Myth Busters Wolf Breeders Offer Experience To Explain What The Howling Is All About

One ate Little Red Riding Hood’s grandma. Michael J. Fox turned into a teenage one and became a half-beast basketball star.

But wolves, though plenty worthy of respect, aren’t out to devour the elderly or scare the high-tops off jocks. They’re intelligent, beautiful creatures, two Cocolalla, Idaho, wolf breeders told a crowd here Sunday.

“They’re not the monsters you see in movies,” Nancy Taylor said, a leashed wolf curled up in the snow at her feet.

“They don’t look like monsters,” piped up a little girl in the crowd. She was petting a fuzzy, fat-pawed wolf pup that was flopped over someone’s shoulder.

Nancy and Bill Taylor own Wolf People, a Western-themed gift store that, despite the name, has nothing to do with werewolves. They also breed and sell wolf hybrids. The plates on their respective trucks read WOLFLDY and WOLFMAN.

While letting a couple of cubs get the cuddle treatment from 60 curious bystanders, the Taylors tried to dispel myths about the controversial creatures.

Myth No. 1: Raw meat turns wolves into savage killers. “Actually, it calms them down,” Nancy Taylor said. If they lived on a steady diet of dog food, it would be like humans living off of Hershey bars, she said.

Myth No. 2: Wolves are just plain mean. “The wolf is basically a shy, submissive animal,” she said.

At least one myth, though, is based in fact.

“Yes, it’s true - they howl at the moon,” Nancy Taylor said.

It’s also their way of saying good morning. The Taylors wake each day at 5 to the mournful sound.

“We like it,” she said.

“Wolves like country music, too,” Bill Taylor offered. They howl for the ballads.

Despite their love of wolves, the Taylors don’t think everyone should have one. Wolves have jaws twice as powerful as a Rottweiler’s. The animals can also be touchy around children, the experts told the crowd. If raised with kids, wolves will love them. But if friends visit and wrestle with the children, a pet hybrid might jump in to protect the family members.

And apparently, children shouldn’t eat in front of the animals. Wolves view them as “litter mates” and will try to compete with the kids for their dinner.

Once in a while, wolves develop weird quirks. Nancy Taylor told a story of one she heard about that would growl threateningly only if it saw a Mickey Mouse T-shirt.

One of the Taylors’ own wolves decided it hated a faucet installed in the back yard. The wolf tore it out whenever Bill Taylor installed a new one. “Old Faithful kept coming into the yard,” his wife said. That on-again, off-again geyser affair went on for about three weeks.

By this stage of the outdoor talk, a group of kids had lost interest in the Taylors. Instead, they gathered around the little girl with a squirmy, squealing cub slung on her back.

“You can pet ‘em,” Catherine Harding said. The 9-year-old was instantly mobbed by youngsters wanting to squeeze the furry, brown-eyed cub.

The wolves the Taylors kept on leashes weren’t full-grown. But one, an Arctic wolf named Casper, weighed 90 pounds already. He’ll probably weigh 150 when fully grown, Bill Taylor said.

The smaller wolf, a gray-and-black hybrid named Lona Akee, starred in the movie “White Wolves II: Legend of the Wild.” It aired on the Disney Channel and is now out on video.

Some wolves are black. Some are gray. Others, like Casper, are white. Nancy Taylor said some are even “grizzled sable.” Those must be the designer models.

Rick Harding decided he wanted one. But the 11-year-old figured that would be a tough sell.

“My mom won’t let me,” he said. “We already have a dog.”

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