UFFA

 
“How beautiful it is in Yakutia... Soon it will be New Year’s Eve,” Grant whispered as he woke up. He turned on his side to face his wife. She hadn’t fallen asleep until almost morning: The twins were teething and gave an all-night “concert.” Poor thing, Grant thought, how difficult it must be for her with three children, all alone, to carry the whole household on her shoulders. How lucky he was that he had met her, his Irina. 
It was interesting, he thought, that Yakutia had given him all that was dearest to his heart: Irina, Vaagn, the twins Marishka and Pavel, and even Uffa.
The story of their large family began in Yakutsk. Nine years ago Grant was offered a high-paying job in Yakutia. The position of chief engineer for the preparation of gas processing production was a great opportunity to buy his own home. He was single, not tied down by a wife and children, so without giving it much thought, he agreed to the proposal: He needed to build a foundation for the future family he had been dreaming of since childhood.
The disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant had taken his parents from him: They worked as engineers and, after severe radiation, departed for the next world... He was left an orphan. Fortunately, on that warm April day, 3-year-old Grant was visiting his grandmother in Yerevan, Armenia. 
Soon, unable to cope with her daughter’s death, his grandmother Anais followed her out of this life. And from that very day on, Grant found himself in an orphanage, all alone in this whole wide world, and dreamed of a big family more than anything else in the world. Nothing terrified him more than loneliness: It oppressed the boy and seemed to be something unnatural. He, like the other children, did not want new parents. Though he remembered his mother and father only vaguely, indelible memories had been ingrained in his childhood head: his mom’s voice and smell; his dad’s good-natured laugh and strong hugs.
When he opened his eyes after waking up from gas poisoning (due to a leak at the factory) and saw the doctor’s smiling face leaning over him, the first thing he thought was – that’s how my mom smiled. Hearing the doctor’s honey-toned voice, Grant shuddered – that’s how my mom’s voice sounded.
“Will you marry me?” Grant asked as soon as his voice returned to him.
“Grant Vaagnovich! You still need to finish detox before I can marry you.”
It was her, the doctor Irina – his destiny and only love. 
As Grant liked to joke, Doctor Irina replaced intoxication with symptoms of perpetual dependence and indispensability.
 “Just think! This autumn, our firstborn, Vaagn, will go to first grade. And the twins, Marishka and Pavel, are six months old,” – and so, lying in the warm bed, Grant’s eyes once again replayed the film of a dream come true. Many times he heard that when a dream comes true, you lose interest in what has already happened. Grant, however, had a very different take: Every morning and every night before he went to bed, he thanked destiny and God for the family he doted on.
He was ready to do anything for his wife and children: He could work three shifts and take care of his children without tiring. Every minute he spent with his wife was treasured. He called his family – the “Fist.” He said, “As long as all five of us are together like a clenched fist, then I’m not afraid of anything.”
 
Grant heard little Vaagn whispering as he stood outside his parents’ bedroom door:
“Quiet down, Uffa! Your little brother and sister couldn’t sleep; their teeth are growing.” 
Grant saw the doorknob slowly lowered and the door to their bedroom silently open – it was Uffa: She was the first to enter the bedroom every morning. Sprawled out on the mat at Grant’s feet, she seemed not to be breathing, even though she was huge. And her tail, white and fluffy, slid silently across the floor like a giant furry dust brush. Uffa’s head immediately rested on Grant’s slippers. Freezing, and not moving, she patiently waited for Irina’s head to rise from the pillow: That was the signal – it was okay to say good morning to the family. Uffa slowly raised her head: First the tips of her furry ears appeared above the bed; then her gray-blue eyes, seemingly outlined in black pencil, peered around slyly. Her quivering nostrils, the size of the black nose of a tennis ball, touched the sheet gently, and finally, convinced that no one was still sleeping, Uffa softly howled in her wolfish oo-oo-oo. With a final “oo-oo,” Uffa’s head was on the bed and she exhaled a sharp “fhah.” Her head lying on her side, her eyes languidly closed, the wolf began to breathe slowly and noisily, as if inhaling the scent of all the family members.
“Our beauty, what a clever girl you are!” Grant fondly rubbed the wolf behind her ears. “Uffa’s day of salvation is coming soon, remember Irishka?”
“How could I forget that day, darling! I remember how everyone tried to dissuade us from this ‘stupid’ undertaking? ‘It’s a wolf – not a dog! Sooner or later the predator in her will wake up, and then everyone will be in trouble!’ The longer I watch her, the more the theory of reincarnation appeals to me: It’s as if the soul of a wise man somehow ended up in the body of a wolf.”
“But go prove it to someone. To this day, when he sees Uffa, Uncle Egor shakes his head reproachfully, still doubting,” – Grant smiled, looking affectionately into Uffa’s eyes. “He is sure that a wolf cannot be tamed, especially a Siberian one. He looks at me obliquely, sighs and says, ‘Guys! You have three small children! What are you doing?’” 
“Daddy! Uncle Egor is the uncle with the beard and rifle on his shoulder who always comes out of the woods, right?” little Vaagn asserted. “Doesn’t he have a home? Does he live in the woods?”
“Son, he has a house, but he does live in the woods – he’s a ranger.”
“And why does he not want Uffa to eat and look at the Christmas tree?”
“I don’t get it, son...”
The conversation between father and son was interrupted by Irina’s loud laughter. Grant looked at his wife in surprise:
“Honey! This is probably a child’s interpretation of the proverb: ‘You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she will hurry back.’”            
 
