Mission: Wolf
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A non-horse related blog about summer will come soon. A few people asked me where the blogging went- I didn't have time!!! I was describing the wolf rescue experience in detail to my brother in law, and decided to
post that here.
First, a slight back story on the first rescue I visited.
When I worked at the Pet Center my best friend China wanted to visit a rescue and get some puppies to adopt out. So she had this idea to go to to this rescue in Santa Fe that regularly sent us puppies to find homes for. She saw pictures, called the lady who ran the resuce and all seemed awesome. They offered us the cabin on the property to spend the night in. -
Well this is long story short but talk about a disaster. Me, China and our coworker Andrea were going to drive down there and bring the baby (Henrik was like 6 months at this point maybe) and Eric decided we needed an escort because we all like tequila and were going far away with a baby. So he volunteered on a roadtrip with girls and a newborn pretty much. Live to regret!
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We get there and the rescue seemed amazing. I think the lady who ran the rescue bugged the cabin and then she wouldn't let us take any animals in the morning. She was going to let me and Eric take two cats and invited the two of us back any time we wanted but we came home empty handed, when Deb (the vet) asked us to limit ourselves to under 12 rescues!!! Talk about falling flat. It was a horrible experience.
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So Friday we are at a bonfire at China's and she couldn't come and Eric didn't want to (he wanted to go offroading with the Colorado Family.) China was pretty worried the rescue was going to suck, but me and my oth
er really good friend, Char, soldiered on. The plan was originally just me and Char, as an "unbirthday" present since we didn't do anything in August. -
The rescue was an hour or more past where I thought. We left with enough time to make the "big feed." Twice a week they feed the wolves all they can eat- other days it's a lighter diet. In the wild wolves don't eat two-three times a day like a dog, they are designed to process infrequent big kills. So they butcher a horse or something twice a week and RAWR food time!
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The big feed is the highlight of the volunteers week- they were all bummed we missed it. This rescue is in the middle of nowhere and we missed the feed by 20 minutes due to getting lost. -
Mission:Wolf is situated in this beautiful valley and the property looked awesome. Pulling up we were so excited. But all the volunteers had just sat down for lunch and one told us to go in and ask for a tour, that some had eaten. We went in and it was SO awkward and they kinda argued over who was giving us the tour, even though one guy volunteered right away.
I thought it was turning out to be a Sante Fe experience again. But they realized how they sounded and ALL apologized and the one guy who originally volunteered to take us happily abandoned lunch. They were really embarassed I think and just explained that it had been an exceptionally stressful morning. We were happy to wait for a tour but they insisted it was okay.
The volunteer (Shiloh) took us to the pens and the wolves were AMAZING. There were some stunning black ones, charcoal gray ones, light gray. They have some cool set ups where you can walk across bridges and take pictures of the wolves without fencing in the way. They have a few wolves that were from Hollywood, bred from the same lines as the Twilight wolves but discarded because the director only wanted male wolves for their aggression/intimidation. Little did he know the females run the pack!
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One wolf came in with a funny story- a hiker found a litter of german shepherd/husky puppies abandoned on a trail, rescued them and adopted most of them out keeping one. Sent it to a trainer and was responsible and everything. After a month the trainer calls the guy and tells him he does NOT have a husky cross lmao it was 100% gray wolf! The guy tried to keep the dog but was a college student with internships so he gave it to the rescue. He had time for a normal dog but not for an intensive 100% wolf. He actually did the right thing in taking the pups- wolves in the wild WILL abandon their young instead of defending them, and once they abandon their young they do NOT come back for them usually.
Hm what else. The guy who started the rescue started it when there were almost NO wolves in the wild and it looked like there would never be again. He was on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood with his wolves and stuff. He got to be a part of the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone.
We got to go in a pen with them and play some. The play pen opens to a large sanctuary pen so the wolves only come in to visit if they want. There weren't any forced interactions. The wolf that got up to see us (most were too gorged, on the big feeds they eat 8-10 pounds of meat each in about 20 minutes) was all over me, I think because I smelled like Mick. I got up and walked away at one point so it would go see some other people.
We also helped the volunteers with their gardening. The rescue is run like a co-op. No one is paid, instead volunteers are supported with a free place to live and food. Char and I transplanted quite a few kale plants to the greenhouse. It definitely inspired me to set up a greenhouse at our place, I just love the smell and the idea of fresh veggies and maybe some flowers coming from my own yard! The rescue is 100% off the grid and grow as much of their food as possible. I was going to help hands on with a wolf since the current group of volunteers didn't have a vet tech handy, but the project was done when the owner went to ask if they needed me. I was excited about that even though it didn't end up happening.
The rescue completely inspired me to go to school and finish my bachelors, which is in Sustainability Studies with the associates in Environmental Studies. I still think I'll end up with a masters in a psych field, but my bosses at Colorado West Mental Health all tell me my Bachelors degree can be as random as I want! It's the masters that counts, and they are accepting diverse backgrounds into the programs.
Interesting fact I learned about wolves: they are an integral part of the trophic cycle in their native areas. I didn't know what a trophic cycle even was before last week. It's sort of like a food web but more like an environmental web, look it up. Pretty much when the wolves were gone from Yellowstone the ecosystem began to collapse. Elk populations exploded, since they young and the old were all living. They stayed on the riverbanks since the wolves weren't moving them around, so they overgrazed the shade on the rivers, which allowed more sun on the water, which raised temps sometimes to 80 degrees (fishes died en masse at 80 degrees.) 50 song bird species disappeared from the park along with the fish. When the wolves were reintroduced they ran the elk herds around, culled the sick old and very young which made the elk population healthier, vegetation grew back, fish came back and so did 48 out of the 50 birds that left.
