We have thought about our dear friend, Hickory, a lot.
I have known a wolf dog before and he was a great fella. Not sure what he was mixed with, but he was loyal and smart and very caring. He would like me to take him out for bathroom breaks instead of his master as I would play with him. Rough house around and let him play bite and chase him around. I was told that when we went for walks he was to stop at the crossing and sit.
So, taking him for a walk, I stopped at the crossing and said to him; “sit dow…………,: Before I could finish the sentence he was sitting and looking up at me with a look, well what are we waiting for, I am sitting.
Since then I have spoken fondly of him and then along came Hickory. I suspected from the beginning that he was not merely a dog. When we brought him home, he circled the driveway area in a counter clockwise circle and when he was directly opposite to me in the circle he would lift his head slightly and look in my direction and then return to circling with his head pointed down to the ground.
This went on for some time and the circle he walked grew smaller and smaller and smaller. Until he was directly in front of me. Much in the same way that two dogs who meet for the first time greet each other.
Something in both of us was triggered as he and me reacted and we both tumbled to the ground and he was very angry and challenged me. We had at the time two other dogs of our own, a male and female. Hickory viewed me as the alpha male, which I was and still am, as we now have four, three dogs plus Skye, in addition to those that we foster.
Here we have Dragon and 
Hickory doing what they did best together, play fighting. Hickory would go up to Dragon, an Akita German Shepard mix, and bark in his ears or face for what seemed like a long time. Dragon would just ignore him. When he would finally give into Hickory pestering him, he would chase him and the two would run around or wrestle with each other until tired. Never any aggression or anger between the two, just good friends and good times.
Hickory was also a very good friend to puppies of all sizes. As big as he was he was also very gentle to puppies. One of his favorite things to do was to run into the house and jump on the couch and stretch out and then wait for a puppy to jump up with him and then he would roll over on his back. The puppy would jump on him and they would play and fuss for hours and at no time was he ever agressive with the puppy.
Hickory with his intelligence, humor, loyalty and love was the reason why we adopted Skye and would do so again and again, if we could and had the room for out own pack of wolf dogs.