Uffa was found four years ago, when a highway was being built through the woods. Grant heard, through the roar of the machinery in operation, sounds reminiscent of a puppy whimpering. The bloodied corpse of a huge Siberian wolf lay by the wolf’s den. Nearby, licking the wounds of his dead mother, a white fluffy lump whimpered, an almost blind wolf cub, frightened half to death by the sounds of the machinery. The scarlet snow around them testified to a life-or-death struggle: apparently, the mother wolf fought to the end to protect her last wolf cub.  Grant immediately felt a special bond with it as soon as he took it in his arms: the lump sneezed, ducked its coal-black nose-snout into his elbow and froze, apparently fearing that it might be returned to its previous place.
When Grant came home, he lowered the frightened wolf cub to the floor. It did not move at all. The two-year-old boy Vaagn had just woken up and was rubbing his eyes, looking at the still, snow-white lump. The boy strode over to the wolf cub and whispered something in its ear.  The animal stretched, yawned, and opened its eyes. It was then that Irina returned from work:
“Oh, my God, oh, my God! And who is it that has come to visit us? What’s your name?” – she sat down and stroked the wolf cub.
The white lump decided to scare everyone: It growled menacingly, wrinkling its forehead. Then it sneezed loudly, uttering something like “fha.” Cheerfully, little Vaagn exclaimed:
“Mommy! Mommy! She said her name is Uffa!”
“My dear! What makes you think it’s a girl and not a boy?”
Vaagn pouted:
“I don’t think, I know – her name is Uffa.”
Later, the ranger, Uncle Egor, confirmed the little boy was right – it was a her.  However, when he learned that Grant and Doctor Irina had decided to keep the wolf cub, he couldn’t stop complaining about the calmness of the young parents:
“As long as she’s small, it’s fun. But what will you do when you have a beast that is one and a half meters long, not counting the tail, 90 cm tall and weighs almost 80 kg in your house?”
Not understanding the essence of what his stern uncle with the beard had said, little Vaagn ran up to the cub, kissed her coal-black nose-snout and said loudly, sobbing:
“Uffa is not a beast, she’s my little sister!”
His parents laughed out loud, and Uncle Egor dismissed them with his hand, realizing the futility of the conversation.
 
