Lone Wolf & Cubs

It took half an hour to go anywhere in Alaska, but Vivianna's a garbage driver, so we're there it twenty-minutes. She dropped me off outside, kissed me adieu with the parting words, "eight post meridian, sharp. Date or not." And off she flew. Snow fell outside, nothing outrageous, flurries. It was a blustery -7°C with thirteen inches of snow on the pavement. The chill is refreshing and I could carve a dimensional tear in the multi-verse with my nipples.

I worked at an independently owned and operated animal clinic, called Healing Paws. I've never met a more compassionate and friendly couple than my employers, Dr. Yolanda & Zane Feyrer . They had an earnest regard for the well being of others and animals. They shared a picturesque bond, a hive mind which thought as one. When performing on animals they scarcely spoke, they recognized what the other needed, based on intuition. It was extraordinary to watch them work, pristine cogs in the oiled machinery of business partners and matrimony. A rarity.

I stomped the stage five clinging snow from my bunny boots and entered.

They needed me.

When I entered, the lobby was vacant. Feivel, a dark-skinned and comical youth, the secretary, was not at his post. Uh-oh. There was a calamity from the rear, voices raised over a resonant territorial growl, a howling of the wolf variety. Female and agitated. I sniffed, pups. Four total. Yolanda and Zane perspired, under distress. Blood in the air, someone had been wounded.

I opened the back office door.

In the corner and hunched over on the tile was Fievel, blood seeping into his shirt. Fievel clenched a bleeding bite wound in the crux of his shoulder and neck. His eyes were gaping with the fear of impending death. The bite missed the jugular and the blood loss was far from great, he was overreacting. I settled into silent serenity, reveling in his scrumptious fear. He'd survive.

I withdrew my mobile from my inner coat pocket and dialed emergency services. I loathe talking on the phone, so with a gruff tone, I provided the operator with the clinic's location and asserted, "Non-fatal wolf bite on neck. Victim is stable, but bleeding. Send help." Click. I had work to do.

The mother wolf had a brilliant dark gray coat of fur and penetrating yellow eyes, majestic and astounding. She had curled beneath a desk, braced to defend her newborn pups. Her ears had flattened to the side, teeth exposed, and snout wrinkled. Mama was prepared to raze the world if it meant to harm her young. The gesture was endearing. No love was stronger than a protective parents.

An act of love Luna had never experienced.

Yolanda and Zane had arranged themselves between Mama and Feivel. Zane wielded a meter and a half long catchpole, fixed to ensnare her. Yolonda brandished a hypodermic needle, no doubt charged with a sedative. Their sweat fragrant with hysteria.

"Hi Zane. Hi Yolanda." I said.

They threw me a swift glance, not long withdrawn from the snarling animal.

"We need you, Luna." Said Zane.

"Yolanda? Zane? I respect you, but you're making this worse." I laughed. "Drop the catchpole and sedative and take Feivel up front. EMT's will be here soon. Feivel needs your help more than Mama needs your restraint."

"Luna, I couldn't. She may harm you." Said Zane.

"Mama's focus is on her puppies. If you leave the room, she won't pursue anyone. She will relax and coddle those pups. But I can guaran-damn-tee if you advance on her now, we'll need another mop and a eulogy."

The Doctor's exhaled consternation and inhaled relaxation. Zane set the catchpole on edge, an American Gothic pitchfork, and leaned into it. Apprehensive, Yolanda shifted from a defensive posture, capped the needle, and tucked it away in the pocket of her lab coat. They regarded me with relief, tinged with uncertainty, their attention no longer on the ferocious beast.

"We depend on your judgement." Yolanda said.

"And honor your gifts." Zane finished.

The tension in the room vaporized. Mama curled up under the counter and flopped on her side, offering teats for her young to suckle. The Doctor's turned their back to her.

Zane placed a comforting grip on my shoulder. "Thank you for coming."

I smiled. "Now leave me be."

"You're the boss." Yolanda said as she helped Fievel to his feet and out of the office. "Overjoyed to have our resident whisperer in the house."

And she left, supporting Fievel's weight.

The Feyrer's were incapable of turning away a stray, and not just animals. Feivel was their current stray and I had been their last. I was homeless in Juneau, panhandling cruise tourists for food, when they encountered me. Without considering it together beforehand, they encouraged me to go with them for supper, and cover my bill, and I could order whatever I wished. I decided on a side Caesar salad and water, but they refused my order, and ordered me the king crab leg feast. It was the finest meal I had ever eaten. Over supper they presented me an offer. They had a mother-in-law-suite on their property they built for Yoland's mother, but she perished years ago. I could move in, and they'd pay a reasonable rate for me to work at their clinic, and help me find my footing. The conditions were that I had to enroll in college and get an apartment within a year. I upheld my terms of the bargain.

Within the first month, I enrolled in college. I was stingy with my earnings and accumulated a moderate savings account. I met Vivianna in a natural science class and we got an apartment together. The Feyrer's bore no animosity and wanted nothing in return. They were true of heart, and I'm forever indebted. The Feyrer's were the closet thing I could ever call family. Sure, I had many foster families, but they were my first "foster" family not to repudiate me.

