Druids who lived in the open had a variety of "buddies" within the ecosystem. Before and after Patrick's invasion, Druid males frequently ran with wolves, and the wolves ran with them. Before the Roman invasion, Druids routinely ran with wolves, and occasionally challenged them, to which the wolves responded with an almost calculated sense of leisure. The "winner" was never important, but the Druid always acknowledged "equal challenge" by feeding the wolf a bit of bacon out of his own stash. Many Druids prized their bacon stash even more than tobacco and other smokables, and a sharing of bacon was a high honor indeed, bestowed upon equals.

Druids would chuckle while giving wolves their small chunks of bacon, a true acknowledgement between Wizard and Wolf for having faced a challenge asserted at human whim, for which the wolf had gracefully acquiesed.

Another running-mate of the Druids were the Corgis, feisty, short-legged dogs with the faces of foxes who enjoyed racing with humans, and also happened to be excellent underground ferrets. Corgis were dogs bred in the Welsh region, yet seemed to personify both wolf and fox in their attributes of hunting, perception, and skill.
 

Druids found they could rely on Corgis as hunters of small game, and Druids who were not acclaimed at hunting (as most were not) could simply command their Corgis to dig and funnel a small animal for game, and the Corgis would immediately dispatch a small mammal in service to its human counterpart. The Corgi knew that a small portion of diuner would be apportioned to the Corgi, and the Corgi would patiently await its rewards of conquest, shared between the Druids and the Corgis who had effectively served as the dinner locators and dispatch service.

Corgis seemed to share many traits with the wolves that Druids were fond of. Wolves and Corgis were both noted for their ability to use their teeth as both weapons and instruments of construction; in both Corgis and Wolves, the teeth could be used to shred viciously the form of mammalian beings weaker than themselves. Wolves and Corgis both had teeth with the capability of "eating people", and yet Druids noticed a distinction in both Wolf and Corgi, to accept food from humans as gingerly as possible (to not bite the hands that fed them) and to be able to completely masticate the meat in a variety of ways simply incomprehensible to the human molar system.

Thus, Wolves and Corgis were both marvelled at for being a canine system of cooperation between the devic kingdoms. Both could be tamed with the simple expression - not of domination - but of mastery and intelligence. A human who proved himself "smarter" than a wolf was accepted by the wolf as having dominance, size, and power, and "bark" meant nothing from that point.

Corgis were absolutely sensational as "muff-warmers"; a Druid asleep at night, bundled up in his myriad furs, hoping to get cozy, might find himself facing the rump of a Corgi. In extremely cold weather, a Corgi would align his body in a vertical position, to "clump" against the upper body portion of a Druid. Thus, the Corgi's rump would be aligned with the curled up thighs of a Druid, with the Corgi's head and chin extending from under the Druid's chin, to keep both warm.

A "pack of Corgis" were the best at keeping Druids warm. Every Corgi would align himself, as if in agreement, with every other Corgi, so that all Corgis had an equitable "piece" of the Druids, and were harmoniousy spaced to keep the Druid warm, which would in turn keep the Corgis warm, and everybody was happy.

The Druids loved the Corgis for being excellent hunters, sympathetic pets, and independent canines who did not depend on Druids to foster their existence, yet appeared to be coexistent with Druids as Wolves in the form of Dog, and appeared as mystical and enchanted Beings, almost as if Elves had invaded the Dog Kingdom and enchanted the little Corgis who seemed to love Druids most of all.

Love, Galadriel
10/19/2003
Druidry/wolves.htm