Wolves

Somewhere way back on my genetic tree I am related to wolves. Those wild, misunderstood, much maligned (big word!) canines. Canis Lupis. Wolves. Some people say that dogs, Canis lupis familiaris, still have the brain and instincts of wolves. I don’t know about that. I’m a dog, not a wolf, and I’m quite proud and happy with that fact. I have no desire to hunt small critters. I don’t want to sleep outside in the cold. I’m quite happy working for and taking care of my humans and letting them provide me with all that I need. They do a good job of that. I like having a relationship with these humans. I find them fascinating creatures. Endlessly entertaining. For me, life is all about that relationship. For me,  life is good.

At the library this week, we read a book about wolves.

Wolves
by Emily Gravett
published by Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers in 2006
the book was originally published in Great Britain in 2005 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This is a fiction book, but it has some good facts about wolves.

This was an interesting twist on a book about wolves. It begins with a rabbit. A rabbit who goes to the library and checks out a book about wolves. The reader gets to read the book with the rabbit. Pretty clever. Our reading kids thought it was pretty funny. We see a fat, cute bunny with scary, gnarly wolves looking over his shoulder! But we learned a lot about wolves. Wolves live in packs and can live just about anywhere. At the Arctic circle where it’s frighteningly cold, on the edges of towns, and in the forests. They have really sharp claws! Yikes! My Mom Person keeps my claws nice and trim so I don’t go around scratching folks. Those wolf claws are a nightmare! Wolves have bushy tails and dense fur with fleas and ticks. Ewwww. I have dense fur to keep me from getting waterlogged and cold when I’m swimming. And occasionally my fur has harbored a flea or two. Wolves have BIG teeth! Much bigger than dogs. And very powerful jaws. That’s for crunching critters in the wild.

And the big question for our little cute rabbit is — What do wolves eat? Ahhhh, yes. What do they eat? I wouldn’t eat a rabbit. Not one with fur on it. But would a wolf? You’ll have to read the book and see. I will tell you that a collected GASP! came from my reading buddies.

This was a pretty cute book. All my readers liked it and we even read it a second time just to study the pictures a little more.

Wolves was Ms Gravett’s 1st published book and it got it’s start as a school project. In 2005 Wolves was the recipient of the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Nestle Children’s Book Prize.

Ms Gravett is a fascinating young lady – you can find out more about her HERE and HERE.

A rather nice interview with Ms Gravett can be found at Kids’ Book Review HERE.

You can find out more about wolves at the Wolf Conservation Center HERE.

the Barkpost has an article with a list of differences between dogs and wolves. Interesting.
Psychology Today has an interesting article about differences as well.

And here is a fascinating video about how wolves affect the world around them –

I wish you a howling good weekend!
Your wolf cousin
Rhythm