"Part Wild"—What Do You Think?

I just finished the book, Part Wild, by Ceiridwen Terrill, which chronicles four years spent with a wolf-dog. She adopts Inyo as a pup for the wrong reasons and without doing any research regarding the difficulties faced owning a dog that is part wolf, part domesticated dog. Her life is full of bumbling relationships with men and her wolf-dog, but also contains some magic moments. When she and Inyo are in the mountains and civilization is remote, both are free and happy. Not so the case when confined in a city. Terrill writes well and some of her tales are quite funny. Most, however, are sad—a tragedy because Inyo is neither a wolf nor a dog and fits in neither world.

A good friend has also read this book and we had very different takes on it. Both of us are dog lovers and spend much of our time discussing our dogs in particular, but also other dogs and dog owners. She felt Ms. Terrill was initially ill-informed (she was), made many mistakes with the care of Inyo (some will make you cringe) and felt the author saw herself above others (I disagree). But how many of us got our first dog with no more to go on than love of a pretty face? Some of us were/are lucky, but the over-crowding of animal shelters is testament that Ms. Terrill isn't the first to be ignorant of what's involved in owning a dog, let alone one that is part wolf.

The book is well written and quite honest about the difficulties for the wolf-dogs and owners, most of whom, like herself, get the dog for the worst reasons. She went into the relationship ignorant and left heart-broken. She interviewed (canine) geneticists, dog trainers, wolf experts and wolf rescuers attempting to understand the difference between a wolf and domesticated dog. Ms. Terrill does not advocate owning a wolf-dog, far from it. She spells out all too clearly how heart-breaking it is for all. In the end, she had to make an excruciatingly difficult decision.

Here's a bit more about wolf-dogs from one of my favorite (dog) authors, Patricia McConnell. Again, not a pretty story.