My favorite animal; the intelligent, majestic, and spiritual brother of man.  The only other creature I would rather be born as.  I am pretty much obsessed with it and have been for most of my life.  When I was very little, wolves were in my dreams (even with out me ever seeing even a picture of a real one), running, sneaking, protecting, and talking to me (not so much in words, but with looks).  I grew up with dogs (my little furry brothers and sisters) all around me and picked up their habits, their communication, and their reactions.  In the wolf, I found the most clear and undiluted form of the canine.  Yet, more importantly, I found the essence of true man; and old spirit that shows the true ways of life.  The native tribes in North America saw the life of the wolf and learned from it and adapted their ways to it.  They learned from its political higherarchy in the pack, its hunting tactics, and the way it protected and lovingly cared for its family.  The Cherokee even copied the way the wolf walked to avoid frostbite in the snow.  Wolves come in many forms from different ranges, but are still the same species.  There are currently 24 recognized subspecies; 8 of which are now extinct (and all were from North America).  The most commonly known is the gray wolf/eastern timber wolf, Canis lupis lycones, which is the most common subspecies.  Some other examples are the red wolf, Canis lupis rufus, nearly extinct now, but once ranged through much of the SE. USA; the artic wolf, C. l. arctos / tundrarum, the white wolf of the artic and winter regions (also the largest of the species), the C. l. columbianus wolf (the classic bad-guy wolf of all the stories and old pictures) which is the black wolf.  However, the differences between these subspecies are subtle, and nowhere near as extreme and its one subspecies dog, C. l. familularis.  The wolf ranges from 3'-5' in length (not including tail), 50-150 lbs (some captive individuals have reached as far as 200 lbs.), and can run up to 55 mph (highest speed on record for sp.) for long periods of time (tecnically, biological long is 1 min. or longer) (the famed cheeta's speed bursts of 65 mph can only last between 15-30 seconds).  They hunt in a cooperative fashion using intelligent and tricky tactics.  They keep a rigid social order that decides who's in charge, who eats first (no matter who's kill), who initiates the howling, and mating.  The fact that most wolves mate for life is an awesome truth, but even more interesting is that it is not just a blind drive; the mate actually insures that the other can not mate with any other.  For instance, if a lower ranking female is in season, the Alpha female will AT ALL TIMES be between the Alpha male and the other female; forcing them to stay separate.  The Alpha male will do the same with other males.  In zoos and breeding facilities, it has been noticed that the male has absolutely no problem mating with another female when his mate is not around and vice versa.  The wolf even possesses a double coat: a beautiful over coat that can peddle off minor rain and dew, and a dense, soft under layer.  These are so efficient in preventing heat loss that snow won’t even melt on their fur.  Wolves are a necessary part of the ecosystem.  Simply put, if you get rid of the predator, the prey continues to grow until it over-crowds its environment, drinks and pollutes the streams, starves itself, and weakens the gene pool by leaving in the sick, deformed, and ill-equipped.  Wolves go for what is easiest and safest to it and the pack and, therefore, only kill the young, slow, injured, sick, and old.  This in effect helps the prey's population only filled with the best individuals.  When the wolves were killed off in America (for the most part) its landscapes started to change.  Many trees, shrubs, and plants stopped growing (eaten by the new abundance of grazers, browsers) and others replaced them that were kept back by the previous plants and yet were unappetizing to the grazers.  Some scientists have linked the high out-put of methane as produced in cattle and their staggering numbers and close proximity, to contributing to the harming of the ozone layer.  In many areas, dear season is year round because the area is over-run with them.  These have the same digestive system as cattle along with moose, caribou, elk, buffalo,... so they are also harmful to the environment in too large of numbers.  So I say in a stretch out way: take on the duty of the wolf by hitting a dear with your car and saving the environment.

