Swiftcurrent Creek twelve years a slave

Although Bones didn't want him to feel obligated to stay with her, she was not the type to lie to a friend. "I'd like that very much, Ira, if ye wanted to stay with me. But," she said, her tail still fanning the air, "don't feel like ye have to stay forever. It'd just be good to have a familiar face, a friend, right now. It seems most of the wolves I knew are long gone..." The only one left here in the creek was Cap'n Bazi.

Bones saw absolutely nothing wrong with Ira's wish to meet Atticus. "I'd like that!" she said, regaining significantly more of her typical enthusiasm. It might have seemed strange, coming from the bruised and battered youth, yet that was Bones for you: tough and unconquerable. "Let's make a trip of it in a few weeks. Aye aye?" she said, lifting a paw and giving him companionable nudge with an accompanying wink.