Wandering Wolf Part II

We've been here longer. We predate your written records. You with the guns and money. You who build fences and slaughter for other reasons. We predate you.
Our math was the arithmatic of necessity. Take away only what yo need. Add to the sum total of all things in harmony. Know why you multiply. Divide when it is time. Your fearful army is saying we kill their cattle. Hardly. We take elk first. Cattle only if we must. The numbers are truth tellers. More cattle die from natural causes. Or coyotes, or weather, climate and conditions. They die from lightning or drought, flood and fire. We take a few only when survival is at stake. Thousands die each year never having been close to one of our number.
The places you call Montana and Idaho are the worst. Pompous, self-appointed leaders blaspheme our heritage, those who support our right to that heritage,and anyone who would embrace a tree. We embrace trees too.

The money handlers with lightning sticks will not survive. Their time here does not sustain. It destroys. Their time here is brief. We've seen sun and rain. Hail and heat. Snow and sand for ages. Only what contributes to balance will survive.
So I move. 700 miles and counting. I'm here now in a quiet valley. Looking, sniffing, plotting my course. Tomorrow another river to cross. But I can follow the bank, skipping over boulders, wading side eddies until just the right log jam makes my crossing possible.
They think I'm looking for their sheep, their newborn calf. A white rabbit, a chicken in a wire box. I prefer elk. But my eyes seek only one thing. She will make me whole. She will aid my survival. She thinks too of the day we will reunite. My mate is my only motivation now. For her, I eat snow, spawned out salmon, wild grass, road kill. I kill if I must; it's the way of my ancestors too. But this is not a sport for me. I require no license. I do not want to be near you. I truly hope we can co-exist. But know this, I have every intention of surviving.