We all have been frightened by things as kids, and my greatest fear as a child was the fear of wolves.  

Believe it or not, this all began when I watched "The Neverending Story". There is a character named Gmork who is large, wolf-like creature with coarse black fur, luminous green eyes, and sharp, blood soaked fangs. 

Gmork a servant of The Nothing. (Warner Bros.) 

The climax of this movie is when he is explaining from a dark cave what is happening to Fantasia and finds out he is talking to the one he was sent to kill - Atreyu.  Just then, he riles up, snarls and pounces on the boy with murderous claws and vicious fangs. Atreyu stabs him with a rudimentary shiv and the blood from the wolf stains his chest and hand a gooey red. 

This scene haunted me as a kid! I would have weekly nightmares where I would see Gmork's glowing green eyes approaching my bedroom from down the dark hallway.  

Years later, in the 4th Grade we were driving cross country and we stayed at a KOA camp in Louisiana maybe. As I was on my way back from the bathroom alone, something jumped out of the bushes and began to growl and chase me. I screamed "Wolf, wolf!!!" in a desperate tone and my dad came running to my aid! He scooped me up in his arms and shooed the creature away just in the nick of time!  

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To this day, I would swear I was being chased by a real life wolf, but my parents told me it was a Husky dog mix. The point was, it was off its leash and it aggressively charged me out of nowhere! Terrifying! 

Of course over the years, several more movies came out that further reinforced my core fears including Jack Nicholson's "Wolf" and "An American Werewolf in London". The nightmares stopped when I was a teenager.

In college, Mike and I had an annual pass to the Los Angeles Zoo and whenever we passed the Wolf exhibit I would be seen running in the opposite direction!   

Now just five years ago we went to Lake Elizabeth for the 49ers Day Festival. Saturday morning I awoke to a trailer full of 8 or 9 wolves, in tow by some Native American Indians! OMG! My worst fear - come true!

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But although they were full blooded wolves, they were tamed by humans and 2 were brought out on a leash to meet and greet at the Festival. I was apprehensive at first and I had never seen an actual wolf so close in proximity to me before. So I took a deep breath, handed off my camera to Mike and actually pet these creatures with content!  

My hands were sweaty, my heart was beating and my eyes welled up with tears. But I did it! I pet them, asked questions and viewed them more as dogs, tha vicious attack animals. Now my view on these beautiful creatures has totally changed! 

I still cringe at movies like "The Grey"  and "Brotherhood of the Wolf" but putting reality into perspective on that hot summer Saturday really changed my fear into something I could overcome! 

Thanks for reading! ​

-Crystal Olguin​