Thursday, January 17, 2013

Otis The Wolf, parts 1110 - 1113



1110. A wolf that looked like a dog could not simply prance into a medieval village and hope to be accepted. It was a difficult time, superstition and fear ruled the land, the orderly, predictable despotism and savage illogical justice of the Romans was long forgotten. Some stray dog showing up in a village would most likely suffer a cruel fate in that age, so aptly called by us, the Dark Ages.


1111. The first thing Otis was instructed to do was to spend many days at a distance observing village life with a special eye for the behaviors of the local dogs, in order to get an understanding of their personalities. From a safe distance he marveled at their antics. Why did they shake their tails in such an obscene way, what was the purpose of sitting up on the hind legs and pawing the air in front before eating some morsel of food.


1112. In time Otis was able to connect dog behavior to the attendant human reactions. Tail wagging was some how related to being petted, sitting on the haunches was a preliminary to sometimes being fed, but not always. All of these activities had to be practiced and perfected in front of an audience of his peers. They stood in judgement of his acting skills, which convulsed them in laughter. What humiliation.


1113. There is nothing so shameful for a wolf than to be caught, or even suspected of acting in a dog-like way. One can well imagine Otis' feelings at this time. He had no place in the wolf community to speak of, and now he had to humiliate himself  just to fulfill the one task that would give his wolfish existence a meaning.

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