The December picture on my National Wildlife Federation calendar is a wolf. I don't think you can grow up in Minnesota without learning all about timber wolves. I saw my only wild wolf while crosscountry skiing at Long Lake Conservation Center in sixth grade. I was alone somewhere between the fast skiers and the beginner skiers when I Iooked up and found one looking at me only a few feet ahead of me on the trail. We stared at each other for a few moments before the noise of the skiers behind me drove it off. I did a lot more reading on wolves this past summer for a story I was writing, and as usual with my research, I hardly used any of it. I did the same thing this year with crows. Crows have fascinated me ever since I learned how smart they are while doing research on parrots. Yes, I have two stories not using much of that research, either. Last night, Alan called me into the livingroom to see this incredible story on a crow that had adopted a stray kitten. She kept it alive by feeding it bugs and worms. I guess it was from a Pax show on animal miracles. I did a search and found a site that has pictures about it so you can see it, too. (I can't believe how many people named Kitten have websites on Sheryl Crow.) Another twisted person has most of the dialogue from the show on his site but put on a different ending, I think. It's not the ending we saw last night, although it does makes sense within the context of the research I've been doing on feline behavior and cognition for my time travel, talking cat burglar, Yakuza story.