Fall usually signals a time to prepare for the winter ahead and putting the final details in place for our yearly fundraiser -- the Howl-O-Ween Run for the Wolves. It is also a time to thank our wonderful volunteers and spend some social time with them at the annual volunteer picnic at the Sanctuary.

This year however, we were still trying to finish up a significant number of Summer projects and accommodate a larger than usual number of public events and educational program commitments. We were also still trying to find a way to resolve our lawsuit with the county and the founders were transferring ownership of the Sanctuary property to Wolf. Suddenly, on top of all that we were hit (just like everyone else) with major concerns about what the ‘Wall Street Crash’ would mean to our supporters and their donations (Please see our Special Offer and how important even small donations are to the wolves).

On September 25th it started to get even more challenging as our concerns about how we needed to plan for winter at WideAwake seemed to be turning into an emergency (see -- WideAwake to Wolf with Love).

The volunteer picnic on September 28th was a great time even though the situation at WideAwake occupied a good deal of our discussions. We were even able to avoid the usual rain, which occurs during this event most years.

We then had Rajan neutered on the 30th of September. Although we had him scheduled to be sterilized during the Summer ‘vet days’, that had been postponed due to Menemith’s passing. Rajan is so sweet and social that we were actually able to take him to town to have the surgery performed, and he is doing great. Unfortunately, we were still unable to get Nashoba’s neuter scheduled and at this point it will have to wait for Spring.

On October 11th, as we were preparing everything for an evacuation of the WideAwake animals, an emergency presented itself at the Larimer County Humane Society. A young female wolf was dumped and was scheduled to be killed. On October 14th we had not even had a chance to catch our breath from WideAwake and we were scrambling again (see -- Small Miracles, McKinley).

OK, certainly everything was going to calm down now and we could proceed with winter preparations. There were a number of habitat clean-ups, minor fixes on dig guards and a tremendous amount of slash from tree thinning that all needed attention. Isabeau’s relentless digging also required a few holes to be filled in as they were getting just a bit too close to fence lines. Frank was also in the process of preparing for a conference (scheduled for October 24th) he was invited to participate on how animal-related organizations could work together to improve the response associated with captive or injured wildlife in Colorado. This was a major milestone conference and the beginnings of something wonderful initiated by David Gies from The Animal Assistance Foundation.

“Make A Difference” week started for Wolf on October 21st. This program is scheduled every year by the Larimer County United Way. Volunteers, sponsored by their employers, schedule to work at nonprofits all over the county. Those coming to Wolf had a major impact on our backlog of winterizing tasks and we thank them immensely.

On October 23rd however, another curve ball was thrown at us by the Universe. We had our Howl-O-Ween Run scheduled to begin and end on the Colorado State University Campus at what is known as the ‘Oval’. We were told, two days before the event, this would no longer be possible (see -- Run for the Wolves). Obviously Frank would not be attending the conference now, but wishes to formally thank Pat Craig from the Wild Animal Sanctuary for agreeing to fill in.

Still recovering from the Run, on November 11th, it became very obvious that Rami was having some significant health issues. This one is still very difficult to deal with (see -- In Memory of Rami).