A few hours later, life in the lair had returned too normal. The surgery had gone off without a hitch, and the patient was now sleeping on an old blanket laid out near the couch. Michaelangelo had cleaned the kitchen and was now playing a video game with Raphael. Donatello was glued to his computer, and Splinter had retreated to the quiet of his room. Leonardo sat in an easy chair near the couch reading a military history book.

At a pause in the game Michaelangelo looked down at the dog. "We should pick a name for her."

"I knew this was coming," thought Leonardo, shaking his head. "The same thing happens every time he brings an animal home. He gets attached, then resists when its time to let it go. I don't know why Splinter doesn't just put his foot down."

Leonardo spoke, "No, Mike. You know we can't keep her."

"I know, I know! But she'll probably be here a couple of days at least. We can't just call her dog!"

Raphael cut in, "Yes we can!"

Michaelangelo ignored him. "Hmmm…what would be a good name? She's kinda silver colored. How about Silver?"

"How about Ugly?"

"Maybe Amber, she's got such bright yellow eyes."

"How about Fleabag? She's probably crawling with them."

"She's very sweet-natured, maybe Sugar, or Honey."

Raphael made a disgusted face. "How about Cujo, or better yet, Bitch?"

"How about we just change your name from Raphael to Asshole?"

Leonardo looked up, worried that their Sensei might have entered the room. "Watch your language guys!"

"Don't be such a pussy Leo. She's a female dog. She's a bitch."

"And Raph is an asshole," muttered Michaelangelo under his breath.

"If Splinter hears you two talking like that he'll have you doing flips until you wear a hole in the floor."

"That would have to be an awful lot of flips Leo." Donatello strolled into the room holding a book, "Not that I want to interrupt what I'm sure is an edifying conversation, but I think you'll find this interesting."

"What, you win the sexiest nerd alive contest?" Raphael grinned evilly.

"Not yet. I was curious about what breed of dog our visitor is, so I started looking around online. I didn't find anything that looked quite right, so I looked into another possibility, and it checked out. Mikey's furry friend there is not a Canis familiaris, she's a Canis Lupus." With that, Donatello handed the book to Michaelangelo and pointed to the open page.

"She's a wolf?!" Michaelangelo's startled cry awakened the sleeping animal, who jerked her head up in alarm.

Leonardo walked over to look at the book in Michaelangelo's hands. "You have got to be joking. There are no wolves in New York City."

Everyone turned their heads to stare at the "dog". Apparently uncomfortable under their combined gaze, she started to creep backwards.

"Hey! Don't be scared girl!" Michaelangelo handed the book off to Raphael and went over to the wolf. "Its okay, I don't care if you're a dog or not. I still love ya."

"Okay Don, I agree that she definitely looks the wolves in your book here. So what does that mean to us?"

"Well, I read up a little on wolves that are kept as pets; since I'm sure we can agree that its highly unlikely that she's feral." They glanced over to the floor where Michaelangelo was now cuddling the wolf and whispering in her ears as she panted and thumped her tail happily on the floor. Leonardo nodded in agreement.

Donatello continued, "Dogs and wolves are basically the same, they can be interbred to create hybrids. However, wolves and wolf-hybrids are wilder, less predictable than dogs, can't always be housetrained, and there is a greater potential for aggressive behavior."

Raphael looked up from the book. "Oh great! So you're saying there's a good chance that she'll rip our throats out in the middle of the night."

"I wouldn't jump to that conclusion! Obviously she's got a very good temper. After all, she let Mike and I remove a bullet from her leg without anesthetic! She hasn't growled once, peed on anything, or shown us any other sign of aggression. Which is a lot more than I can say for you, Raph!"

"Hey! I've never peed on anything!"

"I seem to recall an incident involving Mike's favorite comic book." Donatello arched his eyebrow.

"I was eight at the time! He kept annoying me with it! I…"

Leonardo chuckled and cut him off. "Okay. We'll just be extra careful around her, and get her out of here as soon as possible. Hey Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you take her out now and see if she'll do her business. Its just about time for bed."

"Okay. Come on Sweetie!"

Leonardo watched as Mike left with the wolf. It had been an interesting day. "Nice to have a little variety around here," he thought as he headed off to bed.