Dog vs. Dog
Last may, hunting guide Scott Richards and friend Bryon Dunlap were training their bear dogs in central Idaho when a pack of wolves attacked. Richards tells the story:
We were driving to the other side of the canyon, where the dogs had treed a bear. We could hear them barking 400 yards away, but by the time we got there, it was dead quiet. We turned off the truck and listened. There was a weird bark that didn’t sound like any of our dogs, then a yelp that I knew came from one of mine. Bryon jumped out and ran down one ridge, and I ran down the other.

Through the timber I spotted a huge black wolf on top of my Blackey 12 feet away. I started screaming, and I grabbed a big stick and swung hard, but the tip hit a tree. When the wolf heard that crack, he dropped my dog and lunged at me. I turned to run uphill, so I couldn’t see what happened next, but I heard. Blackey started barking like crazy, and I realized, That dog is attacking the wolf. He was trying to save my life. This whole time, Bryon had three wolves on him and his two dogs, and he was fighting for his life with a stick.

I ran back up to the truck to get my firearm and the tracking box. When I turned around Bryon was in my face, screaming, “We got wolves! We got wolves!” I tuned into the missing dogs: Lady, then Blackey, then Halley. If a dog is motionless for five minutes, the box beeps just once every four seconds. It was the same for each one. I looked up and said, “They’re all dead.” I just about lost it. The guilt I feel for leaving my dog, people can’t understand.

I was still tuned into Halley, and suddenly the beeps came a little faster. I started running toward her; I thought the wolves would be dragging her off, but she was alive. Bryon wrapped her in his shirt, and we took her to the vet, who stitched her back together. She’s been sleeping in my house ever since, and she always will.

—as told to Catherine Dibenedetto