Waiting for the Wolves

I penned this post in my journal one week ago and am dedicating it to my friend, Pat, who passed away not long ago, at the age of 92 and loved wolves and autumn.   Thank you for many years of friendship, "East Fork Wolf Woman".

It's almost sunset as we make our way to a spot down the road to sit and wait.  Maybe we're too late, my hubby and I.

This beautiful "not a cloud in the sky" second day of October has filled our eyes with shades of yellows, reds, and oranges from the autumn maple trees.  This time of year is what we wait for, but it all passes too quickly and then our Wisconsin world turns brown and gold, then white.

We're waiting to hear the wolves howl like they did yesterday at sunset, and several evenings before, in the past few weeks.  There's a pack down this way and their eerie sounds catch our ears from a far away jaunt in an easterly direction when we sit outside and watch sunsets at home.

This evening we hear a tree frog and a huge flock of crows cawing madly in the distance.  A few crickets chirp in the marshy grass on the road's north side.  When we arrived here I noticed a clump of sun bleached wolf scat in the middle of the road.  Tufts of hair sticking out from its edges gave it away - deer hair no doubt.

A flock of Canadian Geese, in their "V" formation, sail overhead toward the south, looking for a water hole to camp out for the night.

We sit and wait and watch the sky fade, still cloudless, from blue to white, then pink and purple at the horizon to the east and golden orange on our horizon to the west.

Cool air starts to penetrate, hoods up, and our jackets are zipped up to the chin, as we sit patiently and keep listening.  A lone chickadee sings and then bounces from alder to alder at the road's edge.

Maybe our presence has deterred the wolves from howling, or they have moved on to greener pastures this evening.  Either way, it's the perfect ending to a perfect fall day!

But then wait, oh my gosh, there they go, howling, yipping, shrieking, several wolves at once, farther away to the east then we would have thought, so far away we don't feel threatened.  And then all is silent once again as we climb back into our Sidekick and head home.  Love them or leave them, those wolves sound magical!  A lone star, maybe a planet, and a sliver of the moon guide us on our way home. 

Wolves in our back yard