The Gift of the Wolf

Preface to Post #14 is written by Ted Ritzer who has dementia-MCI for people who have dementia. To save time for readers with dementia I was lucky my doctor referred me to a book "The Mind Diet" by Maggie Moon, which I read and my wife and I followed. The end result of this was that I was the only patient who after being diagnosed with dementia to ever improve, so much that my doctor discharged me from care, so the short message for those suffering from demntia or who think they are at risk, read the book you have nothing to lose but a bit of money & time, here is a link to Maggie's book: https://maggiemoon.com/mind-diet-book/

Introduction:

As a boy growing up on the farm in Manitoba I always loved nature, plants, animal anything living. I remember when I was about 12 seeing a Time Life book "The Wonder of Life On Earth" it has/has wonderful illustrations of dinosaurs, and all kinds of animals. I loved that book, so whenever I could I would take it down from its shelf in the drugstore and look at it, and marvel at its contents. I was so taken with that book I mowed lawns and saved my money until I could afford to buy the book. Now 57 years later I still have the book in my bookshelf.

Which is a very long way of saying I am still crazy about life on earth, plant or animal. This led me to do a double major in university in zoology and botany & by accident I became a nature interpreter in Spruce Woods Provinical Park in the summer of 1976, the park was closed due to flooding and while I was hired as a park patrol in the campground, it was closed for the summer, so instead of doing enforcement I was used to patrol the "Manitoba Desert" and do interpretive hikes, which it turned out became my profession for the rest of my life.

Through my career as a nature interpreter I have worked in a number of parks where wolves were found but I have never seen them, I have heard them in the distance but never seen them in the wild.

Recently my wife and I were riding in a park near our home and about 10 km along the trail my wife heard barking in the distance that was not a coyote nor a dog-could it be a wolf, she wondered. Since I did not hear it, I voiced my opinion likely not!

On the way back on the trail in the same area I saw what I thought was a German Shepard dog crossing the trail, but then I thought we are at least 10 km from the parking lot, no dog would walk that far along the trail and then trott into the bush. Wow, I had seen a wolf! I still marvel at this, I had finally seen a wolf in the wild!

Now the whole point of this related to dementia is to not squander any time you have, really enjoy your life with your friends and family while you can, and while you may not see a wolf in the wild, you will really live in the now with the people you love!

Peace be with you in 2024!

Ted Ritzer