A week later, Grant met the ranger at the village store:
“Hello, Uncle Egor!” – he greeted the ranger loudly. “Are you still angry at us?”
“Oh,” – Egor waved his hand as usual. “Irina is a compassionate woman... there’s nothing to say about the boy – he found a live toy!  But you, you’ve got that stubborn Armenian soul. You think you know what you’re getting into? After all, you don’t know anything about wolves!”
“Dear Uncle Egor! I came to you for advice,” – Grant laughed loudly. “To follow in Uncle Egor’s footsteps, so to say, to get more instructions on raising Uffa.”
The conversation continued at Grant’s house. After lunch, the young parents treated Uncle Egor to strong Armenian coffee, which Grant’s friends from Armenia regularly sent him despite the long distance.
“Dear Uncle Egor,” – Irina began the conversation affectionately, – “Grant and I cannot refuse Uffa... There’s something special about her...”
“In short,” – Grant interrupted his wife in agreement, “Uncle Egor! Well, we can’t give her away, you understand? Where should we send her? To the zoo? She’ll die in the woods! We can’t explain what it is exactly, but it wasn’t just random that I found Uffa; she was sent to us... Irina and I sense it.”
They sat up till late, listening with interest to Uncle Egor’s advice.
“The wolf’s most developed sense is their hearing. They can distinguish the slightest rustles and hear the howls of their peers at a distance of as much as 4 miles. The sense of smell is less developed, and their vision is quite poor.”
“Strange!” – Irina expressed her surprise at this. “They are in the same bind as dogs, and have a weak sense of smell?”
“No, not weak, but less sensitive than a dog. And unlike a dog, a wolf is a very advanced creature mentally. They orient instantly in danger thanks to a combination of higher nervous system activity and strength, agility and speed. These are the qualities that elevate them to the highest level in the struggle for survival.”
“Your information about the wolf has made me even more interested in Uffa,” – Grant winked at Irina.
“Guys,” – the ranger sighed loudly, – “the greatest danger awaits you at the age of two. She will mature for reproduction and then – watch out, especially at night. That’s when wolf activity begins. God forbid, a male catches the scent – you can’t hold them back...”
The young couple looked at each other.
“The mating season is January-April. The good news is that it’s only once a year from 5 to 14 days. And, after that, she won’t let a single suitor near her until next year.”
               
 
Uffa turned out to be surprisingly intelligent: She easily understood human language, and not just commands, but whole sentences. She played perfectly with little Vaagn, even though she became quite a large animal as she neared the age of two. Not once did anything alarming happen, not a single scratch on the boy, although they frolicked all the time. She stretched out on the floor like a Sphinx so little Vaagn could climb on top of her, playing hide-and-seek and chase with him.
Soon, the boy and wolf began to understand each other instinctively. He whispered something in the wolf’s ear and she became an obedient toy in his hands: He held the tips of her ears, pulled her tail, ordered the wolf to lie on her back and buried himself in her snow-white fur. Once, he even fell asleep in her arms, and she didn’t move until the boy woke up. 
“Grant! She’s almost two years old. Remember? Uncle Egor warned us...”
“Irishka!” – Grant embraced his wife. “I think she’s got all her maternal instincts focused on Vaagn. Maybe she thinks he’s her baby?”
“Don’t joke around, honey. January is coming up, and I’m kind of scared.”
 
