Although our family had lots of pets over the years, Wolfer was our big family dog. He was almost just like one of the family.
We got Wolfer on my ninth birthday in 1970. Wolfer died in the spring of 1979.
He was the type of dog that you would call a “mutt”, having about ten different breeds in him. He was a very colorful, smart, and a very strong dog.
When Wolf was a pup, the neighbor’s dog, a German shepherd, used to pick on Wolf a lot. One time, the dog put a great big hole in Wolf’s head, just above his eye. He had a scar there the rest of his life. I always felt the Wolf learned how to fight from the dog, because when Wolf grew up, he was always getting into dog fights and won most of them.
There was on time, Wolf was fighting a big, black lab. Wolf was beating that dog up pretty good. The lab’s owner, who was a little boy, was crying, so I went to pull wolf off when the black lab bit me on the leg. When Wolf saw that, he jumped at the dog and got a death bite on the dog’s neck and started swinging the dog back and forth. Wolf finally let go and the dog took off down the street with his tail between his legs.
Wolfer always kept stray dogs and cats away. We never had any problems with dogs getting into our garbage.
Wolf was a very smart dog. If a door wasn’t shut tight, he could open it. You couldn’t tie him up, he would always get away. We went through a lot of chains and ropes that Wolfer broke trying to get away.
One time, Clyde (our brother-in-law) thought that he would out-smart Wolf by putting a choke chain on him (a chain that when you pull it, it gets tighter.) But Wolf out-smarted him. Wolf would just back out, and the chain slipped right over his head.
One time, Buffie (our nephew) wandered off to a barn a couple of blocks away from our house. Wolf, who was watching him, knew he was someplace where he shouldn’t be and came back home, got mom, then lead her to where Buffie was.
Another time we were swimming at our favorite place at Hyrum Dam called Rocky Point. Wolf noticed some birds in the middle of the dam on a “thing” the city had out there trying to clean the dam. Wolf jumped in and started swimming towards those birds. We all followed on our inner-tubes. When Wolf got to the place where the birds were, they all flew away. All of us kept on paddling towards the other side, and Wolf followed. After we got to the other side, we went back to the side where Rocky Point was at, and Wolf followed. (We did give him a chance to rest before we started back.)
Wolf was a very fast runner and loved to run. Whenever we would go in the car over to Sara’s house, Wolfer would race us over. Sara’s house was about three blocks away and Wolfer would usually beat us there.
There was only one person that Wolfer really disliked, and that was our neighbor Marty Smith. He was the only one I knew of that Wolfer had bitten.
On night, Marty and some of his friends were toilet papering our house. Wolfer was locked in our garage. Dad heard them outside and let Wolf out of the garage. The first thing Wolf did was he went and grabbed Marty by and arm and held him there while Dad chased the others away. Marty said that every time he tried to make a move to get away, Wolfer would make his grip tighter and bite down harder.
Wolfer loved to get bumble bees trapped in the garage against the window. He would jump up and lick them until the bees were dead.
Wolf did get into a lot of trouble with the police. One time he went through some people’s fiber glass garage door trying to get to a dog that was in heat. Mom and Dad ended up paying for the door.
Wolfer was the only dog I knew that got tickets from the police. He used to love to chase police cars.
Wolfer was the best dog our family ever had. He’s a dog that no other dog will ever be able to replace.
[Some of my memories of Wolf include my mom chasing him out of the house with a broom. She didn't like him in the house. A few days later for family home evening we were reenacting scenes on treating others with kindness, and a couple us kids pretended to be my mom with the broom and Wolf being chased.
Another memory is the way he use to chase us when we went anyplace. He would often follow us to Hyrum square. Sometimes when we were in the pickup, we would stop and let him jump in the back. He loved the wind in his face. But often he would beat us down to the square which was a mile away.]
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