By ELIZABETH KALFSBEEK
Twelve-year-old Kodie has traveled to more states than many Americans, loves snow, vanilla ice cream and playing with Chihuahuas.
Until four years ago, he was also protected by the Endangered Species Act.
A North American Gray Wolf, Kodie has found a home in Woodland with owner Nick Battles.
Kodie unwittingly evolved from a companion dog to a service dog in a span of four years.
Battles was prescribed insulin in 2004 for diabetes and began to notice a correlation between Kodie licking his arm within 30 minutes of needing to take his medicine.
“Kodie started to let me know there was something going on,” Battles said of the canine’s uncanny sense of smell alerting him to his low blood sugar.
The wolf was subsequently tested and trained as a service dog.
“It didn’t take him much time; he picked up on it right away,” Battles said. “It’s really nice because now he can go everywhere I go, in stores and restaurants.”
Battles adopted the wolf as a 6-week-old cub from a breeder in Reno in 2000. A truck driver at the time, Battles was looking for a companion to tag along on his routes.
Kodie was the only cub in the litter of six who went up to Battles, rather than scattering. The breeder told him at the time, “That’s the one that picks you.”
“He’s just been a really great friend,” Battles said. “He’s really good. I’m bonded to him more than I have been bonded to any other dog.”
As a cub, Battles said, Kodie would sleep on the ground next to his bed.
Battles would go to pet him and the young pup would fall asleep with his owner’s hand in his mouth, like a security blanket.
“He acts real independent, but if I get out of his sight he starts to whine and howl,” Battles said. “He keeps a pretty careful eye on what I’m doing.”
No longer a pup, the canine looks distinctly like a wolf with grizzled gray fur, dark eyes and weighs in at around 106 pounds.
As one can imagine, a domesticated North American Gray Wolf attracts attention.
“Most of the time he’s so outgoing and friendly that people aren’t afraid,” Battles said. “He wriggles around, loves attention and loves kids. Most wolves are shy of people. (Kodie) has an exceptional personality and it’s really unusual for a wolf to be this outgoing.”
Just because Kodie’s bite grip is 40 percent stronger than the average dog, at 1,500 pounds per square inch, that doesn’t mean he has a propensity for aggression. According to Battles, Kodie has never snapped or otherwise shown hostility. There have only been three people that the wolf didn’t want anything to do with.
“When he doesn’t want anything to do with someone, he just walks away,” Battles said.
According to defenders.org, a site dedicated to defending wildlife, wolves were once common throughout all of North America but were killed in most areas of the United States by the mid-1930s. At one time there were around two million in the world. Now there are about 200,000 in 57 countries, 5,000 of which live in the lower 48 states.
Battles said wolves in the wild live about four years and 10 to 12 in caged captivity. He has known people, however, who had pet wolves that lived to be 16 and 19 years old.
“He’s slowing down, I can tell,” Battles said of Kodie. “He gets tired quicker. We don’t walk as far as we used to.”
Kodie and Battles still walk an average of three miles per day.
Battles and Kodie switched roles last October when Battles helped nurse Kodie back to health after he battled pneumonia. It took a helping of the wolf’s favorite snack, vanilla ice cream, to get his appetite going again and give him the strength he needed to recover.
“He came out of (the illness) and has been going strong ever since.”
Since retiring, Battles and Kodie enjoy “work camping,” in which they work at a campground in exchange for accommodations. The pair will be heading to Lake Almanor to vacation in June.
Ah, a dog’s life.