I once lived on an Island
called Porcher, in the south West inlet called Serpentine.
Population 10, if everyone was home. It was an 8 hour boat ride in
our little flat bottomed river boat, from the Port of Prince Rupert.
I lived with my second
husband Bill, my four year old daughter Yolanda, and his 3 ½ year
old daughter Song, who visited on occasion, and a cat named Goodie.
We also had an occasional dog, who stayed with us when Richard Fish
was not home.
We built a two story
house on a large log float, we inhabited the top floor while we
intended on working on the main floor. With a gambrel style roof or
barn roof it gave us more living space upstairs. With two stories the
house didn't float, that would be another story.
On a fall evening, Bill
was off fishing, our neighbors were all out, Yolanda, Song, the dog,
Goodie the cat and I were the only ones home. As we got into bed that
dark night, I could hear wolves off in the distance. The girls fell
fast asleep, and the dog was in his favorite spot under the house, on
one of the logs. The sound of the wolves grew closer and I felt that
we were surrounded by many wolves.
I was very worried about
the dog, considering wolves will eat dogs. I went downstairs to get
the dog in. I was stunned after opening up the door to call the dog,
there just off of the porch stood a large long legged wolf, eating the
fish we had left out for the dog. I was totally freaked when the dog
came running from the other side of the house and ran circles around
the wolf. The wolf payed little attention and continued to chew the
fish with a little shuffle of his feet. The dog wouldn't come in. I
ran back upstairs to get the shot gun. I couldn't find it. The girls
were waking up. I ran back down stairs and managed to get the dog in
the house. I ran back up the stairs muttering under my breath “Where
did Bill put that gun?” The girls were wide awake by now and said.
“We know where Bill hide the gun.” I throw up my hands. At lest
it didn't have bullets in it. I got the gun ready and ran down the
stairs. Walked to the other side of the room to the large unfinished
open window. I was high above the ground, standing over the spot that
the dog loved to sit. I could see the eye's of the wolves glowed in
the dark off in the distance and two of them were running very fast
up to the house. I aimed the gun above their heads, it wouldn't shoot.
I tried again it wouldn't shoot. I could hear them as they hit full
force on the log the dog loved to sit. They kept running going
back the direction they came. I fiddled with the gun and aimed again,
the gun fired and shot over their heads. I only wanted to scary them
away.
We all went back to sleep
safe inside the float house that didn't float, as the howls of the
wolves grew quieter and farther away.
The next morning the tide
was out and I noticed that our little fiberglass skiff was missing.
We had it tied to an anchor further out in the inlet. I made
breakfast for the girls and told them to stay in the house. Grabbed
the gun, the dog wouldn't come with me, he watched the girls. I
walked out to were the skiff should have been. It was the distance of
about one and half city blocks. The anchor was there, the rope was
there with a clean cut, and in the sand all around were many wolf
prints. It gave me cold chills. I looked all around and couldn't see
the skiff, so I walked another what would be 3 city blocks to Richard
Fish's house to barrow his wooden skiff. I pulled it off the beach
and into the water and rowed until I found our skiff floating with
the tide water. I tied it to Richards boat and rowed back to Richards
beach, since the tide was so far out I had to tie the two boats on
Richards beach and walk back home. The girls were happy making paper
hats for Goodie and all was well to my relief. The mystery was the
rope. The four inches that was left of the rope on the boat was also
cleanly cut as if with a sharp knife, and the only suspects were the
wolves, or could it have been a bullet shot over their heads?
