The 1998 Puppies
                      by Pat Goodmann

Marian aka The Rotarian when nice, and The Barbarian when naughty, resembles her mother, Karin a lot. She was born here on April 20 to Karin and Seneca. She is smaller than the other pups, and more mature looking. Her proportions are closer to those of an adult and she is agile and usually graceful. She likes to hurtle at humans when we are in the enclosure and she often greets the audience by walking along the fence, ears back, slightly crouched, grinning and wagging her tail. She gets very excited at opportunities to interact with humans and she squeals like a tea kettle whistling when it's water boils hard. Towards the adult wolves she still shows a little defensive aggression, especially if an adult startles her. Like her mother she is prone to rush at a wolf being harassed by the others and bite it hard. At this point she still seems to be the dominant pup but the other three are testing her.

Maya is the only black pup in the foursome. She was born at Wolf Hollow. She has been pairing up for puppy games with Marion a lot, but the fact that they pair off for wrestling and general mayhem does not stop Maya from testing Marion's dominance. Maya is a quick learner and knows her Uncle Apollo is a soft touch for puppies. She also likes people and enjoys rubbing back and forth between their legs rather like a large cat.

Tristan and Erin are colored alike - brownish gray with lots of black ticking on their coats and spectacle markings on their faces which tend to make them look rather owl-eyed. At the time of this writing both, especially Tristan have faces that are, to put itkindly, dominated by their noses. Both are large and rather placid, bean-bag pups. Tristan has an especially thick, plushy coat, a characteristic we hope he takes into adulthood. He likes being cuddled by familiar people and petted by all and sundry. He has been known to fall asleep while being stroked by several pairs of human hands.

Erin is the least quick to approach new people but she can be induced to greet. She looks a lot like Tristan and we often have to do double takes to see which is which. Both Tristan and Erin have grown fast but they still look babyish at five months. Their legs are short relative to their bodies. Their knees and paws are enormous, even for wolves. Their noses are big and their tummies, well, will probably not always impart such a waddle to their gait...