This story is from Carolyn, here's what she writes.

I was born the youngest of six children in a small Connecticut town.

We had a couple of dogs and a whole lot of cats that my siblings and I looked after.

Since they were all quite a bit older than me, it wasn't long until they'd all gone

off to college or gotten married and moved out.

That left me to care for the animals alone.

By the time I was twelve we were down to just one dog.

He was a Norwegian elk town with a strong pull.

Every day I walked him or maybe he walked me through the woods behind our house to the

tobacco fields far from the road where I could turn him loose and let him run.

There was a huge track of land owned in part by members of my family and mostly surrounded

by neighboring shrub and tobacco farms.

At twelve I was finally allowed to go alone on these daily walks.

I wasn't afraid.

We had no black bears to speak of back then and the coyote seemed to stay away and I'd

never seen a bobcat.

A few years later while I was in high school I encountered a mountain lion back there.

They've only recently acknowledged their presence in my state but all in all I had no fear

of anything so I would often take off on my own with the dog.

Norwegian elk hounds are a medium sized dog for sort of compact version of a husky.

They're known for hunting in packs and bringing down moose and bear.

My dog took advantage of my female build and lack of strength to pull extra hard and

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