Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild

Part memoir, part meditation, part love story,Shadow Mountainis an impassioned commentary on how our connection to the wild can rescue or destroy us. While completing an undergraduate research thesis, Rene Askins was given a two-day-old wolf pup to raise. Named Natasha, the pup, was destined for a life in captivity. Through her work with Natasha and her siblings, Askins developed a deep, fierce love for the species. On the day Natasha was unexpectedly taken from her and sent to a remote research facility, Askins made a promise to the wolf pup: Your life, your sacrifice, will make a difference. And it did. Rene Askins spent the next fifteen years in the grueling effort to restore wolves to Yellowstone, where they had been exterminated by man some seventy years before. The campaigns popularity with the American public aroused the rage of the western ranching community and their powerful political allies in Washington. She endured death threats, years of contentious debate and political manipulations, and heartbreaking setbacks when colonizing wolves were illegally killed. But in March 1995, Askins witnessed the realization of her mission when wolves were released into their native home in Yellowstonethe first wolves to be found there in almost a century. A born storyteller, Rene Askins offers moving and vibrant examples of the reciprocity that exists between man and animal. And, like a wolf in the shadows, Askins circles the issues surounding the conundrum of embracing wild nature.Shadow Mountainexplores the wildness present within animalsandhumans, urging us to recognize both its light and its shadowits power to heal and harm. Roaming from wolves to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, from passion to politics,Shadow Mountainis the story of shared struggles and destinies, of failure and redemption, and offers insight into how we can mend our contentious relationship with wildness by understanding the power of the wild to guide and shape us.

Author: Renee Askins

Language: English

Edition: F

Binding: Hardcover

Pages: 336

Publisher: Doubleday

Publication Date: 2002-07-09