Dogwalker's Diary

The gentle William, who exemplifies all that one expects from a dog, is often taken for a wild animal. Once, on a winter day, we were walking on the north side of Warren Street, approaching Second, when a young man rounded the corner, stopped dead in his tracks, then did a double take, and explained, "I thought you were walking a bear!" 

People we meet on the street often comment that William looks like a wolf, but an incident that happened this past Saturday merits sharing. William and I were at the corner at Warren and Second streets, heading home, when a young woman entering Verdigris noticed William, retraced her steps, and said to me, quite seriously, "Excuse me. Is that a timber wolf?" When I assured her that, to the best of my knowledge, William was a dog, she told me that she knew people who kept a timber wolf as a pet, and William looked exactly like that animal.

Timber wolf

William

Of course, all dogs are descended from wolves--wolves being the wild canines who figured out that their lives would be much easier if they ingratiated themselves to humans and got the humans to do their hunting for them and allowed them get warm by their fires. William has brought his wolf ancestors' ability to manipulate a human to a fine art.