Our first Pow-Wow was held in February. This was a learning experience for everyone. Although well attended, a lot of the Native Americans that wanted to dance in the contests were unable to get to Denver due to road closures. Those that did dance were wonderful and the regalia and dance steps performed by the contestants were beautiful and amazing. Overall there was a special energy that flowed as a bunch of two-leggeds came together to honor a bunch of four-leggeds.

The big hits of the food items offered for sale at our refreshment stand were the buffalo burgers, chili, and Indian tacos. The Denver Indian Center runs a lunch program for seniors in the area and Wolf donated the leftover food and drinks to that worthy cause.

Although energy, time and planning were invested in the Pow-Wow, it was not as financially beneficial to Wolf as we’d hoped. We joked that if we had to pay our volunteers one dollar an hour for their time setting up the event we would have lost money. We believe the real value was in the spiritual realm and that was an outstanding success.

Wolf would like to take this opportunity to extend a heartfelt “THANK YOU” to everyone who worked so hard to put together the Pow-Wow and to those who attended. It would take a full page to thank everyone individually but we would like to mention the following, without whom this function could not have been a success.

Special Thanks to the Denver Indian Center for their participation and belief in our cause. To Clint Cayou who took a personal interest in the wolves, the need to raise funds, and the desire to spread the educational message about these animals, and who made the Pow-Wow happen. Without his commitment it would still be a thought. Last but not least Thank You to all of our Volunteers who allowed everyone to have a wonderful time.

On or about May 26, we received a phone call from Mickey O'Neil. We had first met Mickey over a year ago at a public appearance in Estes Park, and had talked with her on other occasions since about wolves, wolf dogs, fund raising, etc. Mickey was calling this particular day because she had a great fund raising idea. She had a friend, nationally known singer, guitarist and song writer Sunny Waters, who would be willing to do a benefit concert for Wolf. Sunny had been given permission by John Denver's family to record and perform Johns’ last composition, “Yellowstone, Coming Home”, a beautiful song written in honor of the wolves returning to Yellowstone. Now, the question was, “could we put it all together by June 3^rd?”

JUNE 3^rd !!! Mickey, are you crazy?!! June 3^rd, that’s 10 days away, how could we possibly get a concert together in ten days? How would we ever be able to publicize it enough to get anyone to come? Where would we find a place to have it on such short notice? Mickey, are you crazy?

Now, normally us Wolf people are pretty game to try just about anything to raise funds for the wonderful animals at the facility. We had received a copy of Sunny’s CD several months before because of the connection to the wolves and had enjoyed it and his version of “Yellowstone, Coming Home”. But we had never met Sunny or ever expected to. Frank and I did pick up on the coincidence of receiving the CD and now having the opportunity to have Sunny do a concert for Wolf. Unfortunately, the lack of time and several other commitments, not to mention the amount of work that would be involved, kind of threw us for a loop. We told Mickey thanks but we didn’t feel we had the time to do a concert and do it well. Mickey, being Mickey, said she would look into it for us.

Well, let me tell you, this little tornado, Mickey, not only looked into it but put it together. Arrangements were made for the concert to be in Old Town Square. Posters were made and put up everywhere. All the radio stations were contacted and most of them were able to get the announcement on. Sunny graciously came to the rescue to meet with us. We all hit it off immediately. Sunny and Wolf sent out combined press releases and the newspapers got the word out to the public.

Best of all, we heard Sunny sing. His style and personality were great. Copies of his CD were sent out to the radio stations and we played it at the rescue for anyone we could. On one of his visits to the facility he sang for the wolves, and even they enjoyed it.

Sunny performed for almost six hours, singing songs from his CD “This is Me”, plus many other favorites and of course, he sang “Yellowstone” for the wolves. The crowd, which was estimated at over 1500 people, loved him. Originally he was to perform from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. but everyone was having such a good time he agreed to stay until 9:00 p.m.

With Sunny’s wonderful performance and Mickey’s help, the concert went off without a hitch. We would like to extend our thanks to both of these amazing people for their time and efforts. Much needed funds were raised for the animals and we are thrilled to let you know that Sunny has agreed to do another benefit concert for Wolf. We will keep you posted as to the date.

Cherokee came to Wolf in July of 1998. At the time he was approximately 7 months old and had never been touched by a human being. An unlicensed breeder who had been ordered by the State of Colorado to place a large number of animals, due to the conditions at her facility, had surrendered this beautiful pup to Wolf.

After being darted and tranquilized, Cherokee was placed in a travel kennel in the back of Frank’s pickup truck. The trip to the Wolf compound was made without any problems and Cherokee was placed in the isolation run. He remained there until we were sure that he had no illnesses he could pass on to the other animals at the facility. As it turned out, while putting him through the usual indoctrination, it was discovered that he was infested with fleas. Fleas had never been a problem at the compound before and measures were taken to rid Cherokee and the isolation run of this nuisance.

As time progressed and we were deciding where Cherokee would be placed permanently, it became very obvious just how terrified of humans he was. A few short weeks later, Cherokee was moved into his permanent enclosure with Bear and Cheyenne. Bear loves puppies so we knew that he would take this frightened little guy under his proverbial wing. Bear proved to be an excellent wolf dad and Cheyenne also became attached to Cherokee. The bonding between the three animals was going well, to the point that he became Bear’s shadow. However, Cherokee still remained extremely shy around humans, going so far as to hide under tree limbs in his enclosure. We did not force contact with him, deciding to let him come to us in his time, as we do with all new animals.

Cherokee became the focus of a tremendous amount of attention at the rescue; every volunteer wanted to help this little guy become socialized. An enormous effort was put forth to make the connection. We could tell he wanted to become friends but was afraid to actually initiate it. Eventually, Cherokee chose several humans that he allowed to touch him for very brief moments and he would come and take treats from their hands.

Cherokee was with us for a little over one and a half years. He never progressed very much beyond these brief encounters but was very loved and we believe happy in his time with us.

We are unhappy and very distressed to tell you that Cherokee passed away from the stress of the move caused by the forest fire. Approximately 24 hours after returning home with the other animals he could no longer deal with the physical effects of the fear he suffered from most of his life. We hope Cherokee is with Sasha, Cody, and Lara and if such a thing as reincarnation exists, we hope he returns as the beautiful wolf that he was, only this time unafraid. We miss you Cherokee.

Death by Stress In order to confirm our vet’s (Dr. Priscilla Dressen) suspicions as to Cherokee’s cause of death we had a necropsy performed on him.  Dr. Dressen and Dr. Spraker (head of pathology at CSU Vet Teaching Hospital) concluded that all of the indications were consistent with Dr. Dressen’s suspicions. Not understanding what physically occurs with stress to kill an animal we requested and received the following explanation. Well, sort of, we kind of interpreted into everyday words what we believe we heard her say. When an animal is stressed over a prolonged period of time the adrenal gland is overworked and finally shuts off. The steroids that are currently in the system continue to do their job for a while, which is to provide a proper level of tension or support to the body’s cellular structures. As they are used up the cellular structures begins to fail and leak fluids. Eventually the body shuts down and death occurs.

 

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