If I had a hammer …
or …
an axe?
Yikes!
I just heard a news brief from the far reaches of Russia that rivals any fairytale those Grimm guys ever concocted …
The heroine of this tale is Aishat Maksudova, a 56-year-old farmer from the Caucasus Mountains. When Ms. Maksudova heard a wolf attacking one of her calves, she did what any gutsy granny would do …
She grabbed an axe and charged out to defend her herd!
(Okay, so she was a might gutsier than most.)
But, wait, this story gets more spine-tingling.
Startled from his meal-to-be, the wolf turned on Maksudova.
“With an open mouth, the wolf suddenly jumped on me,” she told reporters. “The wolf clawed into my leg, and when I raised my arm up the wolf was just holding my hand, trying to claw my hand. So I just left my hand, and the wolf was just clawing into it, pulling on it … and then I took the axe and hit him on the head.”
My, granny, what big nerve you have!
Indeed, Maksudova hit the wolf several times until it released her, and she is now faring well after being treated for her wounds.
The wolf, however, did not meet such a fortunate ending.
This probably hits pretty close to home for YakLady, a true-blue farm sister from Montana, who witnessed her own up-close-and personal wolf attack in October (with photos to prove it).
Let’s hear it for brave farmgals who share their territories with the wild things—and live to tell these tales.
Photo courtesy of the USFWS
I’ve seen what wolves can do, but have never had that close of an encounter with them. I’m thankful that the lady from Russia is okay. And the lady from Montana, too.
I like to think that there is room for everything, but there comes a time when keeping it that way is neccessary. In Wyoming, we have to live with all kinds of predators and sometimes the ‘live & let live’ mindset requires adjustment. When you see too many predators, they need to be thinned. SEEing them is the first indicator that they are too many. Overpopultion isn’t got for *them*, nor for us either. In this state, balance is on ongoing process. I’m a rancher and an environmentalist and that isn’t the struggle that some might believe it to be…not it is a conflict of interest. We are stewards of the land and *everything* on it. I’ve lost dogs to lions and almost a foal, chickens to bobcats, foxes and hawks. Wolves are in this area, but not here specifically [yet]. They used to be, however.
My great uncle once told me a story from his very early childhood. His parents were homesteaders near Cheyenne. His father had been out with the sheep for almost 2 weeks. His mother took him and 2 younger siblings out to gather kindling [hard to come by in that grassy country]. She became disoriented and they were lost for 3 nights. His momma had a wheelbarrow and at night she huddled all three children under it and moved it around during the night so that she could keep a supply of small stones coming to throw at a pack of wolves. Father found them on the morning of the 4th day. True story. It is absolutely FALSE that wolves do not attack people. All one has to do is look up accounts in northern Europe. Such stories seem to have been scrubbed from historical literature in this country.
What a scary experience. Sometimes fortunate endings aren’t possible. I agree that there are reasons for everything. I know that homesteaders don’t take killing predators lightly.