~Enter Mouse~


Spring soon disappeared and the heat of summer began to be felt by the pack. More and more, the daylight hours were spent in the cooling shelter of the forest and hunting was done at night. It was such a day as this, when another wolf enterd their world.

She was not more than a year old. Her fur was dirty, she was pathetically thin, and she lumbered along like a playful pup as she approached the pack. She crawled on her belly towards Bear and his mate, and one whiff of her told them she'd tangled with a skunk in the not to distant past. She was lanky, ungraceful, and to their collective thinking, unwanted. Yet she groveled at Bear's feet begging for acceptance; showing her exposed belly in her plea.

Now, as Bear tensed to rid them all of her presence; he glanced at his mate. There, in her eyes, he saw compassion mixed with unshed tears. Try as he might, he could not understand his mate sometimes. This filthy, half starved creature was of no use to them. Yet, as his mates eyes searched his, he knew the female would stay. With a growl of acceptance she was made welcome, and the males moved away to let the females get acquainted. Bear, being male, could not know what his mate instintively knew. Someday, this new unsightly female would be a very important member of the pack.

The new female was named Mouse by Bear's mate as catching mice was the only hunting she was good at. Mouse had been orphaned while still very young and her hunting skills were clumsy at best. As the days flew by, Mouse glowed in her acceptance by the pack; and she and Bear's mate became true sisters. While high above them in a cloudless sky; the Creator made note of the growing wisdom of Bear's little mate.

© RUA 8/04/02