The darting was going smoothly, but I began to see a trend that was surprising. The animals were not responding to the drugs the same way they did before. I had increased the dosages to account for their weight gain, but for some reason they were more drug resistant and would not go out. Things were taking much longer than we had anticipated. However, we had no alternative but to get all eight animals darted and loaded. We had to be on the road that night in order to avoid transporting them in the heat of the day. We had to continue.

We continued getting animals darted and in their crates. At this point we were not putting animals into the trailer as the sun had come out and it was too hot. But they were all doing fine in the shade. There remained only two animals left to be darted. I managed to get them darted without too much difficulty, but once again, the animals did not respond to the drugs. At this point we hit a crisis, we were out of the drugs that were working and time was not in our favor. Fortunately, the local vet was able to run to her clinic and bring an alternative drug that would potentially give us better results on the remaining two wolf dogs.

The vet returned in twenty minutes and the team got back into action. The female in the enclosure was finally sufficiently sedated and placed in her crate. We were down to the final animal, Dihi. Dihi had been successfully darted twice with our drugs and now we were attempting the new drug. He was darted and we sat back to wait as the sun had set and it was getting dark. After ten minutes it appeared that he was down and out, but once we got close enough for him to hear us, he was once again up and running. We had no choice but to corner him and attempt to herd him into his crate. Using a large cattle panel, we formed a wall and got the staggering animal into a corner. We placed his crate on one end of our "wall" and left enough space for him to get into the crate yet not run past us. Interestingly enough, once Dihi knew we had him, he gave up. Volunteers were able to get him loaded into his crate and then get him loaded into the trailer with all the other animals. It was now 9:30 PM, pitch black and starting to rain. We had done it. The four of us settled into the car for the 18+ hour drive to IMNC.

The drive was incredibly long, but thankfully uneventful. Our half of the group was the first to arrive, followed shortly by Doug and Cathy Joslyn, who had flown up from Texas to be present for the release of the animals. They had been involved with these animals since the beginning and it was a very exciting moment for them. The truck arrived with the animals, all healthy and surprisingly calm, an hour or so after we did. The time had come for the animals to be released into their new homes.

The brand new enclosures that were to be the new homes for these animals were spectacular. They contained pine trees and rocky terrain that they had never been exposed to before. Each pen also included a large trough that doubled as a pool. We were all excited to see them finally released into their new homes. We unloaded one group at a time and carried their crates into the designated enclosure. They were then set free and observed for a few minutes to insure that all was well. Each group reacted much the same. The first thing was to empty the bladder, and then begin exploring. It was amazing to see these animals actually stretch out and run. One small female even took advantage of her new pool and jumped right in. It was a fantastic day! After everything these animals had been through; being kept in tiny enclosures, losing pack members to distemper, being darted, poked and prodded by humans (on more than one occasion) and finally put into crates and driven for almost twenty hours, they were finally home.

Our sincere thanks go out to all of the individuals who were instrumental with this rescue. Whether you participated or supported, please know that on behalf of the animals, it does matter.

The Jeff Corwin Experience

As we mentioned in our last newsletter, this rescue was partially covered by Animal Planet and will be presented on the Jeff Corwin Experience. We are not totally sure how they will slant the exercise, however if you read our accounts and watch their coverage you should get a pretty good idea of what was involved. The name of the episode is "The Big Bad Wolf?" and it is schedule to air on:

November 5 at 8:00 pm (ET) and 11 pm (ET)
November 6 at 03:00 am (ET)
November 8 at 6 pm (ET)