Cheyenne's Howl

Printed in Mountain Messenger on Friday - November 7, 1997

Head and Feet

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Guess what, Mom and Dad just opened another Gallery. This one is down in Georgetown next to the Petra Cafe. I would like to invite you to stop by and have a great meal at the Petra and then visit my Mom on Saturdays and Sundays and visit with Cindi Tomjack on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Cindi is a real neat lady and she and Mom will be glad to show you around the Gallery. By the way, they have some really nice paintings and prints of wolves down there too. After you leave Georgetown, be sure and visit with me up in Silver Plume. Also, the video of my TV show is in its final editing and we should have copies just after Thanksgiving.

As most of you know, there have been several poems written about and to me. Now there is a song out by a local artist and it is called "Cheyenne". Next week I will tell you more about that and how to get a copy of the tape. Now some of you seem to think that I am getting the "big head". Just remember, we wolves naturally have a bigger head as compared to a dog of the same size. Our brains are approximately 20-30 percent larger than the dogs because we have to use more of our brain in order to survive. Our brains are highly developed and we are considered more intelligent than most other groups of carnivores. It is our intelligence that has given us the ability to adapt to the changing circumstances which we face each day.

The other thing that I am constantly being teased about is my feet. Yes they are large and my legs are long. My long legs allow me to trot along at a steady five miles per hour all day long. I can also surge up to forty miles per hour and have no problem maintaining a twenty mile per hour chase for food for fifteen to twenty minutes. My long legs also help me to travel across a great variety of terrains, including rocky slopes, uneven ground , and deep snow. My feet act as snowshoes and help support me on top of the snow. In the winter the pads of my feet are in constant contact with the snow and ice. This will often pack between the pads of my paws and you will see me licking and biting to remove this packed snow. The cold temperatures do not hurt my feet because nature has adapted me with a special form of insulation. The prolonged contact with ice and snow activates a special regulatory adaptation that allows my foot pad temperature to adjust to just above the freezing point for the tissue. This is regulated independently of the rest of my body and in this way I experience no unnecessary loss of body heat. Between my full winter coat and my ability to regulate the temperatures throughout my body, I can withstand temperatures of forty to fifty degrees below zero.

Again, I would like to invite you to visit with Mom and Cindi at the new Visions West Gallery in Georgetown. Check out all the work and then come up and visit with me.

Cheyenne