Launches With Wolves
A Minnesota man has discovered a new way to levitate: Crawl under a deck and meet a 105 pound gray wolf.
THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minn. - Mike Olson had been working under his dad's deck for about 20 minutes when he realized he wasn't alone. "I cocked my head back, and I saw those two eyes looking at me," Olson said of the Monday encounter. "I got out real fast."
Olson had seen what he thought was a gray wolf. "It was probably 6 feet away," he said. "It was just laying down. It had its head up and was just looking at me."
Olson and his dad, Erling, called the police, who responded expecting to find a large, wolf-like dog beneath the deck.
"They put their head under the deck, and sure enough, it was a wolf," said Craig Mattson, deputy chief for the Thief River Falls Police Department.
When they were unable to remove the wolf, they removed a board and shot the animal. The wolf appeared to be suffering from mange. Long time readers will, of course, recognize what this means. It isn't just alligators who have learned the art of camouflage. Now we have wolves disguised as decks. We strongly recommend taking a chainsaw to the deck out behind your house right away. Better safe than sorry. Don't worry, you'll be able to explain it to your spouse, possibly without being involuntarily committed!
By mikem, Wednesday, 9 May , 2007 @ 5:17 pm
I would still be screaming. Holy smokes.
By Gaius, Wednesday, 9 May , 2007 @ 6:54 pm
Note to self, wear brown trousers when crawling under deck.
By Bleepless, Wednesday, 9 May , 2007 @ 7:15 pm
My deck’s okay. The neighbors aren’t too happy with my chainsaw, however, even though I keep pointing out that they now have lots of unexpected firewood. Some people are so picky.
By BlogDog, Thursday, 10 May , 2007 @ 7:22 am
Why didn’t the wolf just huff and puff and blow the deck down?
By Susan M. Shunkwiler, Monday, 14 May , 2007 @ 11:52 am
What ashame the wolf was shot to death. While I understand the majority of the people’s fear of wolves. I believe it was inhuman to just kill it because it appeared to have mange. This wolf obviously wasn’t trying to hurt the man who had been working under the deck for 20 minutes. Why didn’t they just shoot him with a tranquilizer gun and treat him for his condition and then release him to where he would be allow to be free?. Why is it so many people feel killing is the answer ?.
This breaks my heart.
Susan M. Shunkwiler
West Columbia, SC
By Gaius, Monday, 14 May , 2007 @ 12:23 pm
They may not have had the equipment, it sounds from the story like they only had rudimentary animal handling equipment. They couldn’t just leave it there, either.