Tracking Skills

We were tracking neos last night through some woods that were not all that dense. But the ground was heavily layered with leaves and decay. Makes tracking a bit more challenging.

At one point Caitlyn, who was lead tracker at the time, said, "Shit," then said, "Sorry," then, "Look at this." I and Warin went forward to her and looked down to where she pointed.

The paw tracks she had bee following turned abruptly into boot tracks. "What the hell?" she said, shaking her head at me.

It's an old trick, switching from paws to boots to feet, and back to paws. It can throw off an inexperienced weretracker, but not one who knows what he or she is looking for.

I showed her where they, two of them, had stopped, shifted, and put on boots. I told her it was likely that they would switch to feet at some point up ahead, if we did not lose their trail, and to stay alert.

"I know, I know," she said, beating me to the punch, "The world needs more lerts."

"We've been spending too much time together," I said. She pouted at me.

We kept on, going slower, listening intently. I had my .40 out. I was watching her almost as much as I was watching the ground. She has learned well. Her skills are mounting. But she has yet to kill. There is no way to know how she will handle that when it happens, and it will happen, given our increased tempo of ops against neos. No contacts lately. But there will be.

The tracks terminated at a dirt road and tire tracks. A truck had picked them up.

On the drive back Caitlyn started talking about the weregirls. 2 in particular she likes, Lena and Wilda. Caitlyn asked if we could bring them into the pack.

"We don't even bring adult werewolves into the pack, girl, only for special visits and meetings," I said. Besides, I told her, we don't even know their situation, especially with the man, their "father."

Figuring out that situation, especially the dad, is another thing to add to my ToDo list, which is already overloaded.

I hope Caitlyn does OK in school today. I had her out late last night. But she seems tireless.

Wolves Off ESA

Wolves are off the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Many werewolves are worked up about this, howling about it, asking why they should be working and fighting alongside weredogs to fight a new species bent on erasing homo sapiens, the species that seem bent on wiping out all other species.

A dog spoke to our pack recently about the concept of "Wildlife Trust Doctrine." I had a hard time following her, but the jist of it seems to be that any state has a duty to protect it people and its resources and common heritage. Wildlife has no owners but belongs in trust to all citizens, in common. The state also cannot abrogate this duty, or it breaks trust with its people.

The broader fear of weredogs, and many people, is that if this common duty and trust is broken with wildlife, then it will be also with wilderness. Weres agree with many people that human culture is suffering from a "nature deficit disorder" (Richard Louv), being more and more disconnected with nature, and that it is having very damaging effects on humanity.

Kids are playing outside less and staying indoors more to play at video games and other types of computers. This is having negative effects on their health, physiologically and psychologically.

People who have a connection with nature better understand biodiversity, which is tied to the survival of everything, every species, the entire planet.

Being in and connecting with nature is essential for our health. The key benefit for all hunters, fishermen, climbers, hikers, paddlers, you name it, is being in nature. Nature is a tonic. It soothes our savage spirits.

So, ironically, all those ranchers and other wolf haters that compare the wolf to a modern T Rex (which is almost as funny as it is ridiculous) are vilifying more than just wolves, but the entirety of the wilderness upon which they stake their lives.

Werewolves are getting riled about this and that is another thing to worry about.

Weregirls

Caitlyn introduced me to a family of weregirls that lives not far from me, here in suburbia. One of the more odd things about this family is that their father is not a were. He is fully human. They have no mother, which is good, because she would be a werewomyn. Werewomyn are a distinct sect of werewolves, all females and adamantly anti-male, and females who consort with males. They do not interact with other werewolves, or anyone, for that matter, except to breed, usually with humans. They tend to live in remotes wilderness areas.

There are five of these weregirls, all in high school. I think they all are the same grade and age. I told Caitlyn to keep a nose on them, to let me know if she smells any trouble hanging around them that might require us to intervene and help them out.

The father is also an Special Forces vet. I cannot let him know that I am also or problems will arise. If we start sharing service dates and places we've been to and names of guys were served with, he will figure out that I am too young for it to make sense. This is why I have never joined the SFA, and have always wished I could.

I have never heard of a human raising, or even living with, werewolves. Need to find out what the story is with these pups and this guy.

Ancient Were Tactics

Humans have no idea how many other species they owe for ideas they claim as their own, tactics in particular.

In the 2nd Great Were War, a little over 2 million years ago, weredogs and werewolves, in armies of hundreds of thousands, just hurled themselves at each other and had at it. It was simply a matter of getting into the thick of it, killing as many of the enemy as you could and not getting killed yourself.

Weredogs somehow stumbled upon an edge in these battles. They started going into these fights as small packs, 3 to 4 weredogs, and fighting together, cover each other's backs, creating small redoubts from where they fought until the fighting was done. It was not long before the werewolves countered and started using the same tactic.

Weredogs countered by making the small packs larger, squad-sized, 10 to 12 dogs. And they came up with other variations that allowed them to move, to fight and drive like a wedge into the enemy. The wolves countered. So the dogs countered, increasing the size of these battle-packs to 25 to 30. Soon it was 100. Then flanking attacks became all the rage.

Eventually mankind imitated these tactics. Of course, that has all been forgotten, who first taught mankind about squad-sized and company-sized battle field tactics.

The wedge formation came from birds.

Just setting the record straight. Again.

