Ghatten's Goodies for March 23, 1997

Bath-shem is a brown eyed Siberian Husky/Gray Wolf mix. She is one of the most intelligent animals I have every known. It's almost scary, she knows what I am thinking at times even before I say things to her.

I got her at the age of 4 weeks as that is when a wolf is weaned from its mom and she has been my constant companion ever since. She was the runt of the lot and very tiny pup but she seemed to take to me right off. Unlike a dog, you really don't train them. They have a mind of their own and are very social animals. Any training that is accomplished at all is something that must be completely agreeable with them. Then of course it must be presented in a totally fun way, or you receive instant rejection. You have to very careful and never hit or strike them. If you do you have totally lost and they will never obey you no matter what you do. She has her very stubborn moments like all of us and when they come up she becomes quite vocal about it. I tell her to do something. She tells me she is not doing it. I say yes, she howls no. This is repeated until she wins. You see I'm the rebellious one and she is still training me.

Her talking gets really funny when my neighbor calls her calico kitty. Bath-shem joins in and calls too. What is amazing is the cat actually shows up. If you have ever listened to a wolf howl very carefully, you will hear that it doesn't all sound the same. Actually depending on the mood, it is very different and constantly changing. Just as the inflection in our voice changes as we talk hers does too. I watch her closely as "we" talk together. She carefully shapes her mouth and the sounds change as if agreement or disagreement to what I am telling her. It's really weird when she does it.

When she is inside (I live in a 35' 5th wheel trailer) she is very well behaved and only touches what has been given to her. When I first brought her home I kept rawhides shoved in her mouth. Nothing of mine has ever been chewed. Her favorite toy is a thread-bare stuffed animal with a squeaker inside it which she carries around when she is inside, then puts it up next to my keyboard to see if she can get my attention. She normally has a ball or toy of some kind placed very carefully on the edge of my desk at all times.

House breaking was not a problem there was only one accident. We had a long discussion about that before we came to an agreement acceptable to her. I told her if she would not dump in my house I would not dump in her yard. There has been no problem since. She stays inside every night and can be inside up to 12-14 hours with no problems. She lets me know when she needs to go out.

Outside she is an entirely different animal. Usually friendly to anyone and anything as long as they acknowledge her. This is a very important thing I have learned about a wolf mix, the acknowledgement. They seem to like to know that you know they are there. So really they are not much different than we are. People like to be acknowledged too.....and when people are not acknowledged they do strange things. So do wolf mixes. I came to this conclusion because toys ignore you. Consequently toys need to be pick up and shook really hard now and then. I'll bet you were not aware that a chicken was just like a toy. They are you know. A chicken just runs around doing all their little chicken things completely cut off from the rest of the world. Now because of this bad things sometimes happen to chickens. You guessed it they get shook really hard! This ends up being really tough luck for the chicken. I have a neighbor who has a very old dog (16). She is almost totally blind and deaf. She wanders over this way at times and is never even aware that Bath-shem is around so I must keep an eye on her as she crouches and stalks her. I think she thinks it's another chicken in her yard.

I know you have heard all the scary stories about wolf/dog mixes and how unpredictable they are. But keep in mind as you listen to all these stories that people are really more unpredictable in their behavior than animals are. If you doubt this just read the daily newspapers. I have three grandsons who have played out in the yard with my Bath-shem for hours on end. The younger the child the more gentle she is with him. The last time she was with the three of them they were 10, 9 and 2 1/2 and she never showed a hint of aggression towards them. The 9 year old has a full blooded Timber Wolf at home. This is why she is my "Favorite Pet."-----Blue

Ghatten was very happy to receive this "Thank You Letter" from Bath-shem. It came with a pretty Easter Egg Picture that belongs to some other people so I can't put it here, but I wanted to share the letter with all of you!