Some years ago, my dog Tae and I stepped onto the back steps of my home in the gray light of dawn to undertake our morning hike. A short way away, on the hill directly behind my house, I saw a large black figure staring quietly down at us. I watched in awe as a huge black wolf zig-zagged up the hill, stopping occasionally to look warily back at us as it went. Without moving, dog and I watched the wolf as it climbed the hill and disappeared over its crest. "Wow," I said to my dog Tae, "That was cool!" As we climbed the hill on our daily sojourn that morning, my thoughts were filled with the striking image of the huge black wolf that had been there only minutes before.

I remembered, as a very young man having stopped at an old museum located on the shores of Henry's Lake at the old Sherwood homestead. The old building was filled with antiques and Indian artifacts of all types, but I was most impressed by a full-body mount of a strange creature. It was a large black wolf but had tusks protruding from both sides of its mouth, and its feet were cloven, like that of a wild boar. The inscription at its base told of the amazing animal having terrorized the early settlers of the area. Many attempts were made by them to kill the huge wolf, it read, but none were successful. It went on to say that more than one family had given up on their battle with the beast and had chosen to leave the area in search of a safer place to live.

This story was inspired by the huge black wolf I saw on the hill behind my house that day, and my remembrance of the strange creature I saw in that rickety old museum long ago.