Hi I'm the "actual" Monoko. The true Monoko. Remember the dude that
you saw on stage at EF and NFC? Yeah? That wasn't me. Surprised?
Yeah me too because I can't figure out how you'd even "start" to
think that that was me. He doesn't have the fur, he's a human! for 
pete's sake!...look... do "I" look like a human to you? No? Yeah 
that's what I thought.


Ok, here's the thing. This wolf that you see in the profile picture...
"That" is me, but it's not me who's typing this. Crazy, huh? That's
my human counterpart who was kind enough to take me in and let's me
live in his appartment and is now typing away at his keyboard to give
you some insight on who I am. This is my attempt at forming a mental
picture in your mind with words only, since none of us is very good at
drawing. He's an ok musician though, I'll give him that. Certainly not
a "top of the Charts"-kind of musician or "touring the world"-kind of 
musician but who knows where he'll end up one day? What he lacks in
skill he makes up with perseverance and stubborness. But yeah,
"that's" who you saw on stage.

But I digress. So, you might have already guessed that I'm in fact a
kind of arctic wolf judging by my profile picture...at least that
would be the closest resemblance to my actual species and the easiest
description to get across what I am. What you don't see however is
how far my human had to step back in order to get me in frame like that.
You see, I'm a bit taller than your usual every day arctic wolf. Who
might have an average shoulder height of around 80cm, while I on the
other paw, am 200cm high at the shoulders. I'll let that sink in for
a moment.

So who am I?
The short version of my story goes as follows. I've lived on a very
tall mountain at the foot of the city that me and my human currently
live near by. (Not gonna disclose where "exactly" we're located
because we both really enjoy our privacy.) The weather was extremely
cold up there and staying alive was a daily grind because food was
rather sparse but one day I couldn't stand it anymore and decided to
leave. Our pack leader agreed but refused me to ever come back once
I started my journey. So once I started my trip down the mountain
there was no turning back midways. This was my only chance, had I
died on this journey it would have been a wasted effort but that's
the fate I had to live with if I wanted things to change, if I die...
so be it. But luckily I made it down alive...barely. In fact I was
so dehydrated and starved that I fell unconcious on the very last
section. Lucky for me, some human rangers were around with their
snowcats and loaded me onto the back of it to take me to the
nearest hospital and nursed me back to life which after many years I'm
still eternally grateful for. They later told me that they knew about
my species living up there and that their city had set this mountain
under governmental protection and put my species on the list of highly
endangered species which also was the reason for their rescue.

You may think that I'd be able to form words but whatever it may be
that Disney/Pixar or Dreamworks have told you (my human is a big
nerd in that field so ask me how I know), actual real life wolves
anatomy makes it rather hard to speak and no we don't have a device
that can translate thoughts into speech. But to be fair, I "do"
actually have a mental "connection" to this human, not like mind-
reading or anything crazy like that, but he can hear what I'm saying
without me physically forming words with my mouth and then he just
replies back in spoken words which I of course can hear. Since we
found out that we were able to communicate this way and apparently
we're the only ones compatible (at least as far as we know). Since
he was the only one able to "hear"me, we both agreed that he'd be
my "medium" through which I can communicate with the outside world.

This makes it so much easier to do things. Imagine having no arms,
legs and no mouth while you're fully capable of thinking like a
regular human, you wouldn't be too happy, now would you? Yeah that's
the extreme version of how I feel. But my human is a big help in
that department. Through him I was able to get some work and help
people in this society, I usually carry stuff or run errands. Without
him, people would've probably run off the second they'd seen me but
this way they now know that they don't have to fear me. That way I
can also earn some money and pay for my rent and food which can 
become quite expensive. 

On a sidenote and I know this might sound a bit weird coming from
a big wolf but I hate the taste of meat, seriously, it tastes gross
but back where I came from you didn't have much of a choice other
than to eat or die. But here, there are so many meatless options
and since my human is a vegetarian himself(coincidence? I think not!),
we get along quite well in that regard. But yeah, he keeps track
of my finances, and manages stuff like health insurance or liability
insurance which I'd recommend any big wolf to get because this society
wasn't built for our kind and you'd be suprised how easily human
stuff breaks...It's almost like they "designed" their stuff to break
on purpose...hmm weird. Anyway!

We also decided to get a slightly bigger house after I moved in
and chose one that we...I mean, "he" could modify a bit so I'd
fit through the doors but it's still human sized room wise...so
we're currently going through the options of getting one built
to our specs.

But yeah, when he's not working he usually makes music and he pulls
a lot of inspiration from my stories which I'm actually very happy
about because this way I can let people know about who I am and what
I do and so on but since I can't sing or play on any of the instruments
he owns, I can only help him with the songs lyrics a bit. I'm not too
familiar with all the technical stuff but I can however provide
topics and maybe draw conclusions that he didn't think off that might
work great in certain parts of the song. 

He also really enjoys going to these furry conventions. I still
don't understand the concept of those gatherings but from what I
understand, people will pay a lot of their hard earned money and
go to great lengths to stuff themselves into stuffy "fursuits" and
sweat their butts off...at least some of them and for some reason
that is their understanding of fun? I don't get it.

But travelling to those cons? Oh I love it! Especially those a
bit closer to where we live, I finally get to have some fun, in
the city there just isn't very much space to move but when it's
summer and he get's on the Autobahn and heads for the conventions
with his car, I usually race him by running along the Autobahn
over fields, jumping over creeks and fences, circumvent cows and
horses or sheep. Aw man! I feel so free when doing this. If we're
travelling to conventions that are further away, he usually rents
a truck with a extra wide and long flat bed, I still get to run
free for as long as I want but when I get tired, I can always
hop onto the flat bed and relax for a bit while the journey
continues.

On the convention site it's a different matter though. We realized
pretty quickly that people just couldn't keep their hands to them-
selves and they started touching me withouth warning and without
permission. Which is the reason I'm wearing a full body harness so
my human could add friggin signs! to it that say to keep your hands
to yourself and keep people from touching me (authors note:he's
audibly growling as he says this by the way, he really doesn't like
being touched out of the blue).

What's up with that? I don't go around touching everyone however
I please...although my human just told me that they'd probably
even enjoy that. *sigh* I guess I still need to come to terms with
that. But for now? Hands off!

But yeah, I go easy on kids because they don't know better but
other people? Ok, it's not like I won't let "anyone" touch me and
if someone "absolutely" has to and asks veeery nicely I might let
them but that's it!	

Thankfully they can't reach me while I'm on stage with my human
while he's performing his music. Then I can just lie in the back
of the stage and relax for a moment, although I'm probably unin-
tentionally stealing way too much of the attention...but he said
that it's fine because more people come to his shows due to me.
Well...if it makes him happy and I get some peace for a moment...
I guess it's a fair deal.