 
When his mother read the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood,” little Vaagn frowned, his eyebrows drawn together, and stated seriously:
“Mommy! This is a very bad fairy tale!”
A few days later, in the evening, Grant’s colleagues came over for tea. One of them, a close friend, Oleg, asked Vaagn – “What is your favorite fairy tale?” He pouted:
“I don’t like fairy tales, they all lie.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Because.”
The boy gestured with his palm, beckoning the wolf.
“Uffa? Let’s tell everyone the right story.
Uffa hurriedly crouched on her hind legs, eagerly tapping her front paws, waiting for the command.
 “Uffa, why do you have such big ears?” – the wolf lay down on the floor and pressed her ears to her head. “Uffa, why do you have such big eyes?” – she lowered her head and clamped it between her paws, her gray-blue eyes blinking. “And now, Uffa, tell us, why do you have such big teeth?”       
The adults looked at each other, not quite sure what to make of it.   The giant wolf opened her mouth wide.  The boy pulled out the wolf’s tongue with his little fingers, grasped the huge fangs of the predator with his fists and commanded, “Now become the wicked wolf of a fairy tale!”
The wolf loudly drew air into her lungs, arched her back, the hair on her spine standing up; she opened her eyes wide, and, without closing her mouth... roared. 
Oleg slowly sat more and more erect on the couch, covered in sweat. His wife squeezed his hand painfully.
“Now, show us how kind Uffa is.” The wolf exhaled her “fha” loudly and obediently lay down on her back with her giant paws facing up. “So, you see that fairy tales lie? She didn’t eat me, there you have it!”
While the boy was directing the show to prove the unreliability of fairy tales, the guests turned pale. When he finished, he wrapped his arms around the furry neck of the beast, laughed out loud, affectionately took the wolf by the ear and led her to his room.
“Your son and Uffa are perfect for making a Mowgli movie,” said Oleg quietly, “Grant Vaagnovich! I understand that Uffa is a member of the family, but maybe you should be more careful? That show wasn’t easy on the eyes! A colleague moved away from what he saw.”
“I trust Uffa, although I don’t know why. She’s very smart. Here she is standing in front of the TV, covering the entire screen. I say to her, ‘Uffa, move over, let me have a look’, and she immediately lays down flat so I can watch. You should see how she listens to music! Especially classical music!”
“Does she have any preferences?” – one of the guests decided to joke around.
“Although you’re joking, and I should agree – actually, she does! She loves Beethoven most of all...”
“Don’t laugh,” – Irina interjected, “especially the second movement of the 7th Symphony. She lies down, totally still, and listens, seeming to remember something. She frowns, closes her eyes and doesn’t breathe. Do you remember, honey? One day, Vaagn was listening to the symphony with her and toward the end he wept bitterly. We asked him, ‘What’s wrong, son?’ And he sobbed, ‘Uffa’s crying, too. She remembers everything. She misses her mother.’”
“By the way, if the music comes from outside, Uffa glues herself to the window and doesn’t move until she listens to the end,” added Irina.
“However, Oleg, you’ll be able to see for yourself the uniqueness of our Uffa. After all, soon, you and Lena will be moving into the house right across the street.”
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” said Lena, still reeling from what she had seen. “She may be a member of your family, but I won’t let my girls near her.” She turned to her husband and said, “The subject is closed, Oleg!”
“In time, you’ll love her, too,” – Irina laughed. “You’re not the first; you won’t be the last.”
 
Uffa’s love for Vaagn was impossible to hide. When the little three-year-old Vaagn got pneumonia, Uffa ran after the ambulance and kept up with it all the way to the hospital. She stood and stared at the window of his room without blinking, as if she were waiting for Vaagn to look out it. Grant tried to bring her home, but she snarled, baring her scary dark gums, growled menacingly, and seemed ready to tear apart anyone who dared to drag her into a car. Little Vaagn kept repeating her name in his delirium. Then Irina went down to her and began to talk to her like a human, explaining the boy’s condition. “Learning” all the details, Uffa obediently lay down in the snow; Grant took her by the collar and brought her home.
For the whole week the wolf did not eat, drink or sleep. She lay motionless on the doorstep, gazing anxiously into Grant’s eyes each time he returned from the hospital. Grant crouched down next to the wolf, told her the latest news, after which she laid her huge head on her paws and closed her eyes.
When the car stopped at the doorstep, no sooner had Uffa seen the boy Vaagn, than she jumped through the closed window, shattering the glass. She was badly hurt, defied the commands of Grant and Irina, splashing blood around the house, whimpering merrily with happiness.  They couldn’t calm her down to bring her to the vet until Vaagn took it upon himself to explain it to her:
“Uffa! Look, you have to listen to the grown-ups to get better...”
After the boy’s convincing arguments, Grant managed to cram Uffa into the car. At the vet, who gave her several stitches, Uffa didn’t let out a squeak. She seemed in a hurry to get home to Vaagn.
“Daddy! Uffa is in pain, and she doesn’t have a mother. Turn on her mother’s music,” Vaagn said in a whisper when the wolf lay sprawled out under the table on returning home.
The boy also crawled under the table. While the symphony music played, the little boy gently stroked the wolf, furtively wiping away baby tears.
 
 
If Uffa came to the door, sniffing loudly at the doorstep and waving her tail cheerfully, it meant that Grant’s car had pulled up. Uffa always met him first.
“I’m here, folks!” – Grant greeted his family loudly every time he returned from work. And each time, Vaagn ran out to his dad, throwing himself into his arms. Then, usually from the kitchen, Irina’s smiling face peeked out. But no one came out to meet him today. Grant got worried. Suddenly there was a loud laugh from Vaagn.
“Uffa! Uffochka! You’re adorable!” – laughed Irina.
Grant opened the door to his son’s room.
“Daddy’s here!” exclaimed Vaagn.
“Darling, you haven’t seen anything like this!” – his wife hugged him gently. 
Irina went to the VCR and turned on the cartoon “Jolly Old Man.” The boy led the wolf into the middle of the room. The “old man” laughed. Vaagn began to laugh loudly in synchrony with the cartoon. Uffa tilted her head sideways and spread her ears. Her upper lip, slightly quivering, she rose a little and gave the impression that she was drifting into a wolf’s smile...
Grant joined in the collective laughter. The experiment was repeated many times: They turned on the cartoon, and Uffa smiled; they turned it off, and the wolf returned to her usual expression. 
From that day on, every time little Vaagn laughed out loud, Uffa smiled with him.
 
