Out of breath, pushing through the woods in front of the snarling wolf, I skidded to a stop in front of the cliff, and I noticed that the timber wolf was but a puppet, sitting on the shelf of the state park’s Nature Center. I was immediately drawn to it, but it looked so real and so extraordinarily beautiful, I kept coming back to it, trying it on my hand.
Yet for what story could it possibly be used? It was so large
for a puppet, that even sitting on my porch deck rail, it would be frightening.
A young couple came in, and she exclaimed, “Oh!” as she was drawn to it herself. The clerk behind the desk said they had to keep stocking that one.
My husband tried to distract me with finger puppets; there’s good use for them from time to time. I still love to glide by butterflies for “The Butterfly that Stamped”, and my finger jungle animals for “How the Elephant Got His Trunk”, both Kipling stories.
I had glossed over the porcupine last summer, since I reasoned I had a stuffed porcupine for which I’d looked all over town. But also, it wasn’t a puppet, and I had a Native American story for it already, “The Meeting of the Animals.”
I looked at the finger puppets extensively, as my husband sighed and shifted on his feet; “Have you found one yet?”
A little girl showed me her finger puppets. I could place her age at about 3rd or 4th grade, as I’d just gotten done teaching three grade levels of drama.
I played around with the middle bin of various realistic birds I could not name.
But I kept coming back to the wolf, just as I’d reasoned myself out of the porcupine last summer, checked the price tag, $10 more at least, and the animal was so big!
I fumbled around in the bin for smaller stuffed animals, not puppets, miniature wolves, but not puppets, just as magnificent, but not puppets.
I asked the clerk if they had a slightly smaller wolf than the one on the shelf.
I went back to the gargantuan wolf. Such a beautiful animal, and it looked so real!
No, it would be the porcupine this year. It would fit the Native American story regarding both large and small animals. The porcupine would represent the small ones facing a bear I’d already purchased.
We ended up getting ghost story books, falling leaf earrings, various artifacts, and of course, the puppet. It came to a higher price by far than the originally intended $20 just for the puppet. Oh well. It’s once a year.
Later, at the birth of their first child, my 1st grand daughter, we already had the camera out for baby pictures. So, I showed my son in law, pictures of the porcupine and birds nest, sitting on my porch deck. I told him how the birds worked when you manipulated your fingers in the nest. Though not a puppet lover himself, he was impressed by the natural look of these puppets.
He suggested, “Peter and the Wolf”, a story that depressed me as a child. Still, I just might want to review it, and I might just get to like that story.
So, now, nearly 5 years later,I spotted this little feller,
and bought him
right out.
Won't have to use, "Peter
and the Wolf", either.
There's a chapter in, Little
House on the Prairie,
dealing with A Night of
the Wolves.
That should work.
