News, Winter 2007-2008, page 5

In Memory of Chocolate Face

Chocolate Face was among the very first residents of Wolf. She came with her mother and eight siblings at only 2.5 weeks old. Her original family moved, and could not find anywhere to take their wolf-dog, Kodiak, and babies. They planned to take them to the Humane Society, who would have euthanized them. Fortunately, they were rescued by Wolf. As a puppy, Chocolate Face was the cutest, all tan and fluffy with a dark brown nose like she had dipped it in a bowl of chocolate. She was raised by some of the legends of Wolf and learned to hunt on the only available prey, the lowest ranking member of their pack. Fortunately, Xavier survived the attack and held no ill will towards any of the animals. Eventually Kodiak went back to her original family, 5 of the puppies were placed, so 4 lived out their lives here: Sequoia, Nika, Rami, and Chocolate.

Chocolate grew into a beautiful adult with long chow-chow fur that matted like crazy, but she despised being brushed. We lovingly referred to her as the elusive “Timber Chow”. Originally in the main House Pack, Rami and Chocolate began teaming up and harassing other animals. To prevent injuries, they were moved into a smaller enclosure at the front of the house. They still received plenty of attention, and barked to let the humans know it was time to escort them to the house anytime they pleased, which is where they stayed at night.


Chocolate was sometimes shy with new people, but extremely loving once she decided you were okay. She gave the sweetest, softest kisses of anyone. Over the years, the House Pack dwindled, and Rami and Chocolate were again allowed into the main enclosure, until late 2006 when Isabeau was accepted as a companion for Shaman. This turned Rami and Chocolate’s world upside down. Isabeau constantly tormented the old ladies, who stopped being able to defend themselves as she grew. We were forced to separate Rami and Chocolate back into the front run. A ramp was built to prevent any contact with Isabeau, and to help Chocolate’s back end, which could no longer navigate the stairs. After being pretty heavy most of her life, Chocolate began losing weight last summer. By fall, she was very thin and having horrible bowel problems. She was examined by our vets with a bad conclusion: some sort of tumor or GI cancer. We did not feel a major surgery or stressful treatment was in her best interest at almost 13 years old. The GI problems were treated with drugs, and supplemented with pain killers for many weeks. She seemed comfortable and content until the end of January. One Sunday morning, she was noticeably in pain, stopped eating, and could not get comfortable. We gave her pain killers, but it was very clear she would not recover. The vet came on January 30th. Her passing was calm, peaceful, and surrounded by friends. It is still hard to comprehend; we expect her to be waiting at the door each time we hear a knock.

In Memory of Akyra

Akyra came to Wolf at 7 months old. She had been severely abused by her previous family. As many don’t realize, these animals do NOT behave like domestic dogs. They did not understand her nature; therefore were not prepared to handle her wild spirit. This got Akyra into much trouble as a youngster when only behaving like a normal wolf pup. Her owners routinely beat her, once shattering her elbow, which was surgically corrected, only to have her shatter it again jumping off of their 2nd floor balcony to escape. She ended up chained in the yard with no food or water. A concerned neighbor reported them to authorities, and she was placed at Wolf by the courts.

You would think after all she went through, Akyra would be terrified of people. But no! She loved people so much she would accidentally hurt you trying to get attention. We warned people she was “aggressively affectionate”, and would jump, lick, nip, kick, and cut you with her crooked under bite (due to inbreeding and her treatment as a pup) to get attention. Akyra established many rules for animal and volunteer safety.

She lived with her brother Sabastian, and Kai. The boys were not allowed human attention or she would attack them, so only two or more humans could enter her enclosure. If one group was cleaning the top of her habitat, and another changing her water, she would attack Sabastian to keep him away from all of “her” people. Therefore, only one group at a time could work in an enclosure. Infamous for not allowing people out the gate, she once trapped someone for 45 minutes. So volunteers started carrying two-way radios to call for help.

