16 July – The Test Results Were In - Ž

The blood and urine tests from Chocolate determined that she was suffering from a small urinary tract infection and was in the early stages of liver failure, but did not give us any clues on why she had lost use of her back-end. She was put on an extended course of antibiotics, a new anti-inflammatory for her hips and a supplement to support her liver functions. Lakotah Sioux’s test results showed a severe urinary tract infection and she was also put on a heavy course of antibiotics.

Arkte’s final diagnosis was inflammatory bowel disease, caused by some sort of caustic agent. We were all flabbergasted -- “what could that have been?” After racking our brains for several days, all we could come up with would have been bizarre, far-fetched situations, such as a volunteer having lost a two-way radio in her enclosure and Arkte having chewed up the batteries. I know, it doesn’t seem very likely.

Arkte, meanwhile, was getting better every day and was once again meeting us at the gate to take her medications and special diet. It was a relief to us all.

The process of getting Heart Guard into everyone at the Sanctuary was getting as creative as it was at WideAwake. Although heart worm disease is not at all prevalent in Colorado and the heart worm preventative is extremely expensive, we have taken this precaution because three of the four WideAwake Wolves, who are housed at the Sanctuary, are heart worm positive. Ultimately, there is the chance that, with the correct conditions, it could spread to the healthy wolves. Because wolves are incredibly smart, we believe they quickly realize the medication makes their stomach upset and are not all that willing to accept it easily. There will have to be something extremely wonderful coming with it for them to do it again. Finding what they believe is ‘truly wonderful’ is a challenge, and then making sure that each individual in their grouping only gets one, is horrendously difficult. The process can take up to a week to complete. In this case, the New Mex Pups, Webster and Menemith were the ones who dragged out the process.

Just when we relaxed our guard on Isabeau, she found a new trick, which both scared us for her safety and those of the ‘Old Ladies’ in the house pack. As she was gated off from the deck, but still wanted to get up there badly, she learned a new trick. As several individuals were standing on the deck, she came flying up the stairs, launched herself into the air and cleared the railing next to the gate. She had made it and was very proud of herself. The humans on the deck took a minute to catch their breaths and tried to comprehend what they had just seen. This was not good! Steve went into action, and began building an addition to the porch railing by the gate. The photo indicates where she flew over the railing -- now with an extension shown.

As reported in our Summer 2006 Newsletter, an animal refuge south of Denver had been taken over by a volunteer when the founder retired. Over the past year, we have tried to help supply surplus dog food and meat to help them out. Unfortunately, every time we had surplus food, they were unable to pick it up. This time we decided to have one of our volunteers drive it to the facility and they were very appreciative of her efforts.

It was shortly after Steve returned from WideAwake that it was discovered that the rear window would not go down on the Suburban we use to transport animals. This, of course, meant that we could not open the rear tailgate either. A little investigating determined that the mice had decided that the tailgate was a great place to store dog food they were borrowing from the wolves. This was another job for Steve. After several hours of struggling with rancid, moldy and smelly dog food, the window and the tailgate were working again.

Isabeau strikes again. As Frank was working on his computer in the afternoon, he noticed a strange movement outside the window, on the deck. Focusing his attention to the situation, he was shocked to see Isabeau walking on the top of the railing, which faced the front enclosure. “Oh my…” came out of his mouth, but stopped suddenly, in order to prevent Isabeau from becoming frightened and possibly falling off the railing. This was another job for Steve – add an extension on the front railing. Another day was spent Isabeau-proofing the house containment.

It was apparent, after our volunteer had visited the wild animal refuge, that they were struggling. Again we had another surplus of food and one of the cofounders of Wolf (Pat) and our volunteer coordinator (Brandy Russell) were taking a truck load down to them. This time during the visit, it was discovered that one of the African Lioness’ (Shania) was very ill and had been vomiting for two weeks. The organization did not have the money for her treatment. Pat, being the concerned individual she is, immediately called the Wolf Sanctuary, spoke with the other cofounder, Frank, and the two agreed they personally would cover Shania’s treatment (see Shania).