Raised by wolves?

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*(Meagan Prendergast inferred some of my February bogs sucked...and she was right.  So I tried on this one.)

We thought, perhaps, Angie had been raised by wolves.

Remember those stories from India in the 50’s where anthropologists would occasionally find kids who had been abandoned in the jungle and a pack of wolves would (instead of eating them) adopt them into their pack and raise them and then the kids would get found later walking around on all fours, howling, naked, and acting like a wolf?   That kind of described Angie.

She was non-verbal other than to growl and grunt.  She was, at times very loving and affectionate.  But often she would attempt (and succeed) to bite and scratch you.  She would eat her clothing and her own hair and of course, get naked.  She was on a variety of medications some of which made her gain fat and, unfortunately, make her boobs big (I really didn’t know how else to write that.)

Angie lived at a separate group home from KDS, so a van would come pick her up at the end of the day.

On this particular day Angie was having a bad time all day.  She had been in the time-out room multiple times, she had been restrained, she had hit and kicked and pinched and scratched and bit and thrown things and had grunted and growled throughout the day.  We had multiple staff that dealt with her and I took my turn near the end of the school day.  We had learned (actually Angie had trained us) to stay near her during these episodes or she would strip naked.  So we kept her clothed all day.

At three o’clock her van came.  Another van had taken the other day-students and a separate van came for her. There was a driver and an attendant. I “escorted” Angie to her van and “assisted” her into the seat with the attendant next to her.  I waved goodbye as they whisked out of the parking lot.  I then went to my office.

No sooner had I got there when the front secretary buzzed me, “You better get up here. The van came back.”

I look out and Angie’s van had pulled back in the parking lot near the sidewalk.  I saw the two van-staff looking on the ground with their hands up in the air like “This is a stick-up!”  I walk to them and there, lying on the pavement, between two of our parked vans was Angie, writhing, grunting, and growling, completely naked.  She had even kicked off her shoes and socks.

One of the secretaries and one of the workshop employees (all women) came out with me.  To the secretary I said, “Go into one of the residences and get an old quilt.”  Then I moved closer to Angie and tried to diffuse the situation as much as I could.

ME: Come on Angie. We know you are a good girl and you want to go home.  Let’s get your clothes back on and get you in the van.

ANGIE: HuuuuRrrrrruuuuuufGrrrrrrrrUhhhhhhhhhhhGrunnnnnttt.

ME: Angie you can have a snack at home but you can’t lie here in the parking lot.

ANGIE: Grrrrrrrrrrrrhowwwwwwwwwwlllllllllllrrrrrrrrrrngrgrgrgrgrgrgr…. (with lots of…flipping and flopping…as it were)

Just as the bedspread got to us, the workshop-woman whispers, “Pedestrian!”

A city sidewalk ran through the middle of our campus and often some of the older residents in the neighborhood would walk to “Fred’s” to get groceries then take them home.  We saw (to our dismay) a beautiful fine Southern elderly woman sauntering towards us with her pull-behind two-wheeled wire cart full of milk. 

Instantly, two of the women nonchalantly leaned against the vans as if they were having a conversation.  The other one leaned over to me and started quietly chatting.  Even Angie lay perfectly still as the elderly lady shuffled by, oblivious of what was happening two feet from her.

As soon as the lady had passed, as if on cue:

            ANGIE: MufflllllllPufffffffGrunnnnntSnnnnnooortGrowwwwlllll…etc.

            ME: Angie, you need to get in the van…(blahblahblah)

Finally I gingerly rolled her up in the bedspread (very much like a human burrito) and placed her (perhaps tossed her) into the van and yelled, “Go Starsky!”  I then stood at the entrance of our parking lot to make sure they did not turn back around and (again) deposit a nude wolf-child onto our premises.

Good times…

chris

To read about other people raised by animals:

Nine children who were raised by animals