Kids and Books

Weredogs have it hard in love.

Weredogs can marry other weredogs. But they cannot have kids. It is not that it is forbidden. It is just that it is not possible. The only way we can expand the weredog ranks is t recruit. 

This causes some weredogs a lot of remorse. Because we love kids. There is no better parent than a weredog. Many weredogs adopt kids. We love to teach kids. Many are teachers. We love to care for kids. Many weredogs are nurses.

It is easier for us to marry people and not other weredogs. The drawback is that eventually we have to disappear, because people age. We do not. I know many dogs who still lament a loved one they had to leave many years ago. Many a weredog broken heart rests on a love centuries gone.

Weredogs are also a somewhat literary bunch. We like to read. And we like to talk about reading, books, language, writing, character, plot, tension, conflict, setting, pacing, structure, style, voice, hooks and endings. One topic of common debate in recent years is whether the predators on the planet Rakhat, in Mary Doria Russel's book, The Sparrow, are canine or feline. The debate always seems spit, some wanting them to be dogs, and others, not comfortable with that idea, want them to be cats (because they are so evil), or anything other than dogs, for that matter. It is often suggested that if they are dogs, the mostly certainly they are wolves, or wolf-like. That always seems to settle it. 

Rex was a teacher. Over his many years he taught many other dogs and kids and young troops. And me. He taught me a lot.  I am still looking for Rex's killers. I am out most nights, at least part of each night, looking for wolf sign. I no longer mean to kill all wolves, just the wolves that killed Rex.

I think about Dionna, how she is, if she would help me. Would she help me find werewolves she knew I meant to kill, to settle a score. I have never known a wolf to betray its own kind. Nor have I ever known a weredog to do the same. But. There are stories. Rumors. Myths. I have no idea what is true, less so know that I have smelled Dionna. I can still remember her scent.

Fresh meat.