My wild - The White Wolf

My Wild - Part 8

The snow finally thawed and the grass came back as the wood once again warmed into spring. Mazati delivered 5 beautiful pups 5 weeks later, 3 healthy boys and 2 healthy girls. The puppies were named Diego, Nakita (after my mother), Juno, Aja and Callisto (after my father). The pups were all brown and tan and had boundless energy. One morning about 6 weeks after the puppies were born me, Naledi, Ardi and Ezra all went out hunting leaving Adali and Mazati to protect the pups. 

This time we were tracking wild ox. We had seen them pass through the day before during the night but Nuka's pack was already on the trail so we let them pass. Now it was morning and I was intent on making a kill before the herd moved on. Once we found them we positioned ourselves at different sides of the herd and took off. The herd ran in confusion but the three of us knew exactly which one we were going for. We followed it and tried to break it from the herd. I nipped at his ankles on his right side so that he kept running out of the herd and into the open fields. Adali and Mazati were still there waiting for us when we arrived back with our catch. The puppies stumbled over to have a look and started climbing on it. As we ate, we let them lick and nibble it. Eventually, Mazati pulled off some little chunks for them to try and eat and they had better luck with those. 

The pups continued to grow until there wasn't much space in the den for anyone more than Mazati and the pups . Diego turned out to be a little monster who was always getting underfoot and he made it his mission to be as close to Adri as possible. Juno was definitely the greedy one, he was always digging up our leftovers and coming over to 'help' us when we were eating our meals. Aja was the boisterous one, she was always nipping our heels and biting our ears which was starting to hurt because of her little sharp teeth. Her favorite trick was to hang onto our fur and get dragged along the ground as we walked. Nakita was definitely mummy's girl. She spent all of her time snuggled up close to her or lying on top of her. She used to cry all day when Mazati first started coming on hunts with us. Eventually she warmed to Ezra and whenever Mazati came out hunting with us we made sure it was Ezra left to protect the pups. She would snuggle deep into his thick, black fur and sleep there for hours. She wouldn't even wake up when we all returned from our hunt. The smell of food would eventually rouse her and she would trot over to have a bite and then patiently wait for Ezra to finish so that she could snuggle back down in his warm coat. I was definitely Callisto's favorite. He would hang around me all day and would copy my movements. He was definitely more outgoing than the others and would always get himself into trouble somehow. One particularly hot morning in early July me, Ezra, Naledi and Adali went out for our usual morning hunt leaving Adri and Mazati with the pups.