Heart Check

Hi Kurt,

Oh damn, you got me too. Thanks Kurt. Beautiful.

PS I clicked on the channel link from that video and found another great video. I had a feeling I'd like this one because of an experience I had. I was at the 'night safari' in Singapore five years ago - it's a wildlife park where the emphasis is on using enclosure methods that are hard to spot (EG if an animal needs a small wire fence to stop it attacking humans, they use that small wire fence but hide it from human view as much as possible - therefore it seems as if there is no fence/enclosure).

What struck me about what happened is that if someone else had related this story to me, I would have found it hard to understand why it was so moving - you might (like me) have to fully experience it yourself to understand the wonder of it.

Anyway, there were some Aussies mucking around a bit. When the wildlife park attendants were elsewhere, these guys were howling at these two wolves in order to encourage them to howl back. It worked. What struck me was the way these wolves throw their heads back in a kind of gut reaction - once they start howling, they get lost in the moment and do it with complete conviction and abandonment (just like a domesticated dog does when you encourage them - mine used to do it when I played my saxophone!)

Even better, the two wolves seemed to be competing with one another to see who could do the 'best' howl. Again, this appeared to be some kind of uncontrollable, innate response. At one point, they even started nipping each other in order to stop the one from doing a better howl than the other!

I'll never forget that experience. There was something almost indescribable about it that stopped me right in my tracks. It was only enhanced by the fact that it was night-time, there was no visible fence between me and them (and they were about 10-15 metres away from me) - plus the Aussies had disappeared and I was momentarily alone with these two howling, beautiful wolves who had lost all awareness of my presence and were doing what they do best - and unknowingly putting on a performance just for me.