Wolf-Dog’s Legacy in La Crescenta Is a Recall of the Wild : ‘We feel, intellectually, that we did the right thing. But emotionally, we really miss her.’

She had no bark, of course, but she sure could howl. And nobody ever heard her in the bushes before she would suddenly appear at La Crescenta’s Two Strike Park, or on the field of Rosemont Middle School, or in somebody’s back yard. She had that wolfish gait, stealthy, almost tippy-toed.

But it was those yellow eyes that would really get to you, slanted and narrow, and that long, skinny snout. Those big white teeth! Parents would tell their children, “Better to eat you with, my dear. . . . Be good or the wolf-dog might get you tonight!”

A few parents, that is.

Others were more likely to dismiss “Little Red Riding Hood” as just more anti-wolf propaganda masquerading as fairy tale. After all, not all wolves are big and bad. Beneath all her fur, for example, the wolf-dog is rather slight.

And besides, in this funky, family-oriented community in the foothills of Los Angeles, the wolf-dog has a lot of friends, of the human and canine kind. And even though she has been gone a week now, La Crescenta is talking about her still.

She was captured and taken to a wild animal preserve, for her own good. Or so the talk goes. It was for the best, was it not?

“We feel, intellectually, that we did the right thing,” said Candice Woo, one of several co-conspirators in the wolf-dog’s capture. “But emotionally, we really miss her. . . .

“She had a very gentle spirit about her. She really invoked among the dog owners a real kindred spirit. . . . She was just crazy about the dogs. She would hear Oliver’s tags clinking and come on over. She loved to play.”

Oliver is Woo’s little white Westy, but like many La Crescenta dog owners, Woo considered the wolf-dog part hers, too.

“Chelsea is crying because they played every single night,” said Marcia Thomasma of her border collie, who was also the wolf-dog’s pal. “We have all been grieving.”

But now even the wolf-dog’s biggest fans are shaking their heads and saying that perhaps this creature should have never been born. More wolf than dog, she had no pack of her own.

She would make do with her rag-tag crew of dogs, who always had human chaperons in tow. The chaperons would bring the food.

Once upon a time, the wolf-dog was probably somebody’s pet. But she has wildness in her genes. She is a predator above all else.

“We saved her life,” said Bob Reda, whose 13-month-old Newfoundland, Vader, was one of the wolf-dog’s steady dates. “I loved this animal and I played with this animal and I didn’t want to give her up. But we also knew that she was starting to chew on children’s clothing and leather. She ripped one lady’s dress. If you turned your back on her, you didn’t know what could happen.”

There were already reports. Two pet rabbits were eaten in somebody’s back yard. The owner said she understood that the wolf-dog was just doing what came naturally, but still . . .

If the wolf-dog had stayed on the streets and in the parks of La Crescenta any longer, maybe she would have been poisoned or shot, neighbors warned. Many times, she was the target of hurled rocks. After six months on the loose, the wolf-dog had broken her leg, perhaps having been hit by a car.

So Reda, Thomasma and other neighbors began calling for help from the Wildlife Waystation and from Los Angeles County Animal Control.

After a failed attempt to cage her in Thomasma’s back yard, veterinarians finally shot her with a tranquilizer dart last week.

But the first tranquilizer did not immediately take and the wolf-dog ran for her life. Vader took off after her and the veterinarians took after him. They finally found the wolf-dog and shot her with a dart again. This time, she fell.

Today the wolf-dog’s keepers at Wildlife Waystation call the animal Tundra. She was called Wolfy around La Crescenta, or just Wolf-Dog would do.

Martine Colette, the founder of the Waystation, believes that the wolf-dog is no older than 2 and will be in quarantine for 30 days.

Then she will join 40 other wolf-dogs--known as wolf hybrids--who will spend the rest of their lives there, caught between two worlds. Movies such as “Dances With Wolves” and “White Fang” may have made for great box office, but animal advocates say they should have come with a disclaimer: Do not try this at home.

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Colette says the Waystation gets so many calls from people wanting to drop off their wolf hybrids that she will accept only those that are nearly indistinguishable from pure wolves. (And the Waystation has 15 pure wolves on hand. Although wolves are an endangered species--and illegal to own--for enough money and some connections, they can be found.)

“The breeders always tell you about these glorious things,” Colette said of the wolf-dogs. “But where are they when the problem animals come into the shelters? . . . You never know what you are going to end up with when you are breeding. These are not pets.”

In fact, the Humane Society--which has been on a campaign to outlaw the sale and breeding of wolf-dogs--says at least nine American children have been killed by wolf hybrids since 1986. In 10 states, it is illegal to own hybrids, while 28 states have restrictions on ownership.

But most wolf-dog owners conceal the fact that they have one around the house. And proving wolf heritage is virtually impossible; often even breeders just guess, while charging from $600 to thousands of dollars a pup.

In Los Angeles County, for example, wolf-dog owners are supposed to register them as wild animals. At last count, only two had done so.

“There is a real debate among animal welfare people about hybrids,” said Bob Ballenger, executive assistant at Los Angeles County Animal Control. “. . . It is a predator, bottom line.”

Such insight is not lost on the wolf-dog fans of La Crescenta. Yes, they did do the right thing, of course. But sadness over the wolf-dog’s fate lingers. Wolfy will live in a cage.

Even though the wolf-dog is gone, she has left some good behind. With all the hubbub over the wolf-dog of La Crescenta, many neighbors have become friends.