Sanctuary Update

We apologize for the tardiness of this newsletter. We discovered an opportunity that would allow us to provide the newsletter in full-color at the same price we were paying for black and white. We felt it was very important to take advantage of this situation, even though it extended the printing time needed to complete. We hope the color gives you a much better feeling for the animals and how spectacular they really are.

The word for the last quarter is busy. Everyone at the Sanctuary is busy, busy, busy. Steve Wolfsong our full time volunteer has been working on all the outside projects. With the help of several of our regular volunteers and a crew from University of Wyoming Wildlife Club, put together by Brit Caine, a lot of the fencing projects have been completed. The new catch-up area on Spirit’s enclosure is currently being constructed. Fire mitigation is still an on-going project as is the constant repair of the road and the older vehicles owned by Wolf. These projects along with the construction of a new shed have been extremely time-consuming.
Frank has been slightly insane working on bookkeeping, year-end financials, updating the mailing list and everything else to do with the Sanctuary administration. He has also been putting together the artwork for the new calendar (see Perfect Gifts for details), the newsletter, and the DVD from the Waltz presentation.

Pat has been working on the Howl-O-Ween Run (see Howl-O-Ween Run for details) every day lining up sponsors and getting prizes for the race. In addition she has been working on the newsletter, preparing the run brochure, working with the printing company, and continuing to do educational programs with some of our very dedicated volunteers.

















Everyone has been caring for sick and geriatric animals around-the-clock. As many of the animals at the Sanctuary enter their golden years, it forces us to deal with a new stage in their lives (see ‘When They Were Young’). Sequoia became ill very quickly and was diagnosed with a tumor in her heart. Although we were able to bring her home, she only lived another 4 days (see ‘In Memory of Sequoia' - for more details). Nika has been diagnosed with prostate cancer that has metastasized to the lymph system and his spine. He is on medications and still doing fairly well. We will continue to keep him comfortable and spoil him until it is time for our friend to leave. We believe Ashley, one of our ancient wolves, had a very mild stroke but has improved significantly and seems to be doing great for her age. In fact, one of our volunteers said she was running around like a puppy this morning and he could not believe she was seventeen and a half years-old. Nanook, who is our logo animal, has boney spondelitis in his spine and having some trouble making his back end follow his front end. Ghost is also having some problem with his hind end. Both Nanook and Ghost are on medications for their problems, and still managing to intimidate everyone that comes to the Sanctuary. Xavier is doing very well after his ACL surgery and has once again started going down the steps. Up the steps is still a little difficult and he occasionally needs some assistance from Frank or Steve.


















The Alaskan Aerial Hunting of Wolves has still not been defeated. This situation will again become a major issue as the time-frame that hunters are allowed to do the aerial hunting is in the fall and winter months. There is a little bit of hopeful news on the horizon as citizens of Alaska are again petitioning to have this practice banned. They must receive the required number of signatures by January 9th, 2006 in order to have it included in the 2006 ballot. Even though this practice has been voted down twice in the past, the new initiative should eliminate any loop-holes that would allow this again in the future. Unfortunately this will not help the 2005-2006 hunting season.

For more info please visit the following web sites:
               Defenders of Wildlife - http://www.savealaskawolves.org
               Friends of Animals - http://www.friendsofanimals.org
               Alaska Wildlife Alliance - http://www.akwildlife.org

Thank you for your help with this issue and your continued support for Wolf.