• The boy looked about ten when they first brought him in, but after a bath and a haircut he looked closer to his true age of about seventeen. The officer who brought him in said a trapper saw him running through the woods with some dogs and called the cops to investigate. I walked away from the officer and my mom while they talked and I walked over to the boy. He smelled faintly of the forest mixed with a lot of soap. He was wearing some oversized clothes that were in the lost and found. I wonder how they got him to sit in a bathtub to get cleaned and to sit in a chair to get a haircut. I kneeled down in front of him a little over an arm’s length away. He was curled up in a ball, he looked scared he kept glancing up at the officer then glancing back down. When he saw me sitting near him he growled, I held out my hands in a peaceful gesture showing him I mean no harm. He acted like a wild dog. I said hello in a calm voice, I didn’t want to startle him, at the sound of my voice he stopped growling he sat up and turned his head to the side like a dog does when its confused. I asked him if he could understand me, he still looked at me with dog-faced confusion. I heard my mom and the officer stop talking, I guess they glanced over at me. I hear the officer ask if its safe for me to be so close to the wild boy, my mom told him I had been working with animals and children forever and since I was close to the boy’s age I might be able to help him. I smiled then I stoop up, using the same careful movements, I went over to the counter and grabbed a banana out of the fruit basket. I walked back over and kneeled down again peeled the banana and broke it in half. I’ve learned when dealing with animals food builds trust. I handed half of the banana to him he sniffed it unsure of what it is, when I took a bite of my half he understood that this was food and he ate his half. He made a face, he must have never had banana before. I asked him if he could talk and what his name was. He made little yippy bark sounds like a puppy when the officer left my mom walked over to me kneeled down she told me that the trapper that found him called him Rafe I smiled Wolf perfect