Newsletter - Winter 2005/2006
(click to link to pdf download)

Winter has been very different this year. Usually we celebrate the Winter Solstice as we rejoice the fact that the daylight hours start becoming longer again. We also enjoy the days that are filled with falling snow, glistening flakes, peacefulness and rebirth that is wonderful. The animals especially seem to enjoy the snow and frolic wildly in the fresh white stuff. Add the holidays to the picture and it is just a spectacular time of year.

On the eve of the Solstice, we had to say our goodbye’s to Nanook who would have been 13 years old this spring. (see: Nanook -- A Legend Passes). The Solstice then, was not an event that we could bring ourselves to celebrate, indeed it was the darkest day of the year in more ways than one.

The day after that we had to rush Nugget into the CSU Vet Hospital with a continuation of the undiagnosed problem that we had her hospitalized for in November (to the tune of $600). Her symptoms were basically the same as before -- lethargy, not eating, generally not herself. Again the doctors were stumped and spent three days running every test under the sun. In the meantime she was getting worse and we were sure we were losing her as well. Finally out of desperation they began treating her with massive amounts of four different antibiotics. This did the trick -- she started improving almost immediately. Within a day she was well enough for us to bring home. This was Christmas morning and finally we had something to celebrate. It later turned out that the results of one of her blood cultures showed a severe bacterial infection -- after over $2,500 in medical expenses. She appears to be doing great now, however we are going to do follow-up blood tests to make sure.

OK, now we were able to go back to grieving the loss of Nanook. However, celebrating New Year’s just wasn’t where our hearts were. Then, all of sudden, Sabe wasn’t acting himself. After a couple of days trying to make him comfortable, we lost him (see: In Memory of Sabastian). He would have been 11 years old on January 23rd. This was not how we had hoped to start the new year.

As a number of our animals continue to age faster than we would like, we again were taking two of them to the Vet Hospital in order to diagnose problems. On February 1st we took Xavier in with symptoms of vomiting and difficulty defecating. They again could not diagnose any problems. On February 2nd we took Lakota in to our vet for a hot spot and hair loss on his back. That problem we treated with an antibiotic spray and a course of oral antibiotics. On February 22nd we were taking Xavier back to the Vet Hospital with his original symptoms. This time they spent the entire day testing and finally were able to diagnose a large tumor in the area of his small intestines and ileum. It appeared that the tumor was interfering with some of his digestive processes and causing the symptoms. It was also diagnosed as non-operable. All we would be able to do is medicate him for pain, stomach indigestion and if necessary constipation. We brought him home and will just spoil him until it gets too bad.

Also on February 22nd, we took C.C. into the vet hospital as well. Although she is not a wolf-dog, she was rescued by Pat and Frank before they started the Sanctuary. She was showing signs of increased drinking and obvious very frequent urination. Again after exhaustive tests, she was diagnosed with a very strange presentation of a lipoma the size of a football. The ‘fatty cyst’ was growing inward, rather than outward, which is the strange part of the presentation. The mass was pressing inward against one of her kidneys, associated ureter and basically killing the kidney. She was also diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. C.C. has just turned 14 and there was nothing to be done here either except to treat the UTI with antibiotics. She is also home and doing better.

On top of all of this we weren’t getting any snow -- in fact, no moisture whatsoever. All we were getting was wind -- all the while the areas west of the Continental Divide were receiving record amounts of snow fall. This started getting scary as several wildfires broke out along the Front Range of the Rockies. This was very abnormal. We had never heard of wildfires in winter. Although we have received one decent snowfall since then, we are still dramatically below what we need to keep the moisture levels up, going into spring and summer.

Included in our last newsletter was an emergency request for donations. While our newsletter was being printed, it became radically apparent that donations were not picking up, after Katrina giving, the way we needed them to. Although our plea was last minute, your response was outstanding and helped us make up a lot of the short-fall we had experienced. Although we are not quite back on track yet, we believe we have made it through the roughest time, because of your help -- THANK YOU!

In order to help stimulate the extra giving that we still need, we are making available a special FREE ‘Art Print’ offer, for the next quarter, with any donation made over $30 (see: Good News...Bad News..., for more details).

We also are encouraging any of you who might have friends that care about animals to have them included on our mail list to receive these quarterly newsletters (see: Educating Your Friends).

Don’t forget to check out the plans for this year’s Waltz. Everyone had a great time last year and received great deals on spectacular auction items (see: Waltz for the Wolves).

We have run out of room again and we still need your help with the Aerial Hunting of Wolves in Alaska. Some new events have occurred and there is a new public relations cam­paign -- we need your support. Please go to our web site and click on the “Alaska Aerial Hunting” Button.

www.WolfSanctuary.net -- THANK YOU!