Wherefore the Werewolf?

Why are wolves the most common weres? Shifter stories are common across cultures and feature all sorts of alter-forms—bats, birds, bears, cats, foxes, even—stretching a point—cockroaches! But werewolves are far and away the most popular.

When was the last time you saw a real, live wolf? Sure, the romantic image of those noble wild creatures roaming free is, well, romantic. But the original stories were so popular in large part for their plausibility. That howling outside the ring of fire or the safety of walls could have been a predator on four feet...or on two...or maybe something other, some vanished friend or rumored ally, someone who chose not to bind him- or herself to society, someone who briefly slipped the community chains but might return...

With the explosion of daring choices made possible by e-, there are now more were-critters than ever before. (Ahem. Ferrets? You know who you are!) But wolves still outnumber the rest*.

Locally, I’d have a better chance of running into an armadillo, bat, coyote, deer... Whole alphabets of animals, but no wolves. Not in the city. There’s a rescue facility pretty close for those poor mad half-wolf things, but that’s certainly not running free! Just beyond our lights are hosts of creatures, worlds of mystery... Why aren’t more of us enchanted by the nearer shadows and what they might hold?

Okay, it’d be pretty hard to make an armadillo a figure of mystery and romance. (Particularly erotic romance! A wrinkly armored possum-kin-looking thing is just naturally made for comedy.) But surely there are some intriguing other choices available, given the vastness of the animal kingdom! And animals that wouldn’t seem out of place in a given area would tend to offer more scope than the modern wolf-skulking-in-shadows tale where the poor creatures are so indistinguishable from vampires the territories often overlap.

Nancy Collins had a really good idea with those coyotes, native to the territory as they are. But, again, they’re not the only native creature out there. Hmm. Anyone interested in some fresh-made regional weres?


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*No, I haven’t counted. Feel free to, should statistics gladden your heart. I’d love to see the results!