The end

So I am officially done with my required hours for the internship. However, after this week-long vacation that I'm going on, I'll be back at the Sanctum to volunteer. I love all those wolves so much now that I can't stand the thought of just up and leaving them! So until the end of summer I'll be up there helping out.

Anyway. This week was interesting. We had no tours on Wednesday, and none on Saturday due to the horrible weather, but on Friday we had a camp group come up and take a tour, then 'help' us, by passing out treats to all the wolves. Which the wolves definitely enjoyed, and the kids (and their conselers) really enjoyed as well.

On Saturday, since we had no tours, we spent the day mostly in the clinic and giftshop, catching up on all the inside chores that we had been neglecting. Then we took JT out of his pen and gave him a bath, so he would smell nice and pretty for his new home, which he goes to on Tuesday. As a reward for his wonderful behavior I took him for a nice walk in the rain, and he found the box we use for recycling gaterades. And he decided that he wanted the gaterades. So he stole a few bottles and took them to his pen, where he played with them.

After walking JT and doing all the catch-up chores we cleaned and refilled water buckets, cleaned pens where it was needed, and fed. Then we were done!

So many Wolves, so little time

Hello all! I have pictures and updates!

So, from top to bottom, first is Hobbit, who was at the time incredibly suspicious of me. Probably wondering if my camera tasted good...

Next is Abatar. He si actually staring off behind me at a tour that Liz was taking through. Aparently the men looked quite interesting... or tasty. You never know with Abatar.

Then there is Nala. I don't believe I've put a picture of her up yet. You can tell from this picture that she is quite over-wieght. We've got her on a diet to bring off a few pounds, and it seems to be working. Of course it would probably work a little better if I didn't insist on giving her 'Peace offerings' everytime I go in her pen... but hey, she's an untouchable, and she willingly comes to me to accept food now, and she doesn't do that for anyone else. So maybe the pros outweigh the cons in this case.

Then, finally, there's JT. We had moved him down to the lockout in Rosie's pen, but... well, let's just say that Rosie did not like that. At all. And she was furious with Liz and I, so we decided that it'd be best to move him back to the medical pen, before Rosie decided to never forgive us.

On a more positive note, JT, Duce, and Cheyenne sniffed noses through the fence, and Cheyenne and Duce seemed possitively enthralled by him. He acted like he had no idea what they were, and wanted attention from me the whole time... so Liz and I are thinking that if we aren't able to rehome the old man we'll stick him in with Duce and Cheyenne. As long as they continue to love one another.

Also, we have finally found the food that JT will eat. We were, previously, having some major difficulties finding food that JT was willing to eat. However, he has finally started eating the chicken that we've been giving him, and we've found a kibble that he likes. Not the good kind unfortunately, but at least he'ss eating. It's pretty obvious from his food preferences that he was raised on a junk dog food diet. Probably one of the foods that are really sweet, since he loves the sweet treats we hand out.

The wolf-dogs that we picked up Monday have already been moved on to their new homes. They were Nasir and two nameless ten-week-old puppies. Nasir was a male, probably between 3-5, pure white, incredibly friendly and socialized, very little wolf in him. He was leash walkable, traveled well, and got a hamburger for being such a wonderful boy. His vet visit went great. He had all manner of unspeakable things done to him (blood drawn, two vaccines, feccal test, temp. checked, and microchiped) and he didn't growl once, though he was a bit of a baby after the microchipping. I can't say I blame him though, that is one giant needle! And after the visit the vet let us know that he had a clean bill of health! So he is now at his new owners, probably being pampered to death at this very moment.

The puppies were also heathly, all except for the expected roundworms, which we wormed them for, and now they too are at their permenent home, getting all the attention and love a puppy can ever need, or even want, and more.

More about JT

So we did end up receiving JT on Friday this past week. He looks to be between 60 and 75 percent wolf, and he's horribly friendly. However, he's also horribly malnourished, and as a result he has almost no muscle mass. So while we are looking for a new, permanent, home for him Liz and I will be beefing him up. Which might prove to be harder than we had originally thought, since he doesn't seem interested at all in eating. He didn't even recognize beef as food when we were trying to medicate him. It took me a few minutes to convince him that it was edible, though once he relized that it was he gobbled it up like it was the most delicious thing he's ever eaten. Which I suppose it could very well be. I've got pictures of him on my camera for everyone to see, however, I've forgotten to bring my camera with me! So next time I come to the library to update you all on what going on I'll remember to bring that camera and download a few pictures of him for you all to see. He is, by the way, one of the most handsome wolf-dogs I've ever seen.

This week is going to be taken up alot by vet visits. There is another wolf that we're getting today and we'll be holding on the compound for a few days before transporting him to his new home, and we want to take him to the vet to make absolutely sure that he's completely healthy. Plus we've got to get Denalli in to get a small wound on her leg checked out, and Cheyenne's due for a check up as well.

I'll get on later to tell everyone how everything went!

Dum da dum dum duuuuum!

So, this week is gonna be interesting. In addition to all the usual daily chores Liz and I are taking Kamazi to the vet on Wednesday, and there is a possibility of getting a new, temporary, wolf-dog. If we get him then we'll only have him for as long as it takes to find him a permanent home in another sanctuary, because unforetunately there simply is not enough room for another wolf at the Wolf Sanctum.

He will be held in the medical pen, which we have had to go through and reinforce quite a bit, since it was made to hold sick animals, not a possibly perfectly healthy and unknown temperment wolf. We will see if we actually get this wolf-dog in though, because the animal control officers aren't doing a great job at, well, doing their job. The wolf-dog has been mistreated or neglected, and they originally planned to confiscate him. Then they dcecided to just force the man to sign the wolf-dog over, and finally they gave the man a weekend to 'think it over'. In other words, there's a very good chance that this wolf is going to be left in the care of the man who didn't know how to care for it. We'll see though. We'll see.