 
Women’s Day turned out to be fateful for the whole family. But no one guessed at the time that it was the harbinger of disaster. So in the meantime...
A group of friends celebrated March 8th at Oleg’s house. The women decided to pamper themselves and went to the hairdresser. The men bustled about in the kitchen, preparing a festive meal for their loved ones. Naturally, Uffa stayed at home: for her, as a representative of the weaker wolf sex, they left a bowl full of meat and thawed berries that she adored.
At the festive table, Alyonka, Oleg’s daughter, said:
“Daddy! Anechka and I also want... can we take one instead of a doggy... well, when Uffa has wolf cubs?”
“No way,” their mother said indignantly, “I’m stressed out enough when you play at their house.”
“Mommy! Not a big Uffa, but a small one,” – Alyonka wouldn’t let up.
“Aha! And have a beast the size of a couch in the house one year later!”
“Aunt Irina! How old is your Uffa?”
“She’s a little over two, Alyonka!”
“See, mommy? She will keep us safe!”
“And who will protect us from her?”
Vaagn watched the dialogue between mother and daughter in amazement: He looked now at his friend, now at her mother.      
“Aunt Lena! She’s very kind and affectionate, she’s like a little sister to me,” – the boy decided to intervene.
“I’ll see what you do when a real brother or sister appears?”
“Uffa will love them as much as me,” the boy answered calmly.
“All right, son! Today we are all here to honor our women,” – Grant affectionately stroked his son on the head.
 
In the midst of the feast, very close by, there was a howl that sent shivers down everyone’s spine – it was the howl of a male...
At first the whole group froze, everyone clinging to the backs of their chairs. Then they jumped up from their seats and leaned against the windows. A huge
male wolf was sniffing at the doorstep of Grant and Irina’s house. His giant nostrils emitted fumes like the exhaust from a bus. The light, swaying in the wind, reflected a frightening green in the beast’s eyes. He limped and turned abruptly with his entire torso toward the window. Then he slowly approached it, lifted his enormous torso on his hind legs, placing his forelegs on the window sill, and then there was a dull thud: the bare bone of its mutilated foreleg hit the window frame – the paw was gone. When the giant howled with even more force, Oleg grabbed the gun from the wall. Immediately, there was a howl in response, weaker at first, and then continuous and threatening – it was Uffa.
Through the thin curtains you could see her scurrying from corner to corner.
“What if she goes through the window again?” whispered Irina.
“I don’t know... I can’t imagine... Is it a lovers’ reunion or a life-or-death struggle?” Grant wondered hesitantly.
Then Uffa’s face appeared behind the glass. Suddenly, as if responding to the wolf, she jumped up on the wide window sill. Even at night you could see her wide-open eyes. The fur on her back was disheveled, and her spine arched.  She banged her head against the glass and growled menacingly, splashing saliva and exposing fearsome fangs. The unconcealed fury of the enraged Uffa caused a strange reaction in the uninvited “guest”: The giant male somehow slumped. He howled at length initially, then pressed his ears down and whimpered with his tail between his legs. Abruptly slinking away from the window, he took one last look at Uffa. With a limp, and at the same time, bouncing wolf gait, the beast retreated toward the woods. As soon as the wolf disappeared from the young Uffa’s sight, she stepped away from the window.
There was silence.
“What was that?” – Oleg’s voice echoed in the graveyard silence, “Do you understand anything?”
“I think Uffa drove him away from us. Or am I wrong?” Grant asked rhetorically.
“Take that beast away, at last!” – Oleg’s wife was getting hysterical.
After a couple of hours of calm outside, Grant, just in case, took the shotgun with him and decided to try entering the house. He found Uffa sleeping peacefully by the door.
 
