Suzie

Suzie was my dog, she was a 3 year old wolf/husky mix and former sled dog. About a year after we moved to the Cabin one of my closest (as in miles) neighbors asked me if I wanted a husky, she'd heard of a woman over in Placerville with several sled dogs she needed to get rid of. The story was she was kenneling the dogs for her brother who was going through a divorce or something. She could no longer afford keep the dogs and he didn't want them sold because of the divorce. I figured sure, I have always loved Siberian Huskies and always wanted a wolf mix.
When we arrived she only had a few left. I fell in love with Suzie the minute I saw her, She was black with a little white and had that "wolf" look to her. Because she was giving them away I decided to take another dog, a male whose name was Buddy.
The woman told me when I got them home to immediately tie them up for at least three weeks, because if I didn't they would take off. Especially Suzie. If they got loose on 15 acres we would never seem them again.
Of course when I got them home, the first thing my then husband did was let her loose. And she was GONE with a quickness. I was so angry at him. I figured that was it I would never see her again. I was WRONG! (another prayer ansered)
A couple of days later we spotted her running around a ways from the cabin in the trees. We began putting food out for her in the area we had seen her. It took awhile, several months in fact, to get her closer to the cabin. Eventually she picked a spot just up the hill behind the Cabin. Once we got her that close we started moving the bowl of food closer and closer to the house. She was probably about 40 feet from the cabin so we moved the bowl right next to the house. At first she started just picking up the whole bowl and taking it to her spot. Finally I found a very heavy cast iron pan she couldn't lift so she began eating by the house, but would always run off if anyone got too close.
In this time she would make circles around the cabin just cruisin around checking everyone out. Eventually she started sitting and watching me and the kids when we were out front or down by the creek, getting close but not close enough to touch her. Because she was part wolf she very rarely barked. And because of her color she could 'sneak up' on you at night and you would see only her eyes which looked red in the darkness. She scared the heck out of my then husband and anyone else that was around at night.
I think she had been abused at one time and by a man, she was extremely leary of any males around, except the boys.
I don't know what it was but Suzie and I had this bond. It's like she knew what I was thinking. There would be times when I would go out front and sit on a stump to be alone. She was always be right there, not close enough for me to touch but enough to make eye contact. She would sit in her comfort zone and I could talk to her. I swear she could understand me. I use to think the Lord put her there to protect the kids and I and to be my confidant.
My husband during those years was a drug addict, his drug of choice was Crank, (methamphetamine). A nasty addictive drug that turns people into violent paranoids. And that's being nice! Anyway, there were times when he would be yelling at me and she would make this continual circle around the cabin. During the summer both the back and front doors where left open. She would look in the back door, go around to the front, look in and continue this until I guess she felt I was not in danger, or until the yelling and cursing stopped.
Jason was the first one to get her to eat from his hand. She was up in her usual spot, he was always sneakin around try to get her, she always managed to hear him and run off. One day he took a peice of fried chicken up to her spot and stood there, I think we had had her a little over a year at this point. He held it out and stood still. She ran up and snatched it out of his hand. He came yelling down the hill that she took food out of his hand. This continued for a month or so, she started with the snatching, then began to gently take food from each of us as she began to feel safer. Eventually she was at ease enough to let us lightly and very quickly pat her head. She would never stay still long enough to take a chance someone might grab her though. It took almost another year for her to feel safe enough and to trust me enough to let me actually pet her, not for long but more than just a pat on the head.
It took a lot of patience and a lot of time but eventually she allowed us to be 'her' pets :-) I always felt safe with Suzie around, not because she had shown she would actually do anything if anything did happen, it was just this gut feeling, or maybe the Holy Spirit telling me she would defend me and the kids if the need ever arose.
She proved this to be true a few months later. Like I had said previously because we were on 15 acres and because I was such a sucker for puppies, I had brought two pups home, Little Boy and Little Girl who I mentioned before. One day the kids were out playing with the pups and one of them jumped on Matthew and knocked him down. Out of no where her came Suzie flying across a log, she picked up the pup and flung it away from the kids. I was stunned! That pup never jumped on the kids again. She set the other animals straight when it came to the kids. It was at that point I knew for sure she would always be around if trouble or danger came around.