WILMINGTON -- A trampoline yawns in the densely wooded back yard under the green heights of Whiteface Mountain.

Springs stretch as Alex Hall, 18, flips backward, working on snowboard moves for next winter. The tennis racquet is idle for now.

Cree, a wolf-mix under recuperative care of Alex's mom, Wendy Hall, gazes evenly from a pen beside the house and lopes along the fence, watching.

This past season, Alex earned top honors as Lake Placid High School's No. 1 singles tennis player.

He sails off the trampoline in one swift jump and scrambles over the single-story fence into the wolf's pen.

In the steady flow of physical focus, repetitive tics of Alex's Tourette syndrome disappear.

He puts an arm around the wolf.

Their eyes share a look of fierce will.

Alex exhibits an uncanny ability to work with wilderness creatures, his mom, a licensed rehabilitator, confides.

"I'm not afraid of any animals," Alex says, "except spiders."

Wendy laughs aloud.

"Except spiders," she repeats.

LIVING WITH TOURETTE'S

Wendy names involuntary jerking and punching accompanied by vocal outbursts, repeating sounds and coughing as symptoms of Tourette's syndrome.

In terms of brain chemistry, Tourette is technically too much dopamine, Wendy explained. It's a disorder sometimes accompanied by attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.