Riv n Torch

My humble review of America’s New Wolf:

“America’s New Wolf” follows the spread of a new elusive carnivore in the Maine wilderness. Is it a coyote? A coydog? A coywolf? A brush wolf? A “New Wolf”? The animal has more aliases than a convicted felon.

It’s larger than the common western coyote, reaching up to 50+ pounds, and appears to be a very successful hunter of healthy, adult deer.

As expected, farmers and outdoorsmen aren’t happy about the new visitor, who is now serious competition and a threat to their livehoods. Traps are set, bullets are flying around, pups are eliminated from their dens, but the numbers refuse to go down. The mongrel coyote is now a permanent resident of the state and people must learn to live with him.

No other animal in modern Maine has stirred up and divided people to this extent. There is hardly a middle ground between those who blindly love it and those who vehemently hate it. Still, there are certain parts in this book that acknowledge the canine’s place in the ecosystem - the 60’s are the beginning of a turning point in attitudes towards predators. What’s even more surprising, the book doesn’t call for full-scale eradication (mostly because it’s costly and proven to be futile).

I guess I should say something. Torch was stolen from me, by someone who I had no contract with and considered my best friend and trusted more than anyone else.

I had a depressive episode while we were visiting another friend, and they both apparently took great offense to that, and decided to reach out to my former roommate to validate their dislike for it. There was no discussion or suggestions or anything, they even told me everything was fine and I wasn't ruining the mood, and then at the end throwing me out and taking my dog from me. Days before any of this happened, she had nothing but good things to say for our friendship, my care of him, and my training with him. I'm still reeling from the whiplash of it all.

I'm deleting pretty much all of my social media, I had it to share my adventures with him and connect with other dog people, and it's all too painful to see right now.