Saying Good-Bye

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I must tell you that our beloved furry friend, Vangogh, has gone to join the big pack in the sky. He was a lovely animal that enjoyed guarding his water bowl, and that I miss the most. I miss seeing Vangogh on my way home at night, but I am glad that he went so quickly and peacefully. The other volunteers miss Vangogh barking and watching us from his enclosure, and him chasing them around the enclosure bothering them for more food. He was quite a little bathtub with feet, needless to say he was not starved. Waya, who was Vangogh's mate, is very saddened by his passing. Since he has left us, she has been very skiddish and easily scared. We are hopeing that she will not be heartbroken for very long, but she has all the time she needs. Many of the volunteers' go to see her, just to try and make her feel better, but it seems as if it would be better if we left her alone to grieve. Waya's picture is to the right.

Once again, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but our beautiful wolf-dog, Rain has lost half of her left ear about a week ago. Apparently she was fence-fighting with her new neighbors and they got a lucky bite in during the fight. Her ear was found in the neighboring pen. Even though she has lost part of her ear, she is just as beautiful as she was before. I do not have any after pictures, but Rain's picture is at the bottom of the blog.

Since The New Arrivals

Not much has changed since my last post. Our new kids (wolves) are doing okay. Axel is still not sure of any of us yet, he still paces and sounds the alarm when he sees a volunteer or a tour go by, but he is slowly getting better. Sierra and Yukon are doing well. Yukon will come sniff my hand through the fence not. We are very pleased with this because it means that he is getting used to it here. Lani and Nakota are doing great. They are definatly not as shy as the other new additions. Lani likes to play with her visitors and she seems to enjoy going for the ankles if you try to walk away.

Last weekend, Forest and Storm went to the Scorpions Hockey Game and walked across the ice. It was amazing! I really enjoyed watching them be so brave. They had encountered all of the things that frighten wolves, and they did great! There were lots of people, loud noises, icy floor, things flying above them, all of this would normally scare them, but Storm and Forest were not phased. I know that I had a good time at the game and I think it is safe to say that we all did. I hope we can go there more often.

New Additions To Our Family

We have some new additions to our family, both the furry and the not-so-furry. We have 2 new volunteers that came to us a few weeks ago. They're Maya from CA and Jason from England. Maya will be staying with us until May or so and Jason will be here for a year. All of us are happy that they are here, and we hope that they are happy to be here also.

As of yesterday we went from having 56 animals to having 61. That's right! We aquired 5 new animals. We have 3 arctics; Sierra, Yukon, and Axel; as well as 2 wolf-dogs named Lani and Lakota. Yes, we have another Lakota, and for that reason we are going to change his name to Kota or Nakota. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to let me know about them. We are trying to make sure that the new name sounds very similar to the old one. The picture at the top left of the page is Lakota. I know he looks a little ragged, but he is shedding and he also had just gotten out of a kennel after a 2 day drive. The picture to the right of Lakota, is Lani. She is Lakota's girl. Sierra and Yukon are the parents of the 6 Arctic pups that we got last summer. I am happy to say that there is one less wolf breeder in the US. Axel is their son and is the older brother of the Arctic pups. This picture just to the left is Sierra. The picture in the middle is her husband, Yukon, and the picture that is to the bottom right, is Axel. Check our website for additional pictures and info.

www.wildspiritwolfsanctuary.org

Becca@wildspiritwolfsanctuary.org