Kate Shugak’s dog is half wolf, too

To the editor:

Those concerned about the goings-on at Wolf Country USA can still enjoy the most spectacular wolf hybrid, “Mutt,” Aleut detective and homesteader Kate Shugak’s half wolf-half dog companion in award-winning Alaska writer Dana Stabenow’s splendid murder mysteries.

Mutt’s size and obvious resemblance to a wolf startles those encountering her for the first time. A mere pulling back of lips accompanied by a baritone growl sends most macho ne’er do-wells looking for clean undershorts. Mutt’s unassailable loyalty to 5-foot-nothing Kate is breached only by her (Mutt’s) flirtatiousness with Kate’s 6-foot-8-inch tall Trooper-lover.

One moment Mutt launches into the woods seeking lunch, returning with feathers or fur on her month; later she expresses a sense of entitlement to hunks of jerky during each visit to Bernie’s Roadhouse.

While absorbed in the twists of the story we also absorb the history, geography, geology, politics, beauty, Alaska Native culture, socio-demographic changes and economics of this amazing state. Stabenow, consciously or unconsciously, employs a technique of Louis L’Amour’s to get the reader caught up in a can’t-put-it-down story, and before they know it they’ve also learned a lot of important, fundamental stuff!

Carol A. Neuerman

Palmer