We are happy to report that Chana, our 12 year old wolf-dog female, continues to improve. Chana is suffering from Cushing's Disease, caused by a malignant tumor in her pituitary gland. This condition causes Chana's adrenal glands to produce to much adrenaline which in turn causes the pituitary gland to produce to many steroids. At the onset of her illness, Chana gained a tremendous amount of weight, 45 to 50 lbs., because of the extra steroids in her body. After doing blood work on Chana it was suspected that she was suffering from Cushing's but the only sure test would be an MRI at a cost of between $1100 and $1200. This was a large expense that would have put a strain on the Wolf budget, but thanks to the Pet Imaging Center in Englewood, Co., Chana received this wonderful test free of charge. This diagnostic test confirmed what our veterinarian, Dr. Priscilla Dressen had suspected.

In Chana's case this tumor was inoperable. The only treatment available for her is a human drug called, Lysodren. This particular drug is a form of oral chemotherapy and costs $250. per prescription. With the help of one of our volunteers , Keith Hardes who is a pharmacist and Gordon Tetsell of Bristol-Myers, Squibb, Chana's Lysodren was donated.

Chana was started on the Lysodren under a very strict protocol that required constant monitoring of her food, water and general condition. We are happy to report that after Chana's last blood work-up her results were in the normal range. Chana is her happy self once again and continues to loose weight which helps with her breathing and general condition.

There is no way to truly thank all involved in helping this wonderful old lady live out the rest of her life in comfort. All we can do is say the words, THANK YOU, and hope you all understand that they come from our hearts!

During October, November and December of 1999 the Wolf program crew did an average of 20 programs a month. We were so busy that two of our volunteers, Gaye and Leighton Millar who are retired, threaten to get "real jobs" so they could have some time off. The educational team traveled all over the state of Colorado, doing programs for children and adults at elementary schools, service clubs, Colorado State, University of Denver, schools for gifted children, schools for children at risk, art galleries, retail shops, libraries and more. Always our goal is to get out the word about wolves and wolf-dogs. It looks as if the year 2000 will be equally as busy for my wonderful and devoted volunteers as we are already scheduling programs months in advance. A special thank you to Gaye, Leighton, Kerry, Amber, Gail, Mike, Norm, Anne, Sophie and Brigette, (“our regulars”), and all those who came when they could, for all your help.

Please remember if you or anyone you know is interested in having us do a program give us a call at 970-416-9531. We do programs for all age groups from kindergarten to senior citizens. We structure each program to accommodate the group we are presenting to and use a broad range of support materials and handouts to help them understand the issues. Our educational programs brochure goes into more detail on the variety of choices.

The Great Spirit moves in strange ways, again. We continue to be amazed at the path that we are continually nudged onto. Sometimes those nudges are pretty forceful and leave us pondering the wisdom of the Great Spirit or our lack of wisdom. The original goals that Pat and I had in mind, when we began Wolf over 6 years ago, have been radically expanded and our efforts continually kicked into higher gears that we weren’t even aware we had. We figure we are at least in 64th gear by now with no signs of ever being able to downshift. With every new challenge that comes our way, we sit down, look at each other and say “what are the positives that can be accomplished” if we respond correctly. Darn, we always seem to find new areas of animal rights that the situation would allow us to have an impact on. We also seem to be two days late and at least two dollars short of being able to undertake the new challenge comfortably. We embark on the clarified new path anyway with enhanced faith and resolve that it was meant to be.

With the biggest challenge that we currently face, the county (covered in the article on the first page), we have resolved ourselves into the belief that, whether we like it or not, conflict does have a useful purpose. Not to detract from our conventional supporters, our few opponents have been able to accelerate one of our main missions, education, much faster than we could ever have been able to afford. We try to work with the media, who have gathered because of the conflict, to get our messages out to the general public. It has been overwhelmingly effect and bottom line has attracted much more support than opposition. Trying to gear-up to take advantage of all of the options available has been the toughest part.

As mentioned in the article about the county, we believe our suit will be successful. All we need is for everyone sympathetic to our cause to communicate with their contacts. We do have brochures and a five-minute video that we would be happy to send you in order to help communicate our message. Please call us to request those items.

Enough of our state of mind. We are planning a number of events to help raise funds. The first of these events is a Pow-Wow on February 26th at the Denver Indian Center. We have included in this newsletter a copy of the flyer giving all the details. Please call for more copies if you can hand some out or can get them posted in a public place. Also, if you know of anyone that can sponsor the Pow-Wow, sponsor a dance category prize, or sponsor a raffle prize, we would appreciate your help. All sponsors will be acknowledged in the program.

Things have been fairly status-quo with the animals. Spirit broke his leg in November, was operated on and is doing great again. We aren’t sure how he did it, but from the angle and placement of the break it had to be something fairly bizarre. The level of damage required a four-hour surgery and a bunch of hardware, making it very expensive, of course. We are still challenged with the New Mexico pups spay and neuter surgeries. They seem to be so afraid of humans that they pump extreme amounts of adrenaline which counteracts the effects of our tranquilizer darts. This of course precludes us from performing their surgeries. To date only Tate has been neutered. On February 2nd we try again with some revised formulas for our tranquilizers and are optimistic about our chances for success. Chana and her medical problems are covered in a separate article. Kasha's ankle problems, eluded to in Pats’ article, is very strange. Evidently, his growth was so dramatic, that the growth plates on the inside of his front legs grew faster than the outside causing his feet to turn outward. There are a number of options that our vets discussed. First, isolate him and lower his intake to basically starvation levels in order to slow down his growth. Second, operate on the site removing a small amount of bone, grafting some marrow, keep him immobile for three plus months. Third, attaching a splint-type apparatus to the ankles that forces the legs straight, isolating him, and keeping him fairly immobile. None of these options are acceptable for a wolf or wolf-dog. We will watch his progress and as long as his quality of life is good we will not intervene. All the rest of the animals are doing great.

Wolf ended 1999 turning away over 500 animals. The problem is not getting better. We helped with the placement of 15-20 animals that needed new homes. We accepted 6 animals as permanent residents at the sanctuary. Programs have skyrocketed and requests for information has put a strain on our ability to respond. Our educational video is in the script stage still. Once the script is done it will be sent out to other rescues and behavioral experts for critique. Revisions will be made and taping begun. We anticipate not having to adjust that sequence, unless legal expenses become too great. We have been unable to complete repairs on the lakes on the property, that were damaged in the spring flooding of last year. Hopefully that will happen before the runoff of this year.

We will try to keep you more abreast of the latest news this year. Thanks to everyone who has helped, I wish we had enough space to mention all of you! 

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