This touched me deeply for many reasons: The black wolf of Juneau is back for the winter:

JUNEAU, Alaska – He lets out a piercing howl that slowly penetrates your chest. To human ears, it’s the sound of being alone. And the creature who made the cry probably is.

The locals call him Romeo. He’s a black wolf without a pack, a wild canine who’s often seen patrolling Juneau’s Mendenhall Glacier, the state capital’s signature recreation area.

Romeo baffles area biologists and naturalists with his refusal to find a pack or a mate, choosing instead to return each winter, clearly at ease with humans walking within a few hundred yards.

The story is more complicated than that.  And more profound, more touching, more mysterious.