News, Spring 2006, page 1

We apologize for the tardiness of this newsletter. We have been extremely busy with the rescue featured in this edition -- The Wide Awake Rescue (click here). We have also dedicated the majority of the space in this newsletter to that situation. It is such a tragic scenario we believe it is important for our readers to understand the kind of things that can and all too often do occur in the wolf-dog world.

This is the largest rescue that Wolf has ever been involved with and, for that matter, that any wolf sanctuary, we are aware of, has ever attempted. Needless to say, it has been extraordinarily challenging on all fronts -- emotionally, physically, mentally and of course, financially. As we struggle with the changing nature of the needs of these rescued animals, it will require extreme measures and enhanced funding sources. If anyone has ideas or suggestions, we would love to hear them. This is an on-going situation and we would be happy to keep you informed via email -- send your request to wolfsash@aol.com.

Spring has presented us with other challenges, as well. Again we were saying goodbye to two dear friends. Xavier passed on the 17th of March and Peter on the 24th of April (click here). It is always very difficult to lose their wonderful personalities, even though we know their spirits are moving on to a better place.

We are struggling to remain prepared for fire season. We are significantly behind in our average rainfall and all of the vegetation in our area is tinder dry. Even the majority of our spring wildflowers have chosen not to grow this year. We have purchased additional tranquilizer drugs for use in emergency evacuations, extra water pumps for protective measures and we are trying to finish all of the catch-up areas on the front of all of the enclosures. We were also in the middle of organizing our evacuation teams when we were interrupted with the Wide Awake Rescue. Please pray that we get rain soon.

We filled up all of their swimming pools (really water troughs) early this year due to the extremely warm conditions. They have been enjoying them, but emptying them or turning them into mud baths almost as fast as we can fill them.

Wolf undertook a challenge attempting to save the life of a free-ranging wolf or wolf-dog in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) labeled it as a nuisance animal and were going to kill it. This animal had been visiting a Wisconsin Dells farm and attempting to “play” with the farmers dog. We politely offered to accept the animal at the Sanctuary and were rather rudely rebuffed. After several email alerts were posted to the internet, the responses poured in to the DNR and the Wisconsin TV stations. Eventually the DNR revised their plan and will place this animal, if caught, at a sanctuary in Minnesota. This is also an on-going situation and we would be happy to keep you informed via email -- send your request to wolfsash@aol.com.

We are happy to announce that Wolf has been able to locate an Insurance Broker that can insure Wolf and some of the animals for off-site programs. Of course, we do not bring the pure wolves to programs. The reason for this is that it is too stressful for a pure wild wolf to be taken off site. It is not fair to the animal. In fact there are only three of the wolf-dogs that we consider taking with us. Merlin, Samantha and Lakota Boy are very people friendly and enjoy going out to the educational programs. If you would like to have a wolf education program at your school, scout meeting, place of business or church etc., please call Pat Wendland at the Wolf Sanctuary, (970-416-9531) to discuss dates, times and fees or to request an educational program brochure. There are several programs available. We will gladly discuss what program would best fit your needs. Programs are currently being scheduled for the remainder of 2006 and 2007 so call today.

Please mark October 29th on your calendar. Wolf will be hosting the 6th Annual Howl-O-Ween, Run With The Wolves. This year we will again be able to bring ambassador animals to the event. Every year it has grown in size and has become one of our most important fund-raisers of the year. Please join us for fun in City Park, Fort Collins. We will have registration brochures available within the next couple of months. If you would like more information on this event please email Pat at: kashashaman@aol.com