DANCE WITH THE WOLF
By Melissa Miller

There had been many dogfights in Alaska.

Who was the blame for them?

of course!

Fang was!

They didn’t care if he was or not. They told Lea many times; "You have to get rid of that dog of yours!" But Lea always ignored them. She didn’t see why they didn’t think that there was any problem with their dogs.

Fang was a perfect dog nothing was wrong with him. He was perfectly healthy and strong like most dogs. Fang lived on a barnyard. He was a wolf like any other and he did whatever he wanted. There was no doubt or rule for him, In fact there were some people who feared him and never shooed him off. He did what he wanted and didn’t fear doing anything. He was a wolf and there was nothing that would stop him except the township. They were the only ones who hated him and they decided many times that they wanted to kill him. Lea was the only one who protected him and kept him clean and healthy.

She also kept him in great shape. "Here Fang." She said, "Here is your bone, boy." She said. Fang didn’t listen and picked up his bone. He didn’t feel like playing or anything right now. Many times Fang had tried to run away but Lea always caught him. Lea cared about Fang ever since he was a pup. He was not playful anymore and seemed not to care much for her. He didn’t even look at her. So she decided to let him go and now he was free. But he didn't came back.

Lea decided to go looking for her dog because she missed him.

To her surprise he was with the wolves. The leader didn’t accept him. She never would disturb the pack, so she hid behind a wide birch tree. In her red Eskimo jacket, she shivered in the cold.

Fang slept with the pack that night. Lea took out fish and ate it. But it was not a full meal and the fish was cold. Lea ate it anyway. She was so cold she looked in her pack to see if there was a blanket. She found it in her grandmother’s living room after she died. It was hand woven. Lea was only fifteen when she got Fang and now she was twenty-one years old.

Chapter 2
In the morning the rest of the wolf pack was gone. Fang was stressed out and Lea tried making him have something to eat. But he just laid there. Lea hoped he wasn’t sick because he was the only mushing dog left for her.

So she led up Fang and took him to town. Fang pulled into town. People hid into their houses as Fang passed by. Kids were taken away by their parents when they tried to pet him. A girl dog walked past Fang. He stared at her. Lea told him to keep walking. He tried to look flashy but all of them said "hum!" And fwoofed their tails across his nose. Fang just sighed.

He waited outside till Lea came and got him and brought him to the vet. Dr. Veioncola said that he was just " stressed out". "He needs someone his breed to play with, like a girl." Suggested the doctor. "First of all let’s look at his mother’s breed. What did you say breed she was?"

"Wolf." Said Lea.

"Wolf?" Said the doctor. "Are you serious?"

"Why yes, yes, I am." Said Lea, Looking for his mother’s document.

Fang stepped outside. He sighed again. Then he heard music. It was like hearing drums of war. Fang started jumping up in to the air and leaping to the beat! Lea came back out with his mother’s document. She clipped his leash to his collar and they walked past the Indian music. Fang still leapt back to the music. But Lea still pulled his leash.

When they returned to their cabin in the woods, they went right inside. Again Fang just laid down and sighed. Everything was just like it was before. Fang was stressed out and the house was filled with warmness. Lea sat in her rocking chair and started over what had been done before.

Chapter 3.
Lea was awake in bed that night, thinking about Fang. While back in town people were talking about the wolf dog.

"Maybe we should kill him! " Some said.

"No he didn’t do anything to us." Said another person.

Fang looked out the window and sighed. Lea was very anxious about him. Fang decided to go outside. Lea let him out. When he got out in the yard he lay on the porch. Nothing that seemed to lighten up the sky cheered Fang up. He just lay there.

Lea had to go to town again to go shopping, so she left on her way to the town. Fang followed her. They came to the sign: NOME, Lea was heading into town while Fang was sniffing along the way.

They came to the stoop while everyone stared at the wolf dog. They knew what he was all about. He was wolf, vicious! They did not care and as soon as they saw him they gasped. The other dogs growled and soon there was a dogfight. Fang, growling at the dog, attacked him scratching, biting and clawing the dog almost to death. Soon the fight was over.

Lea came out and when she saw Fang bloody like a killer she screamed and knew she was in trouble now. Fang also knew it too. She didn’t know what to do with herself. Fang hadn’t killed the dog, but it would have been dead if he wasn’t stopped by Lea. Fang would never be able to come back to Nome again.

“Let's kill him!” Said the people of Nome.

"No let’s sell him to the pound."

Lea wanted to get out of there. She forgot all about Fang and ran back toward home. Fang was left alone in the bad crowd of Nome, Alaska.

He would probably die there. But that song played again. Fang heard it and then he started dancing again leaping ,hopping and jumping along to the beat. He was dancing and liking it. Lea turned around and saw him dancing in the crowd. She turned around and ran back to go get him.

Then Fang saw her, the girl dog. She ran toward the dog that she saw, Fang. They danced together running and leaping around to the music. Then Lea took him to the house. Fang stopped dancing to the music on the way home. Fang was again bored and the day was turning into dusk. Fang dropped into his bed and sighed again. He soon fell asleep and Lea was more concerned about him that night than ever. " He’s gone bored again I see. I don’t know what to do with him anymore. He seemed to like that music a lot, and it didn’t make him sad or anything. “Maybe that’s what I need to get, a record player.” Thought Lea.

Fang loved that music and that night he dreamed about it, He dreamed about everything that happened that day. But the weird thing about his dream was that there was a wolf in his dream that danced to the music also. He was dancing with the wolf and then all the people of Alaska were watching them.

Then he woke up and it was morning, Lea was still sleeping. Fang went outside and ran all the way back to Nome. The girl dog was there. He heard her name as they stared at each other.

"Here Jasmine, Here girl." Said her master.

Fang stared at her, then he stopped and ran back to his house and looked for Lea.

She was working in the garden. "Hey boy, Where were you, I woke up and you were gone." Said Lea. Fang just stared at what was behind her as she worked in the garden.

Chapter 4
Fang stared and stared. Finally he stopped staring and growled instead. He growled and barked. Lea asked him what was wrong. Then she was seeing what Fang was staring at and growling. It was a humongous bear. When she saw him she ran into the house while Fang fought the bear. He grabbed onto the bear’s arm with his teeth and made it bleed. Finally the bear gave up and wandered away. Lea ran out to see if Fang was all right. There was not a mark. And so Lea stayed in the house for the rest of the day, scared that the bear might come back.

Chapter 5
Fang and Lea went to town again for Fang’s check-up again. They waited for the doctor’s attention. Fang waited out side and soon the music played again, this time it didn’t stop. And Fang kept dancing. People were still mad at Fang for nearly killing that dog.

They knew he would have to die. So one of them took a gun and went outside and shot at Fang. Fang ran and ran. The men followed him and tried to corner him, but Fang was too fast. He dodged every corner, and jumped every shot. Until there was a corner that Fang could not dodge, and so he was trapped. They took a shot and missed, then took another shot and he went down. Lea came out running down the corner and saw him down. He wasn’t dead yet but he would die.

"Boy, that dog did love that music." Said one of the people of Nome.

"No, I never would give him a chance. He caused too much trouble here." Said the man that shot him.

Finally the town cop came to the corner and saw the dog dead. He looked at the man that shot him and said: "All right sir, you’re under arrest!" And he took him to jail.

Lea wept by the dog’s body. She remembered the good times they had and it made her cry worse. He had saved her from a grizzly bear and cheered her up when she was sad. She was sad for a few days and weeks.

And then she visited the grave of him. They put a statue in the middle of Lea’s lawn to honor the wolf-dog.

He would never be seen again.

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