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Saturna is an under-populated island adrift east of Pender and south of Mayne. It's at the south end of the Southern Gulf Islands archipelago. If you wanted to go the long way, you'd swim across to Gabriola from Nanaimo, scoot down to Valdes, somehow make your way through the roiling waters of Porlier Pass to Galiano where you'd wander down to aptly named Active Pass, across which you'd find Mayne Island, then Samuel Island and, across more roiling waters at the mouth of Winter Cove, Saturna Island. Most people take the ferry. But even that takes a while because you have to stop at another island or two if coming from the big island. If you're coming from the lower mainland, you've got to take another boat, entirely, at Mayne.
It's not just people that Saturna plays hard-to-get with; it has developed an exclusive eco-system as well. There are no squirrels; there are no bears. There are plenty of winged predators in the form of eagles, falcons and owls but on the ground among the deer, raccoon and otters, there's really just mink that are serious, but small-time, hunters. That's it. The last verified sighting of the legendary cougar was in the early seventies. So it was certainly noticed when small pets started to go missing one fall. It was assumed that somebody's dog was on the loose and gotten a bit wild and woolly. That happens. Sometimes they'd go after sheep which would result in them getting shot. That's an understood and harsh reality in rural areas. The people at one sheep farm decided to get a llama because of their ornery nature. No dog in its right mind would go after the sheep because the llama would kick its ass. Then somebody came across the carcass of a deer that had been attacked. Now the 'bad dog' was considered to likely be a dog/wolf cross so trendy at the time. The damn thing was running loose and attacking wild life. Then one of the sheep was attacked. Then another on the opposite side of the island. This dog was plainly out of control and had probably been abandoned by its owners. People were driving their kids to their friends' houses on sleepy Saturna Island because something was out there that was not to be messed with. Soon a sense of fear grew in the population because there was something undefined but dangerous running around the forest killing things. As the winter dragged on, more pets disappeared, more deer carcasses were found, and sheep were being attacked and killed. The stories that this was a wolf/dog started to develop and mutate. In early spring, a composite photograph of the beast taken from all the stories would likely show something about eight feet tall with tusks. The population was talking about this constantly: at the store, in the ferry line-up, at the recycling centre... Young parents were hesitant to read "Little Red Riding Hood" to their kids, or, for that matter, read it themselves. Nobody heard blood-curdling howls like those in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" but everybody thought they did. The strict practice of driving children to school and to their friend's houses grew to include everywhere else. The safest place on earth to walk around during the day or night was suddenly considered unsafe. The beast in the woods metaphor held a deeper meaning for Saturnians than previous winters. Spring blossomed as usual. Fresh green leaves slowly sprouted on drenched branches reddening with new life. The llama had figured a way to get free of the fencing around its Breezy Bay home. Salvador Dolly Llama (as he was affectionately known to locals) regularly high-tailed it up a couple of roads to Haggis Farm Bakery where the scent of freshly baked cinnamon buns proved to be too much for him. Looking out your window to a bucolic, rural setting with a llama strolling by provided a suitably ridiculous sight for people who loved the unconventional life on Saturna. Then he was gone. A week or so after his disappearance his remains were found up the hill from Breezy Bay Farm in the woods. He had been attacked and killed by something powerful and desperate. The worry grew, along with the conviction that this was a wolf and a search intensified. One Saturday morning, the groundskeepers of neighbouring Samuel Island, which is a rock throw across Boat Pass from Saturna, called to say they had spotted a wolf and knew the vicinity in which it was hiding. A crew of people from Saturna quickly boated across to Samuel. They met and organized a hunt. They converged around the area the wolf had been reported to be in, found the animal and shot him. It sure looked like a wolf to them. DNA testing returned results from a CRD laboratory a few days later. The animal was a Tofino Brindle wolf who had just entered its second year. Tofino Brindle wolves live around the Kennedy Gorge near Long Beach, hundreds of kilometres away from Saturna Island. It had been on Saturna about eight months. Although the wolf is gone a question still remains. How did a four-month-old, full-blooded Tofino Brindle wolf pup get to Saturna Island?
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