take you in and enlist you in their servitude, you act as though they aren’t horrible creatures.”
Kai stood quietly pondering what she just heard.
“Humans, ages ago, I mean like a really long time ago, took wolves and made them do things so unwolf-like that they forgot who they were. Word on the path is that those who got taken, had babies that also didn’t know their roots and a new mixed species came to be. The humans had taken wolves and bred them to be domesticated. They brainwashed them…”
“No, I’m not brainwashed…”
“Do you know your heritage?”
“Well, no. But I know I’m a purebred, all mill puppies are.”
“Were you taught the ancient law…”
“The what?” Kai asked.
“Oh holy deer meat, you look like a semi-wolf but don’t have anything wolf in you…”
“Hey, Reggie, was it? I’m fine with who I am and my life. I mean, yeah, the dog food commercials show wolves on the package and they say that’s where we got our love for meat from…”
“Wait so you know about being enslaved and you still stay?” Reggie asked, full of confusion.
“Of course! Lucy, that’s my girl. She loves me, and I love her. I may have had a rough puppyhood but now I’m with people who care about me.”
“That makes no sense. None whatsoever.”
“Look, Reggie. Dogs are not a rumor. We are everywhere, we are man’s best friend…”
“What! Oh smack me with a lillypad and call me a frog’s uncle! Man’s best friend! Those things, ugh…”
“Ok, ok so Lucy’s ancestors kidnapped wolves and domesticated them. I guess that’s true based on this crazy conversation, but that was so long ago. The product of that breeding isn’t enslavement, it’s friendship.”
“Yeah, that sounds more like Stockholm’s syndrome to me.” Reggie rebutted.
“Look, just keep away from the humans. They fear wild animals and think all they do is attack!”
“We defend our land. The little land that is left thanks to the humans taking what they want… Trees, water, food, grass, wolf pups, there is no end to the greed of those things.”
“Ok yeah I’ll admit I have met my fair share of deer and squirrels who were forced to leave their homes because people built their houses, but Lucy and her dad aren’t like that.”
“One of them makes a horrible sound at night and emits this foul stench.”
“Yeah, um her dad has issues but that doesn’t mean he’s bad.”
“Look, Kai, he is human. He set traps in a place that doesn’t belong to him. He leaves the fire unattended, and if the flames spread, he would just run away and everyone in this forest has to suffer, not him. They leave these inedible things all around and don’t even cover up their droppings!” Reggie shrugged with disgust, “There is nothing you can say to change my mind. I like you, you seem ok for being tormented and brainwashed, but I will protect my land at any cost. Even though Rex trains with Elfie more than I do, I’ve learned a few fighting tricks and I’m not afraid to use them.”
“What’s an Elfie? Is that the new squeaky toy?”
“Elfie is Rex’s best friend. He is a grizzly bear who we fight to build our strength.”
“Wolves with a grizzly bear friend named Elfie?” Kai asked riddled with confusion.
“Yup, he’s a sweetheart but huuuuge so it’s quite the workout. Oh pickled pears, you distracted me.” Reggie cleared his throat, “I will protect my land, so please leave and keep those humans away.”
“Ok, Reggie. I’ll try to get them to leave but you need to know, this is a special place for humans. Different families come here to try to get in touch with nature.”
“Nature doesn’t want them! Not after what they did to everything else in nature…”
“Still, I can try to get Lucy to leave. But the humans will always do this ritual.” Kai explained.
“I can only do what I can. If they get too close, I have to protect and defend.”
Kai backed away, wished Reggie good luck and warned him that humans are constantly changing their tactics, “I like you for a wild animal who eats salad… Be careful…” She said as she ran back to the people.
Reggie walked around the territory parameter thinking about Kai. She didn’t mind being captive. She openly confessed her love for her life and captors. She acknowledged her ancestral trauma. She admitted that it was people who caused her pain as a puppy, but still she returned to her captors. She never escaped.
This concept had Reggie boggled beyond belief. Perhaps the crimes of centuries past were viewed differently now. Perhaps the so-called dogs that were bred from those crimes held no grudges. They simply lived their lives the best way they could.
While Reggie could understand that the matter was far more complicated than it had seemed before meeting Kai, he still knew to be wary of the humans.