We grew to cherish each other.

The Feyrer's had no room in their lives for children, ever concentrated on education, career and business. Not that they didn't want children, they loved children, but it never panned out that way. Years before, they formed a collective agreement to ignore birth control, even pulling out, and if it happened, it happened, and they'd manage. But, it never happened. Then one day they found themselves in their forties, without children. Whether Zane was impotent or Yolanda infertile, they never learned. They never cared to be tested. They played a prominent role in the lives or their nieces and nephews. Yolanda even volunteered to coach their hockey league. Zane taught them to play the violin.

They helped the downtrodden, neglected, and exploited.

"Sure you don't need aid?" Said Zane.

I shook my head. "No, you're a threat."

"I'll leave you to it." Zane sighed.

And he too disappeared.

I was alone with Mama and her pups. "Hey there, Mama."

Mama growled.

I approached with confidence.

Mama rose, pups detaching and plopping to the tile.

I sank my head, stared her in the eyes, scrunched my nose, baring my teeth, and gave a soft and sharp growl. That was the dominant assertion she needed. She tumbled and licked the amniotic fluid from her pups as they clambered back for nourishment. Mama relaxed, I was now the protector of the pack. I collapsed to all fours and ambled over to the wolf pack. I too licked the fluid from the pups and nuzzled my head into Mama's silky coat. She barked, and I bit her ear and she submitted.

Her hind leg was bloody.

I would have to bandage it later.

I whimpered and licked the wound clean.

A shaggy black pup satiated and full, disengaged from Mama, and curled into my warmth. He fell asleep at once and snored. It was humbling.

And for the first time I my life, I wanted to be a mother. I stared at my tummy, hoisted my blouse, and flattened a palm over my belly. A solitary wolf is as powerful as its pack. I needed a pack.

The door opened a fracture and Zane's face emerged.

"Am I free to enter?" He said.

"You are."

Zane opened the door and entered. He lifted a queer eyebrow and cocked his head, examining me. I was lying with a ferocious, blood thirsty creature that mere moments before was prepared to maim and kill. Now she appeared as a sinister as a Labradoodle.

"You have an uncanny way with animals, Luna."

"She won't hurt you now."

"I see."

"She was frightened." The black pup nibbled on the tip of my index finger and I giggled. It tickled. "Zane, these pups are so cute. Sorry, I've been playing. I'll move them into the enclosure, and then I'll mop up the mess."

"Oh honey, you needn't bother with that."

I beamed at him. "Zane, I am your custodian."

"You are more than that, Luna." Zane is a modest man."Yolanda followed the ambulance to Alaska Regional. I'll help you wrapped up here and close up for the day. I canceled a few appointments."

"You head to hospital and give Fievel my best. I have the clinic's needs covered."

Zane parted his lips in protest. "As you wish."

"I'll have it no other way."

"I'm sure. Luna?"

I yelped as the pup bit a scant too deep.

"In spirit of the holiday, I wanted to say I love you."

My heart dropped.

"Pardon me?"

No one had ever said that to me, Vivianna had, but not like that.

"I love you. Yolanda and I both." Zane smiled. "You mean the world to us. We want you to know that. You're the best Valentine we could ever want."

I couldn't speak.

"Dave Hamelin couldn't cover his bill for Chester, miserable thing broke its wing, so we let him settle up in moose meat. Yolanda's making spruce tip tenderloin with her Gruyere and Chanterelle mushroom macaroni casserole. We would like you to join us for supper tonight after your class."

The wolf pup chomped on my finger hard enough to draw blood.

"Yes! I'd love too. No, wait. Shit." I palmed my forehead. "I vowed to Vivi that I'd go on a double date with her tonight."

"You? On a date."

I nodded.

"On a double date?"

"Yes."

Zane scratched his head. "Well, shit. Do that."

"Okay."

"Postpone for tomorrow?"

"Absolutely."

"Well, okay then."

Zane smiled and shifted to go, paused, and glanced back. He cleared his throat to speak, delivered nothing, shook his head, grinned, and disappeared.

A proud father.

And I wept.

Twice in the same day.

It must be the hormones. I was in heat.

Exhilarated, I ambled around the clinic in a fugue. I bandaged Mama's leg, and squared her and the pups away in a pen. Then I swabbed up the blood and afterbirth, and closed up shop. I had another ten minutes before my bus arrived, so I remained inside the lobby, away of the frigid weather, and mulled over the last twenty-four hours.

Am I dreaming? I wanted to go on the double date. But, I needed a date. How the hell was I going to find a date in a few hours? I was in Anchorage, Alaska, which was predominately male. They had a saying, "If you wanted a woman in Anchorage, you had to get in line, and wait your turn."

And then I had a plan.

I sauntered over to the rack of animal collars and took out a spike black dog collar and a heavy duty chain link leash suitable for a Saint Bernard.

And caught my bus.