Since we’ve raised sheep commercially, we’ve been committed to trying to live with the predators in our environment. Over the years, we’ve lost just a handful of sheep — several to coyotes, at least one each to mountain lions and rattlesnakes, and four in one night to a neighbor’s dog. Mostly, though, our commitment to nonlethal predator protection tools has worked. A combination of electric fencing, livestock guardian dogs, sheep selection and grazing management has allowed us to co-exist with the predators in our environment.

In the end, we are all wolves to someone. We shake up each other’s ecosystems and establish our own boundaries and pathways within them. I help throw out hay, I shape the remainder of my dad’s morning. I get a text from my friend, I make additions to this article. I find a black widow spider in my coatsleeve, I alter my habits around getting ready to put on my coat. But the changes we make are, by and large, neutral – it is how we think of those changes and how we respond to them that shapes the desire paths of our own lives.