When Uncle Egor heard the details of the “meeting” between the two predators, he was perplexed:
“The male came so close to a human because he smelled the heat of a young she-wolf. What is surprising is that Uffa actually drove the male away from the dwelling during the “critical” season! And didn’t just drive him away, but was ready for a fight. This has nothing to do with the behavior of a wolf!”
“He didn’t have a front paw, just a bone, as if it had been gnawed off,” Irina added.
“Irina! Wolves are animals that really love freedom. Once caught in a trap, many chew off a paw to escape. I don’t know. Maybe it happened when he was small, and he had to run away from the pack so his tribe wouldn’t eat him...So he wanders through the woods like a lone wolf. And maybe... the female died... There are many of these ‘maybes,’ but there is no way to predict how Uffa will behave in the long run.” 
 
The next evening, Irina noticed that Uffa was not scratching at the door to go out of the house to relieve herself. She usually gave signs with either a whimper or a quiet intermittent “oo-oo.”
“Hey, Grant! Did you take Uffa out?”
“I thought you took her out...”
“Does this mean since yesterday morning she...” – They looked at each other, realizing that since the male had appeared, Uffa had not asked to go relieve herself. 
Grant walked up to her with her collar and cheerfully called – “Let’s go for a walk, Uffa!” She jumped up and ran into the boy’s room, immediately trying to wiggle under the bed.  Her huge body lifted the bed, and little Vaagn, watching, jumped on the mattress and burst into laughter.
“Come on, Uffa! Come on!” – he clapped his hands. “She’s not going to pee in the cold! She can do it herself!!!”
“How’s that? Does she want to go out on her own, without us?” – Grant stopped at the threshold of the room.
“Maybe without her collar?” Irina timidly intervened, adding quietly, “Grant, don’t let her out ... what if she runs away after what happened yesterday?”
Little Vaagn crawled under the bed after the wolf:
“Uffa! Come on, let’s show them your trick!” – said the boy importantly, pulling the wolf out from under the bed by her collar.
While the confused parents looked at each other, Uffa sneezed loudly and obediently followed the boy. He opened the bathroom door, and Uffa sat down on the drainpipe and relieved herself.
“There!” – the boy declared triumphantly, waving his little hand. 
“Oh, wow!!!” – Grant blurted out in surprise. “Well, how about that..”
Anticipating the next, self-evident question, the boy sighed:
“Daddy! So far, Uffa hasn’t learned how to sit on the toilet! But we’ll practice!”
His parents laughed heartily. But it was clear that the wolf, for some reason, did not want to leave the house. The key to the riddle was revealed over the next two years. It was during the critical season that she deliberately stayed indoors: either out of fear of succumbing to temptation; or out of fear for the lives of all those she loved.
 
The young ones still did not know about the addition to the family, when Uffa’s behavior changed strangely: She began to walk more quietly, almost never howled her patented “oo-oo-oo – fha,” became cautious, as if shying away, all the while looking around and shunning Irina. 
“What’s wrong with her? She’s acting strangely! Is she sick, Grant?” Irina asked. “I used to come home from work, and she’d come flying toward me, spinning around like a top. But now, she shuns me.”
“I don’t know, Irishka! Everything else seems to be the same as before...”
A week later, Irina found out she was pregnant. When, cheerful and anticipating her husband’s joy at the news, she entered the house, the first thing she saw was Uffa lying on the doormat. To get inside, Irina would have had to step over her.
Without closing the front door, she crouched down in front of the wolf:
“Well, my friend! Will you let me pass?”
Uffa slowly stood up, lowered her head, and, from her open mouth, dumped two cones on the doormat.
“Sweetheart, did you bring me a present?”
Uffa often brought gifts: here a bee, there a mouse or a bird. She would leave them outside on the mat. For the first time, she left a gift not in the form of a trophy and, furthermore, not outside. Irina gasped:
“So you knew I was pregnant? That’s why you stayed away from me!” – Her eyes filled with tears and she hugged the wolf. Uffa exhaled loudly and lay stock-still.
This incident added so much love to the good news that at night, lying in bed, the young couple discussed it at length. 
Soon, the family noticed that the wolf somehow managed to open the door, silently lowering the handle. Seeing another of the wolf’s tricks, Grant said cheerfully:
“All doors open for Uffa.” 
The news of twins took the young parents by surprise. Sitting in the car they were happily returning home, when suddenly Irina exclaimed:
“Well no! No way!”
“What are you talking about, my darling?”
“Listen, Grant! Do you remember? For one, it was the first time Uffa left a gift not outside, but inside the house. Second, they were not dead trophies... and third, they were two cones!”
“You don’t think she knew about the twins, do you?”
“I no longer know what to think anymore. But the more I watch her, the more I doubt the idea that ‘Man is the crowning achievement of nature’.”
 
