On a whim, “Santa” bought me a darling stocking stuffer no middle aged woman in their right mind should probably have.  Infer from that what you will.  It is a baby wolf that howls and my little one aptly named her “Howler.”  Really the baby wolf toy is hers.  Actually, really the baby wolf toy is now the wolfies’.  They have loved her and appropriated her from the beginning, and even my little one understands they seem to need her.  Unlike their “kill” toys, they ever-so-carefully place her in their mouths and carry her from place to place.  Interestingly, it is Dakota who is meticulous about grooming her.  He sort of chews on her with his huge teeth like she’s a corn on the cob.  Cheyenne likes to sleep with her and I wonder if she has filled a parental need for them.  After all, wolves are VERY family oriented and highly social.  American author Jodi Picoult said this:

“I woke up one morning thinking about wolves and realized that wolf packs function as families.  Everyone has a role, and if you act within the parameters of your role, the whole pack succeeds, and when that falls apart, so does the pack.”

I’m not sure whether Cheyenne and Dakota are acting in their traditional roles but they each compliment the other in their nurturing of little Howler.  In our house I’m the techie and Burk does the dishes.  They may not be the traditional gender roles placed upon by society but they work for us.  My roles do not make me less feminine and Burk’s make him no less masculine.  Our little cub is learning her place in the world and finding out what role she is destined to play in it.  Mama and Daddy along with her wolfie brother and sister are her pack; and she has the strength of the pack behind her always.