News, E-News, Sanctuary/WideAwake Update

*** Please Cross Post - Permission Granted ***

Sanctuary/WideAwake Update
(sent 04 Jan 2007)

Happy New Year (better late than never—blame it on the S N O W !)
Shaman Blazes A Trail In The Deep Snow	Sanctuary - Snow, - Jasmine Passes, - More Snow, - No Phone, - Arkte Comes to the Sanctuary (see details below)

Lucan Bury Meat In The Snow	WideAwake - More Snow (see details below)
Sanctuary
Kiley Blazes Her Own Trail In The Snow Jasmine In Her Younger Years Jasmine Steve Plowing The Road Arkte	We apologize for the tardiness of our New Year’s wishes, however the last two weeks of 2006 decided to give us the ole one, two, three and four punches. We think it was just to make sure we didn’t celebrate too hard. One -- On the 20th of December it began snowing and did not stop until we had over 40” on the ground. Outside of Jasmine, all the animals seemed to love the snow. Due to Jasmine’s blindness and neuropathy affecting her hips, she could not negotiate the depth of the snow. We made the decision to move her to the geriatric enclosure directly in front of the house and monitor her more closely. We had resisted doing this in the past because of her blindness and the challenge that a new enclosure would be for her. There was now not much of a choice. It took two and a half days to plow the road and shovel to all of the enclosures. Obviously, none of our volunteers were able to access the facility, so the on-site staff was up to their eyeballs in chores. Two -- On the 27th it became very apparent that Jasmine was struggling to breath and could no longer get up by herself. Although she was comfortable in her rather luxurious dog house, we called our vet to come and examine her. The morning of the 28th it was very obvious that Jasmine was ready to leave. After some profound good-byes our vet helped her to pass. No sooner had she taken her last breath than the rest of the wolves at the Sanctuary began a very mournful howl and then it began to snow again. She was less than 4 months away from her 19th birthday and passed one month and one week after her litter mate, Ashley. Three -- The snow kept coming through the night and by morning there was another 20” of the white stuff piled on top of the previous mounds. OK, we needed the moisture, but this was getting excessive. There was nowhere left to plow the new snow. The mounds along all the roads and paths were already stacked high. This would require pushing the snow far enough away from the road, then go back and plow the new snow again. This took much longer to accomplish than the first go round. Four -- Somewhere during the process of plowing again, we must have disrupted the phone line to the Sanctuary. Now we were without phone and of course internet service as we are still on dial-up. By the time we were able to get someone out to place a service call, it was Saturday. This person had trouble getting to talk with the correct person and gave up. By the time we figured this out it was Monday. The service call was finally made, but when would they show up? Two days later nothing. We decided to fix the problem ourselves and started searching for the problem. Half a day later we were hooked up again, but still no word from the phone company. Arkte (Ark-Tā') -- Just before all of this started we had arranged to accept a six year-old female from Minnesota. She had been confiscated for abuse and neglect. It was reported that she had lived her entire life in a travel kennel in the bedroom of her ‘care-taker’. We had originally helped a rescue in Wisconsin get her away from animal control, just before she was to be euthanized. Then it became apparent that she was an alpha and would challenge her new caretaker whenever she came into the temporary enclosure. This made it next to impossible to get her placed easily. The temporary caretaker would not let her go to an unqualified situation, which is very smart. It also made it impossible for her to stay where she was. The situation became critical when she was again being slated to be euthanized. We could not allow this to happen. Although we did not have the space available at the Sanctuary, we arranged to keep this little girl in a foster situation until space opened up. Brandy & Michelle (two of our exceptional volunteers) picked her up on December 16th. She has now come to the Sanctuary and is doing great. With a larger enclosure, there has not been any dominance issues. She also seems to be taking all the snow in stride, even though she is somewhat underweight and lacking as thick a coat as most of the animals at the Sanctuary. Note: Although we usually do not change the names of animals accepted at the Sanctuary, we did change Arkte’s name from Jenny. This only seemed appropriate to us as she was not answering to Jenny and we wanted to allow one of our outstanding supporters to give her a name befitting her new life.
WideAwake
Isis At WideAwake	This winter has already thrown much more at WideAwake than normally occurs all winter long. Although the animals seem to be taking it all in stride, the humans are being punished beyond belief. Although we do not have any recent photos from WideAwake, they have actually received more snow than the Sanctuary. This likewise has made the chores for the on-site care-takers extremely difficult and access to the location by volunteers, much more difficult. This factor and the holidays have made the challenges severe. We are enormously grateful to Charlie, Diane and Chance Morgan for their dedication to the animals. Additionally, fresh meat is picked up, processed, stored and then brought to the site regularly by Jim Mittl. We are also grateful to the exceptional volunteers who handle the chores on the days they can make it to the facility. Thank you all!

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