When the twins were brought home, Uffa seemed to admire them. She did not come close, keeping her distance, apparently aware of her gigantic size. Her gray-blue eyes seemed to glow with a sense of unrealized motherhood.
She would make unusual sounds to distract the newborns while their mother was preparing formula. Every time Irina got out of bed at night, Uffa was at her side. When the babies got a little older, Uffa could rock the buggy with them, pushing it with her nose. She made the kids laugh, waving her fluffy tail. But, for the first time, Uffa did something she had never allowed herself to do: She claimed baby Paul’s white blanket. She gently pulled it off the sleeping baby and lay down on top of it. The parents had to buy a new, but now blue one for the baby. She didn’t touch it.
“Uffa corrected the mistake we made with the color,” Grant joked.
“It turns out she has sophisticated taste!”
“No, daddy,” Vaagn interjected. “When she lies down on the blanket, it means that her little brother and sister are all right!
Vaagn was right.” If one of the babies was naughty, the wolf would come running to her parents, holding the blanket in her teeth.   
 
Soon, if necessary, the parents could leave the little ones with Uffa to run to the store or pharmacy. They knew that while they were gone, Uffa would be to the little ones like “our furry mother” – as Vaagn once “dubbed” the wolf.
Oleg and Lena never ceased to be amazed at the calmness of their neighbors:
“You guys have nerves of steel,” said Lena indignantly from time to time, “With Vaagn, it’s all right, he’s almost six. But what about the little ones? Leaving infants alone with a wolf?!”
“I think you underestimate our Uffa!” smiled Irina. “It’s prejudice, that’s all!  If it were, say, a sheepdog, you wouldn’t worry, would you?”
“The whole trouble is that you put the dog and the wolf in the same category.
To us, Uffa is neither a dog nor a wolf. She is a member of our family.
Remember when she chased the male away?”
“Are you sure she chased it away? Maybe her wolf instinct just hasn’t awakened yet? So what if the beast listens to Beethoven as if it were normal! Personally, I think this music reminds her of the insinuating approach of a wolf. That’s why she listens to it!” – Lena shrugged.
“Trust us, Lenochka,” – Irina gently patted her friend on the shoulder.
 
 
“Did you buy a present for Oleg, honey?” – Irina was twisting her curlers at the mirror.
“Of course, my princess!”
“Well... I’ll be a princess in the evening, but now I’m a frog,” – laughed Irina.
“You’re always a princess to me: whether in a robe or in slippers... or better yet, without anything... under the robe,” – Grant deliberately switched to an accent from the Caucuses. 
“There are not many hours left till the New Year. How time flies! Today we are invited at 8. That’s good, I’ll put the little ones to bed, and we’ll take Vaagn with us, let him play with Alyonka.”
“Again the whole group will criticize us for leaving the little ones with the ‘gray wolf’!” Grant whispered in a deliberately menacing and conspiratorial way. “By the way, today you will meet a young couple, great guys – Semyon and Nadya.”
“Do you work with them?”
“Semyon is on our team, and Nadya teaches biology at school.” Uncle Egor told Semyon about our Uffa: about her love for children and her advanced interest in Beethoven’s works,” – Grant winked at his wife. “Semyon asked me to play the symphony today to see Uffa’s reaction to the great Beethoven with his own eyes,” Grant said smugly. “Oleg told them about his own experiment. Remember how Uffa froze, glued to the window until she finished listening to the whole symphony. Down to the last note.”
“You men really don’t grow up! Boys to the end!”
“Yes! I’m your smartest boy, and your handsomest!” – he hugged his wife.
“You’re my most pampered!” – she kissed her husband. “Oh! Let’s not burn the duck in the oven!” – she hurried into the kitchen.
“My dear! It smells so good!”
“I’ll take the duck at 7, help Lena set the table, and come back to put Marishka and Pavel to bed. It’d be better not to forget to take the monitor, just in case, so I don’t have to run back and forth every fifteen minutes.” Then she added, “Lenka will keep saying, ‘We left the babies with the beast...’”
Grant came out of the bedroom. Uffa was wagging her tail like crazy, and the infants were humming contentedly.
“If only you, our Uffa, had learned to call on the cell phone,” – he affectionately petted the wolf.
“And also, cooking, washing and ironing!” added Irina sarcastically, “Grant! She understands everything, and she’s lying there thinking, ‘They’re becoming obnoxious, the jerks’.”
 