Saterday went well, by the way. We had two tours (wasn't busy), and the second tour swore up and down that she'd come back with all her neighbors and plenty of money to sponser the wolves. And since she lives only about five or ten minutes from the sanctuary, I think the chances of her fullfilling that promise quite high. Besides her children loved Rosie and Cheyenne, who were their sweetest and allowed the children to pet them through the fence.

Also, Duce is officially coming up to me at the fence whenever he suspects I have treats, and he'll even come up pretty close when I'm inside the pen, so I'm definitely making progress with him. And Nala is now taking treats and food from my hand no matter where I'm sitting or standing, inside or outside the pen, and instead of dashing off once she has the food she just walks calmly off. Who knows, maybe she'll start doing a Takoda and searching my pockets the moment I enter the pen. Then again, maybe not.

Loki still isn't growling at me anymore, though Timbre hasn't stopped at all. Something tells me that no matter how many treats I give that girl she'll never view me as anything more than a tasty snack. But hey, you can't win them all.

Till next time!

More Pictures!

Hello world, I'm back again to show you some more pictures of the Wolves and give you an update on the progress of my internship, enjoy!

This fine young man is Loki, he is a high content wolf-dog, with anywhere between 90 and 97 wolf in him. He shares an acre pen with Timbre.

THis here is Hokee. He is one of the untouchable wolves, and his penmate, Takoda, definitely rules the roost. He is constintly on the move except for onn the hottest of days, and spends most of his time trying to convince lazy Takoda to play with him.

These two lovely fellows are Abatar and Hobbit. They aren't very good at posing for the camera, however, so this is the best picture I have of them! They are brothers, and very sweet. Abatar is the boss in this pen though, and his brother knows it! Hobbit spends all the time he isn't sucking up to me by sucking up to Abatar!

Now for the updating portion of this post.

I guess I'll start of telling everyone that everything is, as usual, going very wonderfully. Gift store sales have been going very well and the tours haven't been too bad either! I have officially taken over all tours, unless we have a busy day and people show up back to back. Then Liz will, once I've got my tour to the fifth or sixth pen, start her tour. It works best that way, because it means that there isn't a huge crowd at any one pen, instead the crowd is kept down to at most six people, which seems to be much less stressful to the more sensitive wolves such as poor Duce and Little Brother.

Unfortunately I do have a little bit of bad, or maybe just not-so-good, news. We seem to be finding a few hot spots on the wolves, or what we think are hot spots, since some of them will not let us check them out. We have noticed that Takoda doesn't like for either of us to touch her ear or a certain spot on her back, which she had never done before. With her we're thinking ticks, so we plan to give her some flea medicine soon. Rose we've noticed a small bald patch on her bottom, but she won't let us check it out closely, so we're waiting to see if it'll clear up, and so far it seems like it is. Abatar had two bald patches on his rump, but when I went in there to check them out I couldn't find anything that might be causing it except a small bump. And a few days after we noticed it the spots started regrowing the hair, and now it's almost all better, so we're thinking some bug bit him and his gnawing at it made the hair temporarily fall out. Other than those small problems the wolves are all doing perfectly fine!

More of the same old, same old

Hello all. I'm going in to work in about an hour's time. It's more chores today, cleaning buckets, scooping poop, mowing, random need-to-be-done chores around the Sanctuary. We shouldn't have any tours today, unless someone's called Liz and set up an appointment. Our normal tour day is Saturday, which is when we have open house and anyone can come up and have a tour without having to call ahead of time and set up an appointment. But during the week Liz very much prefers it when people make appointments, that way we can make sure and have all chores scheduled around the tours, since a few of the wolves get very nervous when strangers are around. Besides, as Liz says, the Wolf Sanctum is first and foremost a sanctuary, not a zoo, and while it's good for the public to learn about the wolves and be exposed to them and the problems that can pop up if you have them as pets, especially if you don't know what you're doing, the wolves came to the Sanctuary for a place to live in peace until they pass. So we try keep the number of tours during the week down a bit. Normally their are two or three tours during the week and then an additional two-four tours on Saturday.

Well, I'll have more to say later. Until then, stay safe and no petting strange wolves!

Construction Time!

So this past week has been spent primarily rebuilding the house/play platform in Cheynne and Duce's pen. Liz and I have been meaning to rebuild it for the last month, however we needed the upper body strength of a male, and none were forthcoming... until this week! Two volunteers, Gary and Christa, came all the way down from Pennsylvania to help us out at the sanctum, and we spent three days, Thursday, Friday, and Saterday, first tearing down the original house, then cutting the wood and building the new house. That meant that my usual schedule was messed up and I had to go in an extra day to get everything all done, but that's all right, cause it was a blast! And as soon as Cheyenne and Duce get over the shock of having us in the pen with them, using power tools none the less! They will love and appreciate their new house... or at least love.

On another note, we did have quite a few tours up here this week, and I led half of them. Liz says that I do so well on them she's just going to hand them over to me and make me do all of them (Tours are her least favorite chore). One of the ladies in the tours this week decided to sponser Cheyenne, which means we got a hundred extra dollars for the wolves. That'll pay for most of this week's food! And the gift shop sales were pretty decent, so we brought in quite a bit of money for the wolves, which is always good.

I'm still working on getting Duce to like me. I guess you could say I'm making progress... at least he doesn't run to the opposite side of the pen now when I enter it. And he'll get within seven or eight feet of me while I'm facing him. Which is better than before. Who knows, maybe some day he'll warm up to me.