– reviewed by Virginia Watson-Rouslin –
One December evening as the sun was setting, Romeo came to town. He was gorgeous; possessing a thick, black coat looking like he’d just stepped out of a grooming salon. He possessed deep amber penetrating eyes and a fine set of teeth. He was a wolf. And he was in Alaska, where one in ten wolves are legally killed by humans and thousands more shot or poisoned illegally.
That twilight time, he had arrived on the frozen Mendenhall Lake just as author Nick Jans and his companion Sherri were taking their three dogs for a walk. He bounded ahead and their yellow female lab Dakotah broke loose from Jans’ grip, ran towards Romeo and thus was history born. Both dog and wolf began their getting to know you dance and it was good. The wolf was interested in Dakotah, just as he became interested in hundreds of other dogs of all sizes in the six years he spent time in the Mendehall Glacier Recreation area, just outside of Juneau.
In a land where the majority of the population consider wolves fair game and/or “the only good wolf is a dead wolf,” Romeo’s story of survival as a lone wolf seemingly without a pack, alongside his ability to get along with humans and their dogs was, according to Jans, nothing short of a spectacle unmatched “on this planet.”
As time went on handsome Romeo, became a celebrity. He was gentle and thoughtful with the hundreds of humans who brought their dogs of all sizes and breeds to play with him, who snapped photos as if he were Brad Pitt. What Jans, a respected wildlife author, ultimately deduced was that meeting other dogs was “job one” for Romeo. They became part of his pack in those late autumn and winter months. He wasn’t interested in mating, just interested in face-to-face playtime. “Considering many, if not most, people didn’t have a clue regarding wolf behavior or how to act, everything was up to the wolf—who’d take the hard fall if something went wrong,” says Jans. He ignored bared teeth and two German Shepherds who tore into his back.
Spoiler Alert: As Romeo’s fame spread so did the race to kill him and mount his pelt. In 2009 two men shot him from a truck, which is illegal. Ultimately, they spent no time in jail and never paid their modest fine.
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