Brits Killing Pets for Payouts

Weredogs in Britain are a bit riled up. A new British fad is people killing their pets for pet insurance payouts. The insurance industry reports that pet insurance fraud was over $30 million last year, in 2010, up from $670,000 in 2009. Many Brit weredogs are pissed, and I don't mean inebriated.

Mankind Less Violent

Recently, I went to hear a lecture by a man named Steven Pinker who published a book recently wherein he claims that mankind has been getting progressively less violent over the past 15,000 years.

Pinker's book is titled: "Better Angels of Our Nature." In this book he uses data and evidence, going back 15,000 years, to support his claim that man has gotten less violent over that time.

I think Prof. Pinker needs to get out more.

I, as one who has lived over 200 years, and has lived throughout many wars, and periods of peace, can assure anyone who is curious that mankind is not becoming less violent.

Any other opinions?

Yonatan

An old friend is in town, staying with me. He is much older than me. I love to hear his stories, has fought in many wars and battles, large and small. But few stay with him still as much as the day Yonatan Netanyahu died.

Yonatan was the only casualty of the Israeli commando rescue force that on June 27, 1976, pulled off the classic Entebbe Raid and rescued over 100 hostages, 83 of whom were Israelis. It is a classic in the annals of special operations. Yonatan was also the commander of Operation Entebbe.

My friend, Marek, was on that raid. He had a strong bond with Yonatan and faults himself for Yonatan's death. This is odd and uncommon amongst weredogs, especially one who has seen so many centuries and wars.

Marek, being a weredog, is not Jewish. But he is very comfortable around  Jews and like to play the role of Jew and has done so in several of his human phases. He wishes he had been at Massada and claims to have once known a weredog who was there. I don't have all the details of that dog but suspect there are deeper issues that have to do with his attachment to Judaism and his guilt over Yonatan's death.

Each, regardless of where he is or which phase he is in, he goes to a synagogue and grieves for Yonatan. Several times, during human phases, he has traveled to Jerusalem for this grieving.

I have known, and know, many weredogs who identify with one human religion or another. This is odd when you consider that weredogs are not religious. We are not naturally drawn to religion on our own, but only through human associations. And you could never get two weredogs to agree on anything having to do with religion. However, such discussions do not much involve disagreements about doctrine and digressions and as they do the smells of churches, how the people and spaces feel to them, and the timbre of truth in the voices of pastors and priests. I wonder if it is any different with people.

Werewolves despise human religion. They believe that churches and clergy screw up man's search for higher power, and that the best place to connect with any higher power is anywhere that you can see the full moon at night.

Marek is joining Caitlyn and I this week for some patrols and surveillances, and a pack meeting that has promised road-kill BBQ, one of my few weaknesses. Ever wonder what happens to all the roadkill that you see on the sides of roads, and then you don't? Probably it winds up in the belly of weredogs, or werewolves.

Loneliness and Solitude

I am smelling and seeing more isolated people. I see them on streets and in offices and in stores. Their scent is distinct, the sour smell of isolation and apathy.

Dogs are good with solitude. Wolves are even better. But both can die from loneliness. Both need a pack to survive. People need a pack or family or tribe.

Most people have lost the ability to be alone, in solitude. But many people are dreadfully and desperately alone. There is a difference between solitude and loneliness.

Solitude, for a person, means being away from people. Loneliness means being disconnected from people. One can be lonely in a crowd. For solitude one must be away from people.

Every pack has side-projects, such as trying to bring a rogue or lone weredog back into the fold, into their pack. My pack currently has 2 it is trying to bring back in. 1 is a weredog who I have known several times in my centuries, but who I have never really known at all.

Loneliness is different from solitude. Extended loneliness wounds and carves the soul. Solitude nourishes the soul. One can be in solitude and not be lonely. And one can be lonely within a crowd or large city.

Loneliness goes against the survival instinct. 50,000 years ago being alone meant death. In today’s over-populated world solitude seems to be the opposite, people fear it, but they need it on a subconscious level. This a main reason why people fish, hunt, climb, do things that get them out of cities and into the woods, deserts and mountains, places that remind their primal selves that they can survive outside cities, that cities are relatively new and modern constructs.

Neos are the exception. We are finding that they are incapable of loneliness, that they crave isolation, that they are repelled by connection with others, even of their own kind, other neos. This is a weakness we can exploit.

Weredog Killed

A weredog was shot yesterday, killed in a park in Olathe. The shooter is unknown, not a were, but possibly a neo. The weredog who was shot and killed was a well known and well liked dog in the KC packs. His name was Jerod.

We are looking into it. Much of the factors of this don't make sense. It was in broad daylight. The shooter is an unknown, but had a gun while walking a dog. The other dog is a non-were mastiff. And the police report claims that Jerod was running around loose and attacking people and other dogs in the area. Jerod would never have done that. This was a set-up.

But there have been concerns about Jerod lately, over the past year. Last time I saw and spoke to him at a grand pack meeting he did not seem himself. Over a year ago he left his family with whom he had been with for 8 years. It was time for him to switch to human phase. He had hard times this time around as human, for some reason I could not ascertain. He bounced between a few jobs and, worse, lived alone.

Living alone can be a blessing or a curse. But weredogs generally need companionship, to have someone or someones in the same house, or whatever, when they lay down to sleep at night. Loneliness was wearing Jerod down. But he seems to have chose it. And we have no idea why.