Walking with his two dogs on familiar trails near the Duluth International Airport around dusk last Thursday, Jim Stukel, Duluth resident and owner of Tortoise & Hare Footwear, had a close encounter with Canis lupus, or more correctly, Canis lupii.

Actually, it was Stukel’s dogs, Rugby and Cricket, who had even closer encounters. “Rugby and Cricket are Australian Shepherds, herding dogs, so I like to find places where they can run ‘off leash’. I don’t like to give away all of my secrets, but there are some snowmobile trails just north of the airport that are perfect for this,” Stukel explained. “We’ve been going there for years, and other than the occasional skunk or deer, we’ve never had any problems.”

After both dogs disappeared into the woods that Friday evening, only Cricket returned. Stukel, sensing something was wrong, sent Cricket back into the woods to find her brother. Stukel continued, “Cricket was in there for only a minute then came charging out faster than I’ve ever seen her run before, and at first I thought it was Rugby behind her, but I quickly noticed it was a pair of wolves right on her tail. She brought them right to me.”

Stukel starting yelling and charging the wolves, “I can’t remember what I said, but they turned-tailed and headed back into the woods.” After that, he put Cricket back on leash and for the next hour and a half, they started grid-searching the area for Rugby. “Upon reflection, I realize that there’s a good chance that Cricket distracting the wolves at that moment gave Rugby some lead time for escaping; she may have very well saved his life.”

“I was looking for any signs of a struggle. I had the sense, by Cricket looking nervously to the side, that there was a wolf (or wolves) circling around us, just out of sight. We would actually moved towards them to let them know we were onto their game.”
 With night descending, no flashlight and no real protection for himself, save a couple of rocks, Stukel and Cricket headed back to the car, “ I drove slowly along the road looking for  Rugby but there was no sign of him.”

Arriving home, Stukel told his family what had occurred. “My son, Matt, went back and left a family coat close to the trail, so if Rugby came out he would smell the familiar scent of family and stay nearby.” They all agreed that they would return the next morning and search some more.  Stukel’s sons had to go to school, so a friend joined him in the search at 7 am Friday morning.

“For three hours we probably grid-searched a couple of miles, walking you know, 75 feet away from each other back and forth going west, coming back east. Even though it was like looking for a straw colored needle in a haystack, we actually found signs of a struggle, with several tufts of hair, which looked more like wolf hair than Rugby’s. We didn’t seen any birds circling indicating a carcass. This gave us hope.

The unsung hero in this cautionary tale is an employee of the AAR aircraft maintenance base who found a beat-up Rugby staggering on Martin Road. “Rugby spilled out of the exact trail that Cricket was trying to lead me to before we had to abandon our search last night.”

“It was foggy, and the good samaritan was worried that Rugby was going to get hit. He pulled over and they made fast friends. He could see Rugby was badly injured so he drove him to the emergency veterinary clinic.”
“At about 10 am, my wife, Mary called,” Stukel continued, “and told me that a non-neutered injured male dog had just brought in to Animal Allies. He was not yet identified.

Mary Stukel finished the tale, “A good friend of ours, Kim Traen-Madill,  is a vet tech at Airport Animal Hospital; Kim is also a dog trainer.  After hearing what happened to Rugby, Kim decided to join the search, so she cancelled a dog training appointment that morning, explaining to her client Rugby’s story.  It just so happened that Kim’s client’s daughter works at Animal Allies so when Rugby came through the doors, she called her Mom, her Mom called Kim,  Kim called me and I called Jim! Jim went over to Animal Allies and identified Rugby right away.”

In spite of the happy ending to this tale,  with “Miracle Dog” Rugby reunited with his family; that lucky dog still had to be shaved from stem to stern, is currently on three medications and had to be treated for nearly eighty bite wounds and five broken ribs.

Regardless of your opinion as to whether it should be Federal or State Agencies determining wolf management, or whether on not wolves should be classified as “endangered” or merely “threatened,” please remember that while you’re enjoying the trails and abundant wilderness of the Northland, be aware that it is more that just Little Red who has close encounters with the fabled, and potentially lethal, wolf.