 
“Come on, Grant! Where’s your signature Armenian coffee?” asked Oleg, as everyone satiated and contentedly moved to the couch. 
“You’ll have it in a moment,” replied Irina. “I forgot the Turkish coffee pot, I’ll run and get it now.”
“And now, specially for our new friends,” said Oleg solemnly, “Beethoven, Symphony No. 7, Second Movement! Let’s go to the window!”
The first notes rang out. The guests moved to the window. A few minutes passed, but there was no sign of the wolf.
“Where’s your Uffa?” asked Oleg, “I’m going to turn it up.”
Irina, looking around, asked loudly:
“Where did I put the monitor?”
“You didn’t bring it,” Lena answered just as loudly, “I’ve been wondering how you can sit calmly for an hour without worrying about the infants.” 
“Aunt Ira,” Alyonka said, “Vaagn went home to get some balloons. Can we blow them up now instead of at midnight?” 
Irina looked at Grant in concern. He jumped up from his seat.
“Grant, let’s go! A child alone... in the street at night,” she shrieked.
No sooner had they rushed out than little Vaagn ran from the house: with disheveled hair and trembling hands, he shouted loudly:
“Mom! There’s Uffa ... chewed up ... brother and sister... blood...”
For a second, the parents stopped dead in their tracks...and from the open door came the shrieking sound of a baby crying.
And then, out of the house, running toward them, holding in its teeth a scrap of bloody blue blanket, baby Paul’s, with tousled hair, ran the wolf: Spitting blood and making the furious roar of a mad wild beast, she raced toward Irina.
Grant rushed back at lightning speed, grabbed Oleg’s gun from the wall and fired...
 
Signs of a life-or-death struggle were clearly visible... Furniture was tossed all around, blood on the walls and floor... The mauled torso of a giant wolf lay on the carpet by the large table in a pool of blood... the mutilated foreleg of the beast, twisted sideways in an unnatural position... A street lamp swinging in the wind rhythmically lit up the bare bone of the maimed wolf stump...
The twins, Marishka and Pavel, were found safe and sound ... both were squirming in their cribs, screaming hysterically.
 
Everyone gathered over the dying wolf. Grant and Irina’s desperation and guilt knew no limits. Uffa, with unblinking eyes, looked only at little Vaagn. She seemed oblivious to the pain, trying to admire the little boy in her last moments as he stammered and wept bitterly...
Vaagn had decided to run home for the balloons... While he was looking for them in his room, there was a rumble in the dining room – a floor lamp crashed down... and then, there was the terrible growling of Uffa... Vaagn ran out of the room and saw the male wolf standing at the door to the babies’ room, and opposite him... Uffa. Everything that happened afterwards Vaagn saw while hiding under the table...
  As the story ended, the boy, taking Uffa’s huge head in his little hands, never stopped sobbing:
“Uffa... my dear... don’t die... The ambulance is coming... It’s my fault. I left the door open... it’s my fault, not dad’s,” – he sobbed the last words loudly.
Grant collapsed on his knees in front of the wolf:
“I KILLED A HUMAN... I killed a Human... I killed a Human,” he kept repeating the same words. They grew quieter and quieter, drifting down, sinking deeper and deeper, approaching the Bottom of the Father’s boundless Love and Appreciation for the Savior of his family... and in response, louder and louder, like the last approach of the Great She-Wolf, the music cascaded over them, the music so loved by Her, coming from the open window of the neighbors – Beethoven’s brilliant symphony...