*New - February 2010* 

      Texas is having real winter this year. The trees dropped their leaves almost all at once during the Thanksgiving cold front and stretch out their bare branches. Grayness wraps itself around us, gently nudging us inside. Then there are the gloriously cold and sunny days with cloudless blue skies; when the wind bites your face and dances with you as you walk briskly through the neighborhood or chase your dog at the park. I am a lover of winter. It is rare here, and when it happens, I cling to it.
  My thoughts drift across miles and mountains to other winters. I'm trying to remember the last time I saw 527F. It was a cold and damp gray October morning and the Sloughs had a carcass at the edge of the creek, west of the grove of Aspens that stands at the edge of the road. Their leaves were yellow bursts of flame, their trunks starkly black and white against the cloudy morning.
  A couple of gray wolves played on the rocks at the edge of the water while some blacks, 527 and 580 among them, tugged at the carcass and carried bones into the scree or rested on the bench. They were so close then. She was so close. 527 had just been re-collared the previous winter and Tim and I were so excited to sponsor her collar, giddy as new parents.
  After that our sightings of 527 were few and she was always far away. She drifted away from the Sloughs and hung around Mom's Ridge and Wrecker and Hellroaring. She met "new" uncollared wolves and they made forays back into Buffalo Plateau. They became the Cottonwood Pack, a group of 5 adults, including a young black wolf, 716, also called the Dark Female, a kick-ass hunter who happened to be 527F's daughter. By the spring of 2009, 527 had pups and the Cottonwoods were thriving. Avoiding other packs, providing for the new members, the Cottonwoods traveled between Hellroaring, the old Slough den site and the edge of Lamar Valley.
  In June 2009, we watched the Cottonwood Pack feed on the remains of a carcass on the hills above Wrecker. There were now 6 wolves, 4 gray and 2 black. We watched with others, our eyes glued to 527 as she stepped over rocks and logs, chased ravens and nibbled at the carcass. And then the next day we learned that she was not 527 at all, but 716. 527's signal had been detected in the same place the day before as she traveled between the den and the carcass - it was even speculated that she made the kill by herself. She had eluded us once again.
  That's okay I thought. We'll see her in the fall, maybe with the pups. I was happy she had done so well - found a mate, formed a pack, and was raising puppies. After all the bad years of litters dying and no litters and interpack conflicts, 527 had done very well indeed - she had survived.
  And then she was gone. Shot by a hunter on October 3 in Montana's first wolf hunt. 716 went first and then three more Cottonwoods - Yellowstone collared wolves killed in a wolf hunt. I always believed I would see her again. Each trip we looked for her, searching the hills, driving back and forth through Little America, stopping and waiting at Slough Creek, Wrecker and Hellroaring. I knew she wouldn't live forever, but I never dreamed she would be taken from us like that.
  We are planning our next trip now. It's been almost a year and I am anxious. Wolf numbers in the Park are down to below 100 - in the northern range no pups survived and mange is wreaking havoc with several packs. The Druids in particular have suffered.
  But we are hopeful. February is breeding season and young males are traveling looking for females to mate with, particularly a young Mollie, 641M. I sponsored the collar on his sister and litter mate, 640F. Last year the Mollies were stricken with mange and they recovered beautifully. On Christmas Eve a line of 13 Mollies paraded through the Lamar, a spectacular site to see. I wish I had been there.
  There are new wolves now in the Lamar. 302 is gone, as is 569, and 480 has dispersed. The Blacktails are, at this time, the largest pack in the northern range and new packs surface - the Silver Pack, Lava Creek, 755's group. We look forward to seeing them all.

Christine Baleshta - February 2010