When I was first getting clean, I remember hearing this story:
It was one of those things that came parallel to truly understanding, for the first time, that I had to take charge of my own reality. Accept reality on reality’s terms. Foster my positive consciousness. Offer fewer nutriments to the less respectable proclivities festering within me – by redirecting my focus. But – to even make that realization took steps. And, while I eventually began nourishing the right side, I didn’t start feeding the good wolf so easily. For me, it meant keeping a program, a network of other addicts, and getting active. For some, they get there via moderation management or joining an athletic sober community. And, then, for others yet?
They feed actual wolves to stay clean
In fact, they do a lot more with those wolves besides feed them. You see, out in Los Angeles, there’s this program called “Wolf Connection” where emotionally troubled folk (mostly young people – but everyone from recovering addicts to PTSD peeps) can go to do one on one work with a wolf dog. (That’s a wolf who’s been bred with the kinda dog that lives in your house, begs at your dinner table, and leaves you presents on the carpet right after you stood in the cold with her for 45 minutes.) It might seem random or irrelevant to recovery (which is what I first thought the day I saw it in a magazine). However, when you truly think about it, it kinda isn’t. What the program does, is pair you up with one of these intuitive, misunderstood creatures – and then send you out to spend some time hiking with him (or her – to be paw-litically correct). If you’ve ever had a regular dog, you’ve probably recognized how these creatures are like furry aura readers with four legs. Wolf dogs, in all their slightly less domesticated glory, still harbor that primal connection to the earth – while retaining the capacity for a human bond. This allows their new guardian learn those intrinsic lessons from them you can’t get with words. And that’s another helpful bit about this therapy form, too. Because animals don’t have the capacity for language or ego, there’s the ability to offer love and compassion which are crucial to recovery – without stipulations or the possibility of rejection. (Or the chance of thirteenth stepping anyone, for that matter.) Per volunteer, Renee Dutcher, who works there, these animals can tell when people are in need straight away.
“They are so powerful and so gentle and caring,” Dutcher said. “When they work with teens and young adults who feel lost, unloved or like they aren’t worth anything, these animals will go right up to them and let them know they’re just as important as anyone else.”
Not to mention the fact that a lot of them, as mentioned, have also been misunderstood.
They’re surrendered, often times, by folks who don’t grasp the concept that a wolfdog’s not like my shih-tzu (who I have to constantly check for signs of life because she’s so lazy). They’re active. They like playfulness and movement. You can’t keep them cooped up or they get destructive. (Which, as a restless addict, I can totally identify with.)
Then, there’s the nature aspect. Say what you want about hippie tree huggers or preferring to stay inside on your iphone, but there’s something incomparably magical about immersing yourself in the woods for a trail trek. It’s cleansing. Recalibrating. Mind clearing. All the things you want when your brain’s banging on about your latest craving. Add in an animal, and it’s a potential win – ’cause they’re just domesticated enough to form a connection with you, but still connected enough to nature to make you fall in love with it too. Ultimately, the experience – the pairing – has led young addicts to recover and lead the kinda lives where they can cultivate that peace the Cherokee proverb above speaks about.
I’m lucky that I’ve personally found a way to keep my shadowy, rage filled, hateful creature looking like something out of an ASPCA commercial hosted by Sarah Mclachlan. It took a bit. (And the only thing they told us to bond with was a house plant.) But if you or some young reprobate you know could use a literal wolf to turn their joyful, figurative ones obese… then have ’em try these guys.
Help them take charge of their life before it’s too late…
…by being charged with early man’s best friend.