Simba’s Wolfiness Score

August 6, 2022

Simba joined our family menagerie on October 1, 2021, arriving on a bus from Texas, where she’d been found on the street with her sister, Panda.  She was five months old and 20 pounds, and had to be carried off the bus, shaking visibly.

Simba is now a 40-pound feisty, anxious, stubborn, loud, aggressive, submissive, sweet, and overall perplexing bundle of contradictions.  She adores and is terrified of the most amiable mail carrier imaginable –  who spends a good ten minutes out of his workday coaxing her with treats and pats. When she sees someone she knows (as long as they’re not the mail carrier) she sidles up to them and smothers them in kisses. She’s viewed in her day care as sweet, adorable, friendly, and playful.  She loves to wrestle and play chase with her puppy friends.

And yet anything that moves can suddenly go from friend to prey, including the cats in the house, foxes, deer, squirrels, skunks, or house sparrows.  When her brain clicks into prey mode, Simba will stand on her hind legs, walk sideways (on two feet), and shriek as loud as a fire engine. She lunges and barks at bikes, cars, and 18-wheeler trucks.  She scavenges for food on the street, eating anything from garbage to grass to slugs and insects.  

Simba runs like a racehorse, and leaps like a deer, flying through the air as if bouncing off an invisible trampoline.  She once jumped over a three-foot-high chain link fence –  from a standing position –  first landing on top of the fence, balancing on all four haunches, and then leaping off and racing freely through the neighborhood.  She’s nonplussed by fireworks, but can be spooked by the wind.  She guards her food, and can become as scary as a velociraptor in a matter of seconds.

We recently learned that Panda, adopted by a neighbor, has many of the same behaviors and traits.

According to her DNA test, Simba, who is frequently mistaken for a Basinji, is a mix of: Siberian Husky, Boxer, Pit Bull, Border Collie, Chow Chow, Australian Cattle Dog, German Shepherd, and last but not least – “Supermutt.”  We think she’s in a constant state of identity crisis.  

Also according to her DNA test, Simba has a “Wolfiness Score” of 1.2%, placing her in the “medium” category, or slightly above average.  “Wolfiness Score” apparently refers to the dog’s percentage of ancient wolf genes.  In my loose, anthropomorphizing interpretation, this score refers to the non-domesticated (Internal Family Systems) “part” of the dog. 

Thinking about Simba and wolfiness leads me to ponder the complicated relationship between anxiety and aggression, impulsivity and self-control, and nature and nurture – themes relevant for humans as much as dogs.

If you know your own genetic history, you might ask yourself what role genetics might play in shaping your temperament, as well as how your core values shape who you are, and who you want to be.  You might think about the relationship between your tameness and wildness. Your Personal Wolfiness Score.  And what it tells you about yourself.

The trick with Simba is learning how to tame her behaviors, but not her personality.  Simba is larger than life, and needs to be able to express her uniqueness.  But in the meantime, we just have to ensure that her velociraptor part stays in check, and she doesn’t get in a fight with an 18-wheeler.