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  1. So, I reckon yer gonna leave me to peck out an explanation regarding these photos?, Well, let's get started. Appropriate since we were just discussing wolf crosses, Mexkin wolves, etc. And photographic evidence(and a STORY, of course!) refuting Coppinger's assertion that NO WOLF HAS EVER BEEN SUCCESSFULLY TAMED! I reckon that depends on what one considers "tame", of course! But if a wild critter doesn't run from me, or attack me without provocation, and/or I have a friendly relationship with it, well, I consider that TAME! Which IS NOT the same as "domestic", of course! I have known plenty of domestic critters that I would never consider very "tame", either!…. Back to the photos(circa 1990's)–these were bottle-raised, extremely human-habituated wolves donated by Wolf Park in Indiana to the Ashville, N. C. Nature Center(not to be confused with the AsheBORO zoo I now work at). Since I was pals with these Wolf Park folk(via attending various "wolf-hybrid rendezvous" with my wolf dogs), they began staying at my isolated home on the Tenn./N.C. border when monitoring various wolves they had donated to a Tennessee facility, and this one in Asheville, helping the caretakers to train and work with their wolves. I conveniently lived equal distances between these facilities, and being their pal, I had the wonderful privilege to get to go with them and play with the wolves! And PLAY I did, which led to the taking of all sorts of goofy, staged photos. I like to caption the second one(where I am "treed") as "Yellowstone Introductions Prove Stressful To Hikers In the Park". Although I was very peripheral and only an occasional visitor to these wolves, they never forgot me. At one point, I had not visited these Asheville wolves for a number of years, having moved far away. I was in the area one day, and went to see them, wondering if they'd even recognize me. Different people worked there, and no one was allowed IN with the wolves anymore. When I went up to the back of the enclosure, the wolves were all sleeping down at the other end of the exhibit, ignoring the annoying visitors pounding on the viewing area's glass overlook. I quietly called their names(Jenna, Caruso, and Cheyenne), and the now old wolves LEAPED to their feet, and bounded up the hillside to me, and began jumping around and whining and crying against the fence where I was, CLEARLY happy to see me, and no question they recognized me as I did them, more grizzled though we all had become! The annoying visitors from the opposite end of the enclosure hurried over, asking whether I was their "keeper". "No", I replied "Just an old friend….."

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