Night Of The Wolves

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?