BadPaw [Ice Edition]

By Jo Lee

★★★The Feel Good Film Festival Screenplay Semi-Finalist!★★★                   ★★★Now with colour illustrations!★★★

ICE EDITION: Set in the Northern Rockies, the grey wolf species is to be delisted from the En

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oculus Publications
• Release date: Jun 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781639441129

Book preview

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all whom work tirelessly

to make this planet a better place.

WESTERN WATERSHEDS PROJECT (WWP)

Once spread across much of the North American continent, wolves have been largely eradicated by government predator control programs and ranchers to facilitate widespread

livestock production on western landscapes.

Please visit for more info and to donate: www.westernwatersheds.org/2020/02/help-us-save-wolves-in-idaho/

Want to say hello?

www.facebook.com/badpaw66

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My family for all the support.

Mair Perkins for the front cover.

(www.mairperkins.co.uk)

Donna Mintey for illustrations:

(www.donnamintey.com)  

Dale L. Roberts, the self-publishing guru and my mentor for going above and beyond.

(www.selfpublishingwithdale.com)

Author Michael Vincent for the foreword

The Western Watershed Project for everything you do.

(www.westernwatersheds.org)

FOREWORD

This is a beautiful little book. A story well told and delightfully illustrated throughout. A story with a serious message in presenting us with an all-too-familiar scenario today: the exploitation and destruction of innocence in the name of so-called progress which in reality means greed and personal profit. Badpaw, a sweet and lonely wolf pup with an injured paw seeking compassion and comfort and finding it in young Holly, the daughter of a profiteering rancher in the Northern Rockies mountain range in Idaho, USA, responsible alongside his friends for the persecution and destruction of these beautiful creatures...but all is not lost for the wolf or humanity as compassion is found and love prevails. Yes, an excellent story for children which carries a message that all humanity must now heed: wake up and begin to care for this precious Earth and all who live upon her.

— Michael Vincent: author of 'Self Enquiry: On Being You. A Journey into Truth.'

Lost

IT WAS A LATE SUMMER’S DAY IN IDAHO, when a lonesome wolf pup limped along the mountain-face of the Northern Rocky Mountains. One of his forelegs was raised and his bloody paw was curled up to keep it off the rough and rocky ground. The afternoon wind pounded this adorable ball of fluff and the long howl of the wind frightened him.

He was all alone.

‘Where are you, Mommy?’ he thought as he painfully hopped down the dangerous, slippery mountain.

The pup finally made it to the foot of the mountain and carefully hopped from rock to rock across a fast-flowing stream to the riverbank on the other side

His wet nose searched the riverbank, sniffing every gap for a little mouse or vole; he was so hungry! He stopped at a floodplain and lapped the cool, fresh water.

A drop of blood fell from his paw, plopped into the water and turned the water a cloudy-red when a vole dashed out from under a nearby rock.

He gave chase, but the very instant he placed his curled, bloody paw onto the ground he yelped in pain.

How was this injured pup ever going to survive without food, let alone during the ever-looming presence of the cold, harsh winter?

What or who could save this lonely, frightened little pup...?

Paw prints Paw prints Paw prints

At the foot of the Sawtooth Mountain range, in a small town named Stanley, small river valleys drained from the unspoiled wilderness into the crystal-clear Salmon River.

In a small courtroom, angry livestock farmers and activists argued from opposite sides of the hall and were arguing over the wolf population.

The livestock farmers cared only about their cows and sheep, yet for the activists, they cared about the poor wild wolves.

You see, the activists cared for the wolves because they were endangered which meant that there wasn’t many of them left and their small numbers meant that one day, they may become extinct just like the dinosaurs.

‘We breed the finest livestock, and those savages are killing them!’ said Jack the livestock farmer as his face burned with anger.

‘Killing our livelihood, I tell you!’ shouted an old, crazy, grey-bearded farmer with yellow teeth.

The smartly dressed judge sat between the two sides and banged his wooden gavel hard like a hammer.

‘Order! Order!’

An angry activist waved his Earth Justice sign. ‘They’re an endangered species; the very spirit of our land.’

Jenny stepped up to the microphone with a W.W.P. sign. She put on her spectacles to read from her papers. ‘Jenny Hanson, from the Western Watershed Project. Years back we had virtually none; no wolves. The Program worked tirelessly for many years to restore critical numbers, yet ironically, come this winter, these magnificent creatures will be free to be hunted and slaughtered again to close extinction.’

The judge peered down at his papers. ‘Thirty percent to be exact.’

Jenny recalls from her memory. ‘Two-hundred-and-twenty to be exact.’

Jack interrupted. ‘They don’t stick to the valleys and thickets. Who wouldn’t protect their homes from a threat?’

Fellow farmers nodded in agreement.

‘We’re finding them in the valleys and thickets, shot, trapped, poisoned, hunted. It’s against the law!’ replied Jenny.

Jack proudly buffed his belt buckle with the cuff of his shirt. The hunting scene reflected the light in the room. ‘Not for long. Anyway, under the section 10j rule: any wolf that preys on my stock, I’ll be able to shoot it.’ Farmers cheered in favour of Jack.

‘Shoot, I tell you!’ shouted Greybeard a bit too overly excited.

Protesters and activists banged their signs on the wooden floor and continued to protest.

‘Killers!’

‘Shame on you!’

The judge covered his ears. Having heard enough for one day, he slammed down his gavel to order silence.

A hush fell across the hall. ‘The State of Idaho has witnessed this case challenging the Fish and Game Commission’s wolf harvest for this winter,’ continued the judge. ‘The hearing will take place on December first!’ he gathered his papers and rose to his feet.

‘But that’s the day of the hunt!’ said Jack.

‘If the challenges made by the activists against the delisting of the grey wolf and the wolf harvest are overruled, then as already ruled by the Commission, the State of Idaho’s winter wolf hunt will continue to take effect on this day. Dismissed.’

Farmers and hunters patted Jack on the back and nodded convincingly whilst, on the other side of the room Jenny folded her papers and stormed out of the hall in rage.

Everyone now had to wait until December first to find out whether the grey wolf population would be delisted and the hunt would be legal or whether all the efforts by the activists and protestors would be enough to keep the grey wolf classified as an endangered species and safe from being hunted by man.

Paw prints Paw prints Paw prints

Night soon fell. The full moon shone down on the lonely little injured wolf pup limping into a dark, thorny thicket. Deep inside the thicket, branches snapped, and tiny voles and mice ran to avoid this sudden intruder. Leaves rustled as the wolf looked for somewhere safe to sleep.

He managed to sniff out insects and berries but with winter coming, the fruits of the forest were ever harder to find, and he