“Grab It & Growl”
New Fund Raiser

Over the years we have tried to provide enrichment, in a variety of ways, to the animals in order to keep them stimulated. We have given them toys, bones, hides, water bottles both full and empty, water troughs to play in, pumpkins stuffed with goodies and so on, and indeed the thing that always interests them the most is fun gourmet FOOD. Although they receive raw meat one to two times per week in addition to their dry food, they LOVE special and different foods.

The idea, for ‘Grab It & Growl’ is to take a chicken or turkey and stuff it with goodies the wolves enjoy. Now these are not ordinary chickens, these are roasted chickens and, if at all possible, basted in some kind of sauce. If you ask Kasha, he will tell you he prefers his chicken basted in apricot sauce, which we learned when he was recovering from his leg surgeries. It was the only thing we could get him to eat, the little stinker -- we were buying out the local market. This concept has been used by other wolf sanctuaries such as our friends at Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary.

This year we will be holding the 1st Annual ‘Grab It & Growl’. We would like to ask you to participate by sponsoring a chicken for the wolf of your choice, which will include the chicken and the goodies to put inside. These treats consist of items like jerky, biscuits, peanut butter, cheese, and so on. In the case of Nanook, it will also have a marshmallow or two. For those of you who don’t know, Nanook loves marshmallows. Normally we don’t let Nooks have marshmallows because the sugar is not really good for him. But, this is supposed to be something special so two marshmallows once a year should be OK.

Each sponsorship is $35.00. You select the wolf you would like to sponsor (this can be done by checking out the animals stories on our web site or call us for a listing 970-416-9531). You will receive a full color, 5 x 7 printed photograph of your sponsored animal enjoying his or her chicken. Not to mention the joy of making a wolf happy. Photos will be mailed by October 15th.

In order to assure you get your photograph, please have your sponsorship in to the Sanctuary no later than Labor Day, Monday, September 5, 2005.

Please help make ‘Grab It & Growl’ a huge success -- Thank You!

In Memory of Jazzy

Beautiful Jazzy, who was well known for her sweet personality and appearances at educational programs, has also left us.

Although Jazzy was a sweet loving animal with volunteers and with strangers she met in her travels, she was also known as “The Poodle Killer”. Jazzy was the perfect example of why wolves and wolf-dogs do not make good pets. Jazzy was brought to Wolf at a little over a year old by her family, who was devastated because she had killed the family poodle. This family, in shock, knew they could never care for Jazzy in an appropriate way to prevent her from hurting another small animal.

Jazzy was placed with a young Ghost. The two hit it off. It was love at first sight. Ghost is a huge animal weighing about 160 lbs. Jazzy was only about 100 pounds but with her attitude, she could and would put Ghost on his back if she felt he had overstepped his bounds.


Jazzy developed an autoimmune disease. Her own body turned on her, killing off all her platelets. The disease, known as Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia, destroys the platelets causing internal hemorrhaging. The doctors at CSU thought there was a chance to help her and we admitted her to the critical care unit, where everything possible was done. After two days, Jazzy also started loosing red blood cells and the doctors told us there was no hope.

We brought Jazzy home to Ghost and her other friends. she was placed in her enclosure with Ghost who immediately went to her nudging and licking. He tried everything to help her get up but by this time the blood had seeped into her spine and she could no longer move anything but her head. Jazzy was not in pain and was licking all those present.

After allowing them time, Pat, Frank and the volunteers said their goodbyes and Dr. Dressen euthanized her. Ghost remained with Jazzy for several hours, not allowing anyone to move her. When we tried he would just raise his head and give a low growl. He laid next to her and continued to give her kisses. As night fell he finally allowed us to take her. Ghost is still grieving the loss of his beautiful Jazzy as are we all.

In Memory of Ahzeem

Ahzeem came to Wolf when he was approximately a year and a half old. We originally said we would not take Ahzeem because his owner wanted to board him. But with the way things work, it was necessary for him to be placed on a permanent basis. Ahzeem came to live at Wolf. He was skinny, we thought perhaps he had not been fed properly but that was not the case -- he was just a very slender animal.

Ahzeem’s original owner wanted to teach Ahzeem to be an educational animal, but he did not like children. He would never have been comfortable being taken to schools or any educational program. He did enjoy adults with one exception. If you went into his run there was a real good chance he would not let you out. Ahzeem thought this was a great game. If you weren’t aware of his tactics of grabbing your clothes and pulling you back in, it could be rather intimidating.
Ahzeem was the Alpha Male of his pack, sharing a large enclosure with Nugget and Sky.


During the last week of his life, we noticed that he was looking even skinnier than usual. A couple of volunteers noticed he was having a personality change and was becoming irritated and shy. He would no longer come to volunteers that he loved. He developed a cough and became lethargic. Ahzeem was rushed to CSU Veterinary Hospital where he was diagnosed with Lymphatic Cancer that had spread throughout his body, including his lungs. There was nothing that could be done for him. With the volunteers that had loved and cared for him surrounding him, he was humanely euthanized.

Ahzeem was a wolf with attitude, an enjoyable, in love with life, happy to be alive animal. Everyone here misses him and his vibrant personality more than can be expressed.

Memorial Gardens are being established for Ahzeem & Jazzy as we do for all the animals who pass at Wolf.