Taking @corycarson’s wisecrack seriously, because it is serious:
https://gnu.gl/@corycarson/111820431351256065
The idiom applies to those times when you have a choice, to •realizing• when you have the choice of making things easy.
It’s not about wolves that are attacking you. [Aside: wolves rarely attack humans unless threatened; they are much maligned that way.] It’s about (as in the comic) when the wolf is optional, it’s easy without the wolf, and you realize you can just leave the wolf and it’s •fine•.