Wolves

Sam Reifsteck has no doubt that the animal he fired a shot at four feet from his Bonners Ferry doorway was a wolf.

Brian Johnson, a senior conservation officer with Idaho Department of Fish and Game in Boundary County, can’t confirm it.

“I’ve lived in this neighborhood for over 30 years,” Reifsteck said. “I’ve seen everything from moose to mice, but I’ve never been concerned for wolves.”

At 1:30 a.m. Jan. 28, Reifsteck was awake watching television at his Cedar Street home behind the Kootenai River Inn when he heard his kenneled dog barking.

“Then all of a sudden, she started snarling,” he said. “I got up and looked and saw this big black thing run from her kennel. It stopped and run up on the snow berm.

“I come back in the house and tried to get the dog,” he continued. “It went through my driveway and came back. I was looking out the front door and it started up my walk to the front door. When it was four feet away from me, it snarled. I stepped back in the house, grabbed my pistol and fired a shot between its legs and it took off.”

Reifsteck then called authorities.

Johnson responded, and noted that he did see some big footprints. The conditions of the footprints were poor, even through Reifsteck covered them with boxes to preserve them.

“Cars had driven every-where, dogs had run everywhere and people had walked all around,” Johnson said. “I can’t say one way or another. From what I saw, it’s possibility tracks from a large dog-like animal.

Johnson couldn’t rule it out.

“With the evidence I have, I think its possible,” he said. “The behavior of he animals seemed more dog-like than wolf-like. Most of the time, wolves are extremely shy of people. They generally don’t approach humans.”