07 December, Thursday - Jack Taken To CSU
We received a call from the volunteer at WideAwake reporting that there was some bloody spots in Jack and Pride’s enclosure. It also appeared that there was some bloody stool as well. On top of that Jack was not walking correctly on his rear right leg as his toes were knuckling under. A team was dispatched to WideAwake to check out the situation.

It was very obvious that Jack was having difficulties and he was caught up without a struggle and transported to the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital for further evaluation. Preliminary tests showed significant amounts of blood in his stool and poorly oxygenated blood. The first goal became to stabilize his condition. He was put on intravenous fluids, tested for a blood transfusion and placed into an oxygen controlled kennel. He then received the transfusions. He was responding very well to this treatment and resting comfortably. It was now pushing 10:00 pm and the decision was made to continue to stabilize and monitor him through the night and run additional tests in the morning.

08 December, Friday - Jack Passes - Œ
(see - Jack Loses His Battle)

16 December, Saturday
- Emergency Rescue, Wisconsin - ‘
(see - Arkte & Rachane)

20 December, Wednesday
- The Real Snow Begins - 
It began snowing and the news reports were predicting a major winter storm with accumulations ranging between three to six feet. Although we had received a few more small snow storms in the first few weeks of December, totaling about seven inches, we were still hoping for more. Wildfires, due to the drought, scared us much more than snow storms. It continued to snow through the night and into the next day and did not stop until we had about 40” on the ground at the Sanctuary and around 20” at WideAwake.

Outside of Jasmine, all the animals seemed to love the snow. Due to Jasmine’s blindness and neuropathy affecting her hips, she could not negotiate the depth of the snow. We made the decision to move her to the geriatric enclosure directly in front of the house and monitor her more closely. We had resisted doing this in the past because of her blindness and the challenge that a new enclosure would be for her. There was now not much of a choice.

It took two and a half days to plow the road and shovel to all of the enclosures. Obviously, none of our volunteers were able to access the facility, so the on-site staff was up to their eyeballs in routine chores and snow removal. Steve, who was scheduled to visit his parents in Arizona for Christmas, was snowed in -- he wasn’t going anywhere. This was probably a blessing in disguise as about the time his plane was scheduled to depart, the Denver airport was closed down and thousands of travelers were stranded for several days.

27 December, Wednesday
- Jasmine Gets Worse - 
(see - Memories of Ashley & Jasmine)

28 December, Thursday - More Snow
The weather reports were again predicting a major winter storm. Kiley, who was scheduled to fly home for the holidays, quickly changed her flight to depart a day early and was rushed off to the shuttle early in the morning. It was already starting to snow. Just as we were saying our good-bye's to Jasmine it began snowing heavily. Kiley’s flight was actually one of the last to take off before the airport was again closed.

The snow kept coming through the night and by morning there was another 20” of the white stuff piled on top of the previous mounds at the Sanctuary, and WideAwake had received about 12”. OK, we needed the moisture, but this was getting excessive. There was nowhere left to plow the new snow. The mounds along all the roads and paths were already stacked high. This would require pushing the snow far enough away from the shoulder of the road, then going back again, to plow the new snow off of the road. This took much longer to accomplish than the first go round.

WideAwake was struggling as well to keep the access road accessible. The on-site caretakers, Charlie, Chance and Diane were having to cover for volunteers who could not make it in. Their dedication saved the staff, at the Sanctuary, the added challenges of caring for those animals as well.

Somewhere during the process of plowing at the Sanctuary, we must have disrupted the phone line. Now we were without phone and of course internet service as we are still on dial-up. By the time we were able to get someone out to place a service call, it was Saturday. This person had trouble getting to talk with the correct customer service representative and gave up. By the time we figured this out it was Monday. The service call was finally made, but when would they show up? Two days later nothing. We decided to fix the problem ourselves and started searching for the break. Half a day later we were hooked up again, but still no word from the phone company. We had to run over 600’ of phone line, above the ground, in order to connect one service box to the next, circumventing the cut. Although the phone was working again, we obviously goofed on something as periodically the static, on the line, prevents us from hearing well.

01 January, Monday - New Year’s
OK, let’s celebrate -- NOT! Let’s go to bed early and catch up on some sleep. In case you haven’t been doing the math, we were now at approximately 103” of snow at the Sanctuary and 91” at WideAwake for the season and we were not even two weeks into winter. Usually December and January are very low snow accumulation months. The two months with the highest average snow falls are March and April. Although the animals seemed to be taking it all in stride, the humans were being punished beyond belief.

Arkte had been relocated from foster care to the Sanctuary and we were searching out all of the opportunities to find her a suitable companion. Wolf receives approximately 80 to 120 requests per month for placement of animals at the Sanctuary. Because there are so few true sanctuaries, we try very hard to save what openings we have for animals which should never be considered for a domestic situation.

05 January, Friday
- DOW Proposes New Restrictions
We received a phone call, from a board member, letting us know that DOW was holding a meeting on the 11th and were proposing new regulations, which would require all Nonprofit Wildlife Sanctuaries to post a closing bond. This would be based on the number of animals at the facility and be payable to the DOW if the facility needed to close down. This process was being pushed through without input from the Sanctuaries involved. Would we be able to attend this meeting?