The Story of Cherry and Blue, The Wolf Child

💙 A Happy Tootsday to All before we begin!💙

            It was Mother Wolf’s last litter, and she knew it. Only two had been born that spring. One had lived. She was a cream colored female cub, who was quite large for a wolf cub. It might have been because her sire had a bit of giant Malemute in him. It showed in his face a bit. It also showed in his daughter’s face. In her cream fur she had some dark markings, and her eyes were an unearthly light blue.
            Now, this Mother Wolf and Cherry were pretty good friends already, since were able to talk together. They understood each other’s hearts. Mother knew a good thing when she saw her, and she knew that her big cub and Cherry needed each other. It was a motherly kind of knowing and concern for both Cherry and this cub, unnamed as yet.
            Ralph had Maeve. Twigg had Berry and Bob, but they both claimed Ramona also, if you could have asked them. They watched her carefully and with utter feline devotion.
            Mother Wolf knew that Cherry needed a wolf. She just knew it. So, one day she strolled up to Bob out along the trail somewhere and told him of her plan and asked his cooperation and his brother’s, who was silently listening.
She introduced her child to them right there on the trail.  Both agreed that they could live with a wolf around, since she would be young and they could make sure she knew what she needed to know.
            Mother Wolf talked to Maeve, who talked to Ralph, who talked to Ramona. All were pleased to welcome the big cub into the family. Ralph didn’t think this addition would require much more hunting or fishing. His theory, being Ralph and all, was that there is always enough for one more, or several.
            So, with the groundwork laid, Mother Wolf sought Cherry in the general vicinity of the Home Clearing. She found her out by the berm which hosted Rabbit Town. When located, she was sitting on the grass with a whole class of little brown cottontails, trying to get them to sing with her. It was a funny sight, and the bunnies could only squeak a bit, but they squeaked the song together as well as they could, considering. The song was called, “Come out and Play.”
            Several yellow butterflies twinkled about their heads in a single beam of sunlight.
            Mother approached slowly, hoping not to frighten the bunnies, with the big cub in tow behind her.
            The bunnies scrambled back into their burrows, just to be sure. Bunnies are very cautious, as you know! And they should be.
            “Hello, Mama Wolf,” said Cherry. “Hello, Blue Star,” she said without thinking. It just popped out the way names do sometimes. Thus, the cub was named Blue Star.
           “Hello Cherry,” said Mother Wolf in her voiceless way, which Cherry understood just fine. “I’m sorry I scattered your class. But, they will come back tomorrow for sure.”

            “They will. They always do,” agreed Cherry.
            Mother Wolf sat down on her haunches, wrapped her tail tightly around her feet and spoke to Cherry. The cub, Blue Star now, sat belly down beside her mother and waited, looking from face to face as they talked.
            “Cherry, this is my last cub, the only survivor of my last litter. There will be no more.”
            Cherry and Blue Star looked at each other as if memorizing what they saw.
            “Go to her,” Mother Wolf told her child with a gruff little wolf sound.
            Cherry waited quietly.
            Then, Blue Star, the wolf child came to Cherry and never left her side again as long as she lived.
            They embraced as children and canids have done since time began. There was laughter and happy yipping and all sorts of affectionate goofing.
            Mother Wolf looked on for a few moments. Then she slipped away into the depths of the forest. Her heart was satisfied.
            Cherry looked up too late to see Mother Wolf leave.
            “Oh, your mama’s gone,” she said. “Well, Blue, I will take care of you now. Let’s go see what my mama is doing.”
            So, of course, that’s just what they did.
            Most of the time the wolf child was just called Blue.

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