continued from page 17
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18
Cenizo
Fourth Quarter 2017
the Devil’s River country to
be exact: no wolf boy story
would be complete unless we
covered the Wolf Girl of the
Devil’s River. In 1835 Molly
Dent was alone at her and her
husband’s homestead when
she gave birth. Molly’s body
was found under a brush
arbor, where she had been
attacked by wolves, and the
newborn child’s body was
never found. In 1845 a young
girl was spotted running away
with a small pack of wolves,
fleeing from a freshly killed
goat where they had been
feeding when they were sur-
prised by hunters. The girl
was captured but escaped a
few days later. Years went by.
Then in 1852, a young
woman was spotted up on the
Rio Grande, by a survey
crew. She was setting on a
sand bar letting two wolf cubs
suck from her breast. When
she saw the men approaching
she grabbed the two pups and
ran off into the brush. She was
never seen again.
All of these stories hap-
pened a long time ago, the
eyewitnesses
and
folks
involved are all dead now. We
are left with a twisted mess of
folk lore, legends and myths.
These type of things never
happen anymore... or do
they?
A number of years ago I
was introduced to a young
man who was a year away
from graduating high school
and looking forward to
attending the New Mexico
Military Institute. I hope my
jaw did not hit the ground
when I shook his hand,
because I realized at that very
moment I was meeting the
“Wolf Boy” of Clabber Hill!
Unlike the others in this
article, this young man had
not been abandoned or lost
by his family. He grew up in a
home with a dad and mom,
electricity, running water.
They did live in a remote area
on a very large ranch and
there were no other children
to play with. His only com-
panions were two blue heeler
cow dogs, and the three of
them roamed the vast brushy
pastures at will. They played
hide and seek in the saddle
horn high sacaton grass, dig-
ging up squirrels and moles.
All three would proudly bring
home old bones they had
found. If a dog marked a rock,
the kid followed the dog’s
lead. Mom was the first to
notice the kid was picking up
plenty of dog behavior and
might need a little more
human interaction. But dad
assured her that he was fine,
boys will be boys, she was
worried about nothing. I
guess sharing cans of dog food
with his four-legged friends
was not a red flag.
Late one afternoon the boy
and the dogs had not returned
from their day’s adventures.
Mom nervously scanned the
tall sacaton for signs of the
boy and his dogs returning. A
few hours later she saw her
husband riding his horse into
the corrals. She went down to
the barn and told him that the
boy was late coming in, so he
cinched his saddle back up
and rode out to see if he could
find them. He returned 45
minutes later saying he hadn’t
seen hide nor hair of the trio.
He and his wife got on a 4-
wheeler to cover more
ground, but to no avail. Dad
walked the river bank looking
for their tracks, as mom
searched for them on her 4-
wheeler, hollering his name
and calling the dogs. About
dark things were looking seri-
ous, so they called folks on
neighboring ranches and the
sheriff. Folks showed up from
miles around to help. After
looking at maps and talking to
the kid’s folks, the Sheriff set
to organizing a search party.
By now the sun was down and
it was plenty dark.
As the crowd was fixing to
scatter out and start looking,
mom heard a noise and
looked around just in time to
see her child and the two dogs
walk out of the tall grass into
the car lights!
It was a real Hollywood
moment: mom ran to her pre-
cious child, knelt down and
wrapped him in her arms,
hugging him up as tears rolled
down her cheeks. Picking him
up, she carried him towards
the waiting crowd, kissing him
and thanking God he was
safe. Then suddenly she
exclaimed, “My God, you
stink!” Wolf Boy was covered
from head to toe with a rank
sticky slime.
Turns out the dogs had
located the carcass of a cow
which had been hit by light-
ning a week or so before the
dogs had found it. Ol’ bossy
was ripe and the dogs had
feasted and rolled all over the
dead cow. So had the Wolf
Boy! Yep, to that trio the
dead cow was just like a free
lunch buffet and they had all
got their fill. That night the
dogs were banished from the
house and mom laid the law
down to dad. The Wolf Boy
of Clabber Hill would be
enrolled in Preschool in the
morning so he could be
around his own kind.
Axl Rose said it best:
“Welcome to the Jungle.”
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at:
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