Hat Trick [S]

Founding Member of The Sanctuary Pack

Personality: Painfully shy, Hat Trick is a clever, observant, social animal, but almost always too nervous to make use of those skills. That her manners are somewhat offputting doesn't help; like Finch, she just doesn't know many of the basic social cues other wolves learn from puppyhood. Her shyness and strange mannerisms keep her at paw's length from the rest of the pack.

Naming Conventions: The third pup in a litter of three, Hat Trick was named after the hockey term for scoring three goals. She does not know this, because she does not know what hockey is.

Raised in captivity as part of a study on wolf socialization, Hat Trick was taken from her mother at 4 days old, still blind and helpless. Her every need from that moment on was met by a single woman:

Anita.

Anita spent nearly every hour of the day with Trick; carried her in a pouch before she was old enough to walk, hand-fed her every meal, slept beside her every night.

Trick’s earliest memory is deep in her blind puppyhood: the sound of Anita’s gentle voice, the curious birdlike rise-and-fall of human speak. Her perfume-smell; sweet and floral and human-artificial. Her hand, warm and gentle on Trick’s back, patting her until her hiccups stopped, and she fell back into deep, unbroken sleep.

She was safe. She was cared for. She learned from Anita like any wolf learns from its parent; to follow cues, to understand her gestures. Anita walked her on-leash, brought her to work, stuck with her around the house. Trick was never alone.

But there was, always, the creeping sense of loneliness; Trick wasn’t stupid. It was obvious she was different than Anita; was different, even, then the dogs they sometimes met on walks, that Anita always hustled them away from before Trick could get a closer look. Trick greeted Anita with a low head, tail-wagging, jumping, nipping, face-licking- it never occurred to her not to. It felt natural. But  Anita would push her down- even turn away, even leave, if Trick was particularly excited to see her. Trick learned to tone herself down; to act less like a wolf. To read Anita, to understand her, never to lick, or jump, or nip.

So when Anita, one morning, crouched down and took Trick in her arms, and rubbed her neck and made low, sad noises, Trick understood her, a little. Knew that something was wrong.

She was taken to a new place; there were other wolves there. Adolescents, like her, who looked like her– who frightened her. Trick greeted them the way she had learned from Anita; the other wolves found her cold, and strange, and ignored her. Among her kind, she was lonelier than ever, and even got into the occasional fight when the other wolves misread her signals. 

Weeks passed. A month. Two. And still, Anita didn’t visit.

Rover of The Sanctuary Pack stumbled across Trick during one fight; she reported back about this strange, skinny, unhappy wolf. Pack Leader Seven was concerned; Pack Member Finch was furious. A former pet wolf, he assumed Trick was bound for the same unhappy life he had led, under human supervision.  He took off on his own, intending to rescue Hat Trick all by himself. 

The pack caught up with him on the border of their territory, and together managed to rescue Trick from her enclosure, and welcome her into The Sanctuary Pack.

Hat Trick is grateful for their help, but she can’t help feeling she’d abandoned Anita, somehow. If she’d only stuck around… maybe Anita would have come back for her. 

Lacking social skills or experience with the wild, Trick is shy and reserved among the other wolves, and hasn’t managed to get close to anyone in The Sanctuary Pack. She’s lost everything familiar and comfortable- lost her best friend, lost her only friend- and has been thrust into a scary new world, where she doesn’t know, and can’t ‘read’ anybody. And even though Finch and Seven say they understand– it’s hard. How could it not be hard?

But Trick is smart, and resourceful. She’s a good hunter already. And maybe if she meets the right wolf, she can learn to connect with, to understand, her packmates, and finally be free of the loneliness that’s hunted her all her life.

[tag by mars, user #9304]