Lyddia unscrolled the leather, and began to read, “This is the story of the encounter of del Perro and Tom. 

She read again to the group the paragraph she had read through in the study, then continued:

“When they had calmed enough to know that neither of their tribes had slain the prize breeding stock belonging to the farmers, they set out together to inspect the evidence.  Although the farmer had cleared up the carcasses and butchered such meat as could be saved, there were still blood stains and smells such as no true human would note.  Sure enough, at the edge of the trampled grass, there was a patch of earth–almost as if it had been deliberately dug bare–and there was a print like that of a large dog, and beside it a splayed hand with nails such as were never seen on any human.”
“Del Perro and Tom did agree should such a being come again to their attention, it would be their duty to protect their kind and their humankind from such predations.”

“Not many moons hence (the narration continued in different handwriting) they caught the miscreant about his business–slaughtering a fine Angus bull beneath a full moon, and eating only the sweetbreads from it.  He was a wolf; yet not a wolf such as had walked this earth in many an eon.  For he was fully as tall at the shoulder as a pony, and had a dense coat of fiery red.  The del Perros and Tom set upon the beast with clubs and guns, for they were in human form.  The beast yelped, and fled before their superior numbers–for the full pack of del Perros had gathered that night–but they seemed to cause it little harm.”

“It was said that the following week, a certain prominent business man set it about that his horse had run away, and his buggy tipped with him.  Shortly thereafter, he left the area and was not heard from again.”

“Until now,” Benny interjected.  “Pops started buying up any property he knew of that had ever been cat or dog owned as soon as he got wind of this ginger-haired gent who is spreading it around that he is planning a chain of resorts.  We figured best we own them”

Tom waggled his eyebrows at Benny.  “Well, that’s your story.  But how do we know this ginger haired fellow is the dire-wolf in this story?” He gestured at the skin held on Lyddia’s lap.

“We knew,”Benny explained,”Because he caught my sister and litter-mate when she was in estrus.  You should see the pups!  The only reason she lived at all is because one of our Men is a veterinarian.  When she knew she was with pup, Selva told my dad.  Pups have become few–so we were glad of any at all.  We didn’t know what we were letting into the house.”