It was a warm overcast day in Mackinac County on the last day of November. My dad, Terry, headed out on his daily wolf scouting ride. He checked one of a couple wolf baits we had out and spotted some fresh wolf tracks. He got out of his truck to look at the tracks closer and heard something in front of him. When he looked up, he saw two huge wolves doing zigzags in the thick brush about 40 yards away. My dad knew there was no way he could get a good shot off and decided to go home and get me in hopes of cutting the wolves off.
 
My dad dropped me off on foot on an old logging road ahead of where the initial sighting was. He went up the road 100 yards to where the tracks were and we both headed in the woods after the wolves. I got about 200 yards down the two-track and I heard a loud deep howl and I said to myself out loud “THAT’s A WOLF”! I started shaking from head-to-toe. After I heard the howl, instinctively I howled back at the wolf. We had at least 4 howling exchanges before something to the left caught my eye. That’s when I saw the wolf standing about 20 to 25 yards away in the thick under growth of a red pine tree plantation. I pulled my gun up shaking so bad that I thought my scope was going to fall off. I didn’t even think twice and BANG, I saw the flash of the muzzle and a furry tail go up in the air.
 
I didn’t even go to the wolf but instead turned around and ran to my dad. I was so excited that I couldn’t even see straight. Together we walked over to where the wolf was and it was dropped in her tracks. The wolf was an 83 lb. female with a DNR tracking collar on it.
 
Later we found out from the local DNR that the wolf was collared with help from late Mark W. Spencer a trapping mentor and family friend of mine and my dad’s. Uncle Mark, as we called him trapped this very wolf in 2009 and was the last wolf he helped the DNR collar before passing away in 2011.
 
– Jared Cece