Are you prepared for the year of the Water Dragon?

Well we may be looking at the Chinese New Year of the Dragon in a few weeks but here in California we are celebrating the Year of the Wolf. It’s been 90 years since anybody saw a wolf in California but now we have a wolf from Idaho seeking fame and fortune in California.

With all the government regulations, only wild creatures like wolves get to roam at will even if they do have to wear the mandatory tracking devices like California’s newest transient OR7. In the old days, wolves were evil creatures who devoured livestock and small children. One of the marks of civilization was eliminating threats like wolf packs; so primitive, our forbears.

That was then.  This is now.

Wild wolves were exterminated from the West in the early 1900s because they were viewed as a threat to livestock. Biologists now recognize that wolves play an important role in managing deer and elk herds and, in turn, the forests they live in.

Now in the more enlightened and nuanced 21st century, it is humans who are seen as the threat. Civilization stops in its tracks because of some obscure snail or bird species and enlightened regulators shut down California agriculture because of some insignificant fish. You might think that Californians would take action to change this destructive course but the reality is that people that actually earn a living in the private sector in California are outnumbered by people who live on the dole- government employees and welfare recipients. The whole state is a Ponzi scheme sucking the life out of anybody stupid enough to work for a living. But I digress.

 So far so good!

So here in California, and specifically Northern California we all anticipate the return of the wolf. OR7 seems to be remarkably well behaved during his trek. There have been no attacks on livestock or small children along the way. Of course the scientists have kept track of him as he crossed Oregon and entered California, apparently looking for his own version of a California girl. So far so good. He may be happy in Siskiyou county where there aren’t many people. But I doubt it.

The experts think he is looking for female companionship but nobody seems to have thought about letting him range so far on this foolish quest. There aren’t any other wolves here, male or female. I see disaster in the future for OR7. He is either doomed to a long and lonely life or even worse, those unstoppable government busybodies will intervene and play dating game with OR7. It’s either a lonely future or an arranged marriage. I can’t believe the government will let OR7 die lonely. For California, it’s the year of the wolf.