from the back cover

The wolf has been a creature of mythology and legend since humans first told stories. Feared and reviled, or worshipped and loved, the wolf symbolizes wildness and power. In Spirit of the Wolf, we’re hoping to capture the wolf in new stories that celebrate their wildness and freedom, their magic and mysticism.

Enclosed are speculative fiction stories where wolves play a major role. The only thing we do not want to see is Wolves as evil.

Proceeds from sales of Spirit of the Wolf will be donated to Mission Wolf located in Westcliffe, Colorado. Check them out at: missionwolf.org

by STeven lente:

This is a story of the struggle with the human concept of mortality through the eyes of one person with a terminal disease, but also of how nature copes with mortality without even thinking about it.

THE UNSATISFACTORY NATURE OF EXISTENCE (excerpt), page xxx

"Wolf M182 was dead, at least that’s what Clifton Stewart at the Minnesota Wolf Management Center in Ely presumed. Clifton had monitored M182 and his mate, M181, for over six years; their first catch-and-release radio collaring and physical exam suggested M182 was three years old then, which now made him about nine and over twice the average age of wolves in the wild.

"Notification of a death typically comes after three days of non-movement when a tracking collar sends a separate code known as the ‘mortality’ signal. The biologists who actually go out to search for the one-and-a-half pound collars often hope to find them simply stuck on a low tree limb or a bush, but Clifton’s long experience with observing this pack’s semi-annual comings and goings between Canada and the United States suggested otherwise; he was not as optimistic, and he started making loose plans to locate the source of the signal and investigate its cause before winter set in. However, with the holidays approaching, the search would more likely get pushed out to mid-January."