News, Spring 2007, page 6

Even though we have provided hundreds of pages of justification on why the facility is not treading on anyone else’s rights -- the bottom line is totally political. It will be extremely important for us to get the political message across. This can only be done with significant numbers of letters, emails being sent and citizens attending the public hearings. This cannot be done without you.

Again we are asking for your help. Within the next month or so our first public hearing, for the Planning Commission, will be scheduled. Unfortunately, if you are not on our email list, we will not be able to inform you of exactly when it will be. Please consider providing your email address to us for this notification. For those of you who do not have email, please consider writing a letter to the Planning Commissioners. It would be better to have your letters sent closer to the hearings, but most important that they do hear from you!

It is much better if you write a letter using your own words, instead of using a form letter. It does not have to be long, just enough to get the point across.

There are several topics that can be used as talking points. Please send a copy to the Sanctuary, so that we can monitor how many have been sent. (Post Office Box 1544, La Porte, CO 80535) THANK YOU!

- The Sanctuary is needed and fulfills a dramatic need both compassionately and educationally.
- The Sanctuary has been a good neighbor and has received no complaints since the original
approval in 2001.
- The changes being asked for are pretty insignificant, especially when the number of animals
per acre will be reduced.

Here are their names, of the Planning Commissioners, and an address to send your letters:

Jason Waldo	Brian Oppenheimer	Jeff Boulter
Gerald Hart	Kristen Karabensh	Mina Cox
Roger Morgan	Nancy Wallace	Karen Weitkunat

Planning Commissioner
c/o Larimer County Planning Department
200 West Oak Street, Post Office Box 1190
Fort Collins, CO 80521-1190

Isabeau -- The New Poster Child

We continually try to spread our philosophy – Wolves are magnificent beings who are perfectly adapted to their role in the wild and totally compromised and out-of-place in captivity. We can talk for hours, even days on the subject. Periodically however, an individual comes along, like Isabeau, who can teach these messages and lessons much better than we ever could. And she can do it in a fraction of the time it takes us.

We marvel at her energy, mischievousness, intelligence, perseverance, strength, loving-disposition, playfulness, predatory instincts, fearlessness, reluctance to be dominated and general zest for life. She is the epitome of a super-alpha female in the making. She does not retreat and God help us, never surrenders. Teaching her proper wolf manners is a game that she likes to play and never quite realizes that we are NOT playing.

We have had a significant amount of experience dealing with wolves, establishing our dominance, training proper wolf etiquette, wolf-proofing their enclosures and our home. We have been taught by the BEST of them and have learned, what we thought, was more than sufficient to deal with any wolf -- NOT!

Isabeau has forced us to rewrite the training manual She has found ways to surprise us at every turn. She has pushed the envelope, where other wolves never have.

She has figured out how to:
- get to and destroy window screens on the house, - leap up onto a picnic table on the porch, which had three benches blocking its surface, - climb across a ladder laying on its side, to try to get in the bathroom window, - open the gate latch leading to the porch, - slip into the house between your legs, without you even knowing she is in, - precisely extricate a loaf of bread from a grocery bag, while you have it over your head, - remove a piece of string cheese from the center pouch of your hoody, without you knowing it's gone, - close and latch the gate to the backyard, locking Shaman inside, - remove the siding and insulation from dog houses, - excavate under cinder block to reach a mouse nest, - catch a magpie out of midair, - completely maul you and leave you forever positively changed.

Although we sometimes, lovingly, refer to her as “The Spawn of Satan”, we also contemplate what her life would have been like if she had been born in the wild. We are convinced that she would have been a legend and have books written about her. She truly is the best teacher that humans could have to demonstrate how wrong it is to subjugate these magnificent beings and wild spirits to captivity. We love her tremendously, but know she would be more fulfilled living in the wild. [

Isabeau -- The Centerfold!

Isabeau is featured in a new element within our printed quarterly newsletter -- an 11" x 17" centerfold (see photo below). If you would like to receive a copy of the newsletter, please send an email to:
fwendland@wolfsanctuary.net (click)