Away with the technical stuff and on to the spiritual.  This creature is known for many things and for spiritual qualities and knowledge it possesses: Facing the end of one's cycle with dignity and courage, Death and rebirth, Spirit teaching, Guidance in dreams and meditations, Instinct linked with intelligence, Social and familial values, Outwitting enemies, Ability to pass unseen, Steadfastness, Skill in protection of self and family, Taking advantage of change.  The wolf has long been associated with the dog star Sirius, according to ancient legends, the teachers of old originated form there and this is one reason the wolf is associated with teaching.  The wolf is also a teacher that returns to its pack after extensive forage to tell everyone about new observations and experiences. People with the wolf spirit live in a close-knit family circle without sacrificing their independence.  A wolf chooses a partner to whom it is faithful throughout its life.  You go out of your way to avoid a fight.  However, a fight can easily be put down with subtle changes in your tones, a look, or changes in body stance or position show when someone may be tredding too far.  He is a teacher for others to understand life better and find their own path as well as teaching and understanding yourself.  When the wolf howls at the Moon, it identifies with its power, its spiritual energy, and the unconscious through which all knowledge can be accessed.

One thing that I would like to point out in wolves and those who have the wolf spirit is that wolves do not have rage.  Rage is strong and uncontrolled anger.  It is unhealthily built up inside you and then all bursts out at once.  With rage, you are emotionally weak and will lash out at anyone, blinded in your desire and are just as likely to bring harm to friend as foe; you don't care who you hurt; you're venting your rage.  This is however, a trait at times found in some dogs.  Wolves don't rage, they have purposeful anger.  They don't let their anger toward one individual sour their interactions with their friends.  However, a wolf never forgets who hurts him and they will wait until they get that individual alone somewhere (that's why they say in wolf hybrid books, that if someone ever hurt or terrorize them as a puppy, to never leave them alone with that individual again).  On this note of worry, a healthy, well fed wolf would never harm an individual that did no harm or threat to it.  The only thing that wolves fear is a human.  This is why they are so hard to spot in the wild (aside from the fact that humans killed most of them off);  if a human comes into the woods, the wolf will smell them and automatically go in the opposite direction; usually long before they are spotted.  One can live in pretty deep into a wolf pack's range their whole life and still never see or encounter one.  Dogs, have no natural fear of humans, which in some ways makes them even more dangerous.  In the past, wolves have been made the villains in most cultures, for once the range of the wolf was only out-done by that of the human.  Among the ancient civilizations, the wolf was considered a natural and relatively good animal; given the best of traits throughout mythology and stories.  Many indigenous peoples were hunters as the wolves and praised it as their brother.  To the Romans, it was praise with giving life to Romulus and Remus. Also, it showed up in many human raising tales (ex: India's Mogli) and in many creation legends (Viking, Native Americans,..)  In nearly all ancient cultures that use animals in the titles of their ranking systems and their societies, wolves are always in the higher ranks.  Despite this creature's structured, resourceful, and kind nature, once the northern European people became primarily herders, the thoughts toward them started taking a dreadful turn.  Although wolves only picked off the sick and weak of the herd, back in medieval times there was no quality control, and that meant that any meat loss was still a loss.  From then on there was a mass slaughter of wolf-kind over livestock, bounties, or even just for fun.  This spread to the rest of Europe and the others.  The wolf that was once held so dear, was quickly being eradicated.  Stories were made to insure that they had links with the devil and would steal children out from their beds.  The stories and fears were carried over by our ancestors when they came to the Americas, event to the point of government endorsed programs for their pelts and eradication.  These ignorant men, filled with hatred for the beast, would hunt to find the den, so that there would be the most wolves there and kill them and strip them of their pelts and, in another act of cruelness, take any puppies too small for pelting and bash their brains out against a rock or tree.  Showing that it was not just for sporting and trade (which they would have left the cubs to grow up so they could have pelts for next year), this was for the joy of killing.  Aside from the native peoples of the land, wolves were new America's holy war.  It was the evil dragon if its day.  Yet to this day in America, there has never been a confirmed killing of a human by a healthy and totally wild wolf.  Only hearsay, folk-lore, and those who thought it would make a good story.  All the stories were a body was found were shown to be caused by a bear or mountain lion or such (ex: wolves don't put their kill in trees...)