Chapter 166 Chapter 165 Release into the Wild and Reverse Domestication
From the moment he started preparing to rescue these dogs, Suming had been brewing a plan that sounded utterly impossible to realize!
The eighty-some dogs in the vehicle, which Suming encountered for the first time and probed with his spiritual power thereafter, he found had probably really been frightened by humans, showing no affinity for people at all. Even after they spent some time in the rescue station, their instinct was still to resist upon seeing humans, completely losing their trust in mankind.
Having the gift of Animal Friends, he was barely able to interact with them normally, but others simply couldn't manage that. Allowing these dogs to be adopted, or letting them continue living in human society, was akin to placing a very timid person inside a horror city, essentially subjecting them to twenty-four hours of fear and torment. Therefore, neither supervision nor adoption would work.
So, he had no intention of letting these dogs continue living as pets.
After all, dogs weren't creations of nature but were domesticated by humans. The very first dogs were actually wolves that had been kept by humans, tamed over generations, gradually losing their wildness and turning into dogs. Then humans bred various dogs through crossbreeding, leading to the diverse breeds of pet dogs we see today.
Suming, with a burst of creative thinking, planned to have these dogs live in the wild, to rewild them, to make them turn back into wolves, or at the very least, become wild creatures again. They wouldn't have to rely on humans for survival.
If it were anyone else attempting this, even a national animal research institute, it would hardly be possible. But with the help of Animal Friends, it might just be achievable.
Moreover, Suming had a natural advantage—Huiya could help him! An important factor in de-domesticating was adapting to wilderness life and learning the skills needed for survival in the wild. In other words, they needed a similar wild creature to teach them!
But typical wild beasts were either tamed in zoos, lacking wilderness survival skills, or purely natural wild monsters, like bringing in a real wild Grey Wolf, which would certainly have plenty of survival experience but be too unsafe. Without Suming present, it might see these dogs as food.
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Huiya was perfectly suited for this role, lying between wild and captive existence, obedient and safe, yet untamed at heart with natural wilderness survival genes. After all, in the wild, wolves had stronger survival adaptability than dogs.
On the flip side, the existence of these dogs was also beneficial for Huiya. Although Huiya would grow up to be a fierce Grey Wolf, it was still young now, struggling even to climb into a vehicle. Leaving it alone in the wild was not without risks. Small rabbits and foxes posed no threat, but Huiya was naturally combative. If it encountered bigger Grey Wolves, bears, wild boars or the like... Of course, there weren't any such creatures in the hills behind the city now, but even a small wild boar could be a lot for Huiya to handle.
Previously, Huiya could only venture out when Suming went to the hillside, but Suming didn't need to become immune to taming like monkeys, and couldn't possibly go to Monkey Mountain every day, so Huiya's rewilding progress was very slow. Now, with this large group of dogs, together with Huiya, it could teach them wilderness living skills, and if they ran into trouble, the dogs could help Huiya in collective fights. As long as they didn't encounter large groups of humans, no one could beat them!
Although it had to be said, among this group of dogs, the Chihuahua didn't seem to have much fighting power, but several of the native dogs were quite intimidating. Golden Retrievers might not be aggressive, but their size was big enough to scare ordinary animals.
However, Suming also considered that these pet dogs wouldn't adapt to the wild life overnight; at least their stomachs couldn't handle raw meat. So, from the two hundred thousand sponsored by Jiangjin City, he spent a few thousand yuan building a large circle of kennels on a hillside, having Mr. Lin come by often to take care of them, feeding them and such.
"Got it?" Suming briefly explained the next steps to the Husky brothers and Huiya. There wasn't really any particularly troublesome 'work' to do—hereafter, Huiya and the Husky brothers would live in the hills, leading the pack of seventy or eighty dogs, simply taking them 'playing around' in the mountains every day.
Just one rule, don't wander off too far, keep within the mountain top allocated to the zoo. And don't hurt anyone.
Regarding Suming's plan, Lin instinctively felt something was unreliable, no matter how playful city folks could be, they shouldn't go about it like this.
Suming mustered all his strength, squeezing out every bit of spiritual power, to give a thorough 'baptism' to the dogs so they could better integrate into the natural environment, and then he began opening the dog cages one by one.
It was strange to say, but the dogs, who knew Suming and had spent some time with Grey Wolf and Huiya, didn't show much affection. Yet, when Huiya appeared, there was no resistance; instead, they cautiously emerged from their cages, boldly approaching Huiya.
Huiya sat on the ground, quickly surrounded by a host of dogs. In comparison to many large dogs, Huiya was rather small in size, but his presence was formidable. While the multitude of dogs fixed their gaze on him, he sat in the middle, lifting his head proudly, glancing obliquely at the sky, flanked by the Grey Wolf brothers as his guardians, looking as if he had been struck by lightning.
The other dogs imitated Huiya and sat down, all lifting their heads to the sky as well.
Even Suming couldn't help but look up, as if there was something curious in the sky.
Just then, Huiya suddenly let out a wolf howl with all his might.
After a few seconds of silence, all hell broke loose! All the dogs joined in the howling, creating a cacophony that could drive one insane. Some small dogs like Chihuahuas and Pekingeses were completely off-key; their cries sounded like ghosts wailing. The two Huskies were especially fierce, howling as if they were real wolves. They looked the part too, except that, upon closer inspection, one could see their eyes looking remarkably dumb...ass...---
Awooo, ooooh, woof woof woof... the back mountain was filled with an eerie chorus of cries!
After about half a minute of howling, with their throats going hoarse, the dogs still kept on. Huiya seemed to find the howling a bit boring, shook his head to stop, then impatiently swiped away a few dogs blocking his path with his paws, and lazily ran towards the mountain.
Without any need for Suming's direction, a large group of dogs simply followed suit. Dozens of dogs, which had seemed lifeless just days ago, now appeared as if reborn, bursting with tremendous energy, barking and frolicking as they followed Huiya up the back mountain, spreading over the hills like a sea of dogs. The short-legged ones lagged behind, tongues lolling out as they ran desperately.
"Hahaha, success is in sight!" Witnessing the scene, Mr. Lin's brain short-circuited, Suming stood with his hands on his hips, laughing uproariously.
Managing these vast mountains would be quite a feat, but with these dozens of dogs, and the continuously rescued animals that would arrive, they were all his subordinates. What scoundrel would dare to make trouble here?
How does that saying go? Wherever there are animals, that is my kingdom.
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PS: I see some classmates asking for speedier updates; please understand that this book has never missed twice-daily updates, maintaining its free status with 360,000 words. Once it's on sale, I will definitely speed up the release rate.