08/28/08 Wolf howls

I find sometimes when opportunity knocks I should have a hammer hung on the door instead of a cute little doorknocker. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to tell you about a missed chance. Opportunity can come knocking but I think I need hearing aids or glasses or something. Strange as it might seem, since we raise cattle, my missed opportunity involved wolves. Lately, our local newspaper has used more ink and pulp trees to run stories on the return of wolves to Washington State than I think it did on the Beijing Summer Olympics. Environmentalists and conservationists have just gone ga ga over the return of this wild canine. Certain groups have even placed remote cameras in the area this wolf pack calls home and have captured nice photos. My failure to reap financial rewards is actually the core of what all wolf lovers quest for  the howl. If I had only invested in a quality digital recorder, recorded the "Elvis" wolf and his back-up pack of howlers. With a little bit of editing and voice, I mean, howl mixing, I could have hidden that recording in a secret mountain hideaway with a remote control and waited for a full moon. I'm sure I could have sold bleacher seats to thousands just to sit and listen. Who knows how big it could have gotten? Think of it, souvenir shirts, hats, coffee mugs with "I Heard the Howl" imprinted on them or "Come Howl with Me." Well the real wolves ruined it all. Hey, maybe I could sell dust scraped from wild wolf tracks. I'm Jeff Keane.