Akyra taught everyone who came to Wolf many important lessons. Perhaps the biggest was forgiveness and love. No one could hear her story then met her without falling in love. The bond between Akyra and Kai was so strong; they easily showed that these beings do have feelings, emotions, and complex personalities. In fact, it was Kai who let the volunteers know there was a problem with her. They were in the next enclosure when Kai ran to the fence, let out a strange howl, and took off. Immediately, they ran to check on Akyra, who had experienced a stroke a few weeks before, but had been recovering well. She was found curled in a ball in obvious distress. Decisions were quickly made to take her to the ER where a neurological exam and blood tests were done. Her blood showed diabetes, but further tests found she was not in a diabetic crisis. Neurological exams were inconclusive, and an MRI was recommended. However, the ER doesn’t perform MRI’s on weekends, so they sent her home with pain meds and told us to bring her back on Monday.

Volunteers made a nice warm bed for Akyra at the bottom of her habitat to sleep on for the night. She was given a dose of pain killers to help, as she was having trouble walking. The volunteers gently laid her on the bed, but received multiple ‘fear bites’ in the process. Fortunately, she fell asleep there. At 4:45 am the next day (Feb 10), Steve and Kiley were preparing to leave for emergency snow removal at WideAwake (See WideAwake Update). They went out to check on Akyra before departing, and found her stuck. She was helped up, but was unable to use either back leg.

Our vet believes she had been having more strokes which were causing emboli, or blood clots, affecting her nerves. She was placed back on her bed, and monitored by Frank, but the situation was not good. By daylight, she was completely unable to use her back end, and was in pain. Frank had to make the difficult decision of calling the vet. Akyra was surrounded by many of her friends and was very much at peace. She gave kisses right to the end, and then gently laid her head down. Her passing is a huge blow to all who knew and loved her. She taught so many, so much. Please honor her spirit by remembering the little wolf who loved and forgave, and triumphed over tragedy.

Kai & Pride Become Buds

After Akyra’s untimely passing, Kai was left alone and grieving the loss of his girl. We were very concerned for his well-being, as Kai has never been alone and was fiercely bonded to Akyra. Pride was the final WideAwake animal without a companion, and we yearned for her to be a good match for Kai. However, his grieving period was respected.

On February 17, Steve and Kiley again loaded the truck and headed for WideAwake, and were again met by the volunteers. Pride’s catch up was a little trickier than Isis, but fortunately she ran into the doghouse; allowed a person to crawl in to muzzle her, then let us remove the roof to lift her out. All went well until she was picked up. She started kicking and fighting, dropping two volunteers to the ground. It took three people to carry her to the gate and get her in the kennel. Thankfully, she immediately calmed down and did great for the trip. Not thankfully, the recent snows left the road a mess with huge drifts on both sides. Upon meeting another vehicle on the way down, the Wolf Suburban ended up stuck in a ditch. Thankfully, a few minutes of shoveling and a tow got it on the road again.

At Wolf, Pride quickly received her exam and vaccinations and was released into her new ½ acre enclosure with Kai. She ran straight for the top, briefly stopping to wag tails and exchange butt sniffs with her new boy. For days, she paced the top of the enclosure. Our concern grew as we did not witness them interacting or her calming down.

A week after her arrival, she was a completely different animal. The two seem to be bonding well. Pride has started coming down to the front area while humans are inside, and shows much interest in the goodies Kai receives at the fence. She apparently loves Kai, and constantly nips or paws his behind to instigate play. Kai repeatedly responds with barks and screams. Pride backs off for a second, then comes right back at him. Recently, she stole a bone from him on meat day, took off up the mountain, and refused to give it back. Now she is running the fence line with Sigmund, defending her territory. All of this behavior is very healthy and her blood results came back heartworm negative. We’re all astounded by the recovery, and can’t wait to move the rest of the WideAwake Pack to the main facility.

Continued -> ->

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