On January 5th, 2011, New York City Zoo became home to six wolf pups, happy and healthy, and adored by the media. Delilah, regrettably, was the runt of the litter, and was turned away by her mother in favour of her five siblings. This would have been Delilah's end, and there would not have been a story to write about her; had there not been a pair of two generous zookeepers who took her in and nursed her as their child. She received baby formula through a bottle, and grew up surrounded by love and care, and learned to know her brothers and sisters as friends, not siblings.

It was in this stage of her life that Delilah learned love and warmth, and although she was raised as a dog, she retained the parts of her that were still wolf. She was in the wolf exhibit often, playing with her siblings, hunting with them and pestering their mother; although she no longer remembered that she was related to any of them. Her memories were of her human parents.

When Delilah turned one, her generous zookeeper carers released her into the wolf exhibit indefinitely; now having decided that a year-old Delilah no longer needed their help in her development. She now lived alongside the wolves, building her skills and her relationships with them and creating happy memories. However, this is where her life began a downward spiral.

Her beauty caught the eye of many animal enthusiasts, and she was eventually bought by a charismatic man who collected a large number of dog breeds and allowed them to live in the forests on his estate. He paid the zoo a large sum of money; one they couldn't refuse. And with that; Delilah was shipped off, and she never saw her family again.

Delilah was optimistic; she would make new friends; she would create another life for herself and this fresh start was just a new beginning. There was one thing the zoo did not know about this charismatic man, however, and that was that he was a fanatic dog-breeder, and Delilah, with her pure-blood wolf status, was just the female he wanted. There began the new stage in her life; where every year she was bred frantically with a new dog, or wolf, or half-breed. She bred twice; once after she just turned a two years old, and once at the same time the following year.

Every time, after the birth, her pups would be taken away from her. The first time, she was heartbroken. When it happened the second time, she was harrowed, but knew after speaking to some other females being held that it happened to all of them and that she was powerless to stop it. This was why, of course, she was incredibly confused when one pup of her second litter, the runt, wasn't taken away.

This pup had come from a cross between his wolf-mother and a German Shepherd father. His siblings all had apparitions of strength, malice and courage; qualities that were very much desired of dogs up in the North, and he did not. So; unable to find another use for him, the little runt stayed with his mother. Delilah named him Anael, after the Angel whose crucifix she wore, and swore to always protect him like she had never been able to protect other pups.

Her relationship with Anael was awkward, at best, She had never had the opportunity to raise her children before, and Anael was the first. She didn't know how to meet his needs, how to distinguish one cry from the next, how to raise him like a mother would. She was too distant, too hardened for it. Nevertheless, she loved Anael like she had never been able to love any of her other children; and the force of her love seemed strong enough to break the barrier between them.

Anael grew stronger and closer to his mother, and Delilah might have even been happy in that time. However, it would not last. When Anael was roughly six months old, the charismatic monster whom Delilah now considered her master did find a use for Anael. It turned out Anael's development had been merely slowed; not diminished completely, and at six months of age was already larger than some of the dogs that lived on the Master's estate. So, Anael, too, was taken from Delilah.

This drove the she-wolf into a state. She allowed herself to grow close to her son; to love him like all mothers loved their children; and to have him, too, taken away caused Delilah heartbreak and pain like nothing else. She didn't eat for three days after her son's departure, did not drink or get up. She lay under a large willow tree near a stream, on the very edge of the estate, and just slept.

Then came the anger. As she recovered from her depression, under the careful watch of some of the other breeding females on the estate, her hatred of the Master grew and grew until she had so much pent-up aggression in her that she would have surely jumped at his throat the next time she saw him. She wanted, no, needed, to escape so that she could find Anael again. She had promised her son as much when they parted; that she would come after him, she would go to the North and find him.

So she plotted her escape, and when the time was right, slipped out through a hole between the bottom of the perimeter fence and the ground, and was free. Then, she ran, for many days and many nights, until her strength flagged completely.

That brings us to the present day; in which Delilah looks frantically for a pack to stay with for the remainder of the year, and to find her lost son again.