Rain, Rain, Go Away

Sorry about my skipped post last week-I was in Chicago for Northwestern's graduation. I ate a lot, sat through many graduation ceremonies, and sat a row behind Adam Sandler. No big deal. I'm sure you want to hear about the wolf puppies more than you want to hear about Mr. Sandler.

I don't mean to start off the post on a sad note, but Yuma had to be euthanized yesterday and I wanted to give a little tribute to the sassy yet beautiful girl that called Red Wolf her home for 15 years. Rescued from a trailer park, her life at Red Wolf was much better than it would have been otherwise. She was old girl and passed away at the end of a very long life. I count myself lucky to have met (/served) her.

On a happier note, the wolf pups are growing with wild abandon. They are getting much more distinct, both in personality and in coat pattern.

Crioux's eyes seem to change color depending on the light - sometimes they look green, other times they look blue. 

"Hey Sioux, that's my feather!"

STAHP

Kiowa is the troublemaker of the group. She is always the first to try to sneak out of the pen, jump on a napping sibling, or stick her nose somewhere it shouldn't be.

Crioux is the only boy of the group, but he doesn't let his two sisters bully him around. He is mild-mannered and inquisitive, he has the most striking eyes and facial markings of the group. 

Sioux is the sweet girl, most likely to cuddle up in your lap and watch the others play. She is a big sweetie and has the gentlest personality of the group. 

Crioux having a rare noble moment

You dare disturb my slumber?!!

Pooped puppy

Red Wolf has also added yet another fawn to their collection. She came to the sanctuary with the name Ditch, because that's where she was found. But she is such a dainty little thing that they are thinking of changing her name to "Dixie Doe". She is much darker than the other two and her spots are cream instead of white. She is very sweet and has a cute fuzzy patch of fur on her head.

We also stopped by to see Akima, who was fascinated/terrified by his new ball toy:

When we got back to the main barn, we stumbled upon Tracy working with one of our newer Barred Owls named Ocho. Apparently he is much more amicable than the other Barred Owl (Uno). Hopefully he will make a good ambassador bird in the future.

I'm just here, chillin'

Of course, we couldn't leave without saying hello to Rosie. She was feeling very friendly today, friendly enough to come out and say hi even though I had three friends with me. 

Paul was very pleased to show off the fact that he is famous, since he (and Red Wolf Sanctuary) was featured in an article by the Cincinnati Enquirer. If you don't get the Enquirer, you can check out the article here if you want to read it: Red Wolf Sanctuary Article

Today's task for me was taking my friends on a photography tour, so I don't have any exciting details about the poop I scooped or the roadkill I dismembered. Maybe next time!

Thanks for reading, y'all!

T

Howlin' Good Time

Today was a beautiful day for Red Wolfing! It was one of those rare days here in the tri-state area when the humidity is low and there is a gentle rolling breeze. Couldn't have asked for better weather. That being said, we didn't do a whole lot of actual work today, for several reasons. The first is that I am a volunteer, as opposed to a paid employee. This gives me the wonderful opportunity to help but also take photos and cuddle with wolf puppies and baby deer. Secondly, said paid employees already got most of the work done anyways, so there wasn't much for my friend and I to do other than keep the wolf pups occupied. We have such a rough life.
The thing about only being able to come to Red Wolf on Saturdays is that the wolf pups seem to double in size every time I see them. Today I was surprised by how their faces are starting to look less like puppy faces and more like fierce and elegant wolf faces. But the main highlight of my wolf puppy time was the fact that I was able to get all three pups howling. This was after several minutes of me howling like an idiot as Crioux whined anxiously. I think he was worried that I was dying. But after a while I was able to produce an acceptable wolf howl that enticed the pups to join in with me.

Besides the little howling party we had, there was much gnawing of the shoes, socks, pants, camera strap, and ears. Once they had gnawed every piece of available clothing/shoes/bodily protrusions, they were struck by a sudden and severe nap attack. A very successful day, by any standard.

After the wolf puppies, my friend and I put away approximately 8 boxes worth of donated venison and fish into the freezer. Next I drove out to a broken down tractor with a mechanic. The mechanic managed to get the flat tire off, and I managed to get the truck stuck down a mild incline covered by very long grass. I got it back out, but as the mechanic said, I collected enough grass underneath the vehicle to stuff a mattress. Once we did enough work to make ourselves feel slightly useful, we went to feed ourselves some lunch, and afterwards I said hello to my diva Rosie. She deigned me fit to pet her today, so that made me right happy.

After feeding ourselves and playing with Rosie, we went to feed the baby deer. These baby deer are like dogs - they come when called, they like getting their ears rubbed, and they like to like the salt off of your body (and since I am extremely ticklish this can get to be exceedingly uncomfortable). Wallace and Joey were super hungry and it didn't take them long to get to business with their bottles.

On the way back from feeding the babies we stopped by to say hello to Yuma, since I haven't seen her at all this summer. She hissed at me several times, so I count it as a success. She did pose for some nice photos, however...

That's pretty much it! I'll be back next week!

Funny Foxes

Hello again,

Sorry for the long intermission. I wasn't able to go to Red Wolf last weekend, so I didn't have anything very interesting to write about. Luckily, I did return to Red Wolf this weekend and was able to get lots of photos. Today was very hot, so we started out by cleaning and filling up all the water for the coyotes, foxes, and wolves. It doesn't sound like a lot, but many of the enclosures are overgrown due to all the rain recently, so getting to the water bins often required some hardcore week-whacking. I was also trying to avoid ticks at all costs. On the way to fill up water bins, we stopped at Yuma's enclosure so I could get some non-rainy photos of Yuma enjoying her new spacious enclosure. She was feeling photogenic for about fifteen minutes before she decided she had enough and retreated behind a large boulder.

After Yuma's photoshoot, we went to fill up the foxes' water. We stopped in to say hello to Bull, who was being much more friendly than normal:

We eventually finished watering, and then retreated from the heat. Since it had been a long time since we had played with Rosie, we decided to go and spend some time with her. She was not as friendly or energetic as usual, but that was probably because of the heat. She still managed to be pretty photogenic, though:

One thing I did notice is that both Rosie and Bull were making some pretty funny faces today. Observe:

After Rosie, we decided to take a lunch break in the wonderful air conditioned lunch room. Then it was back out to the heat to feed and clean the bears. After the bears, we spent most of the rest of the afternoon cleaning and organizing the animal kitchen / meat prep area. It was pretty smelly, dirty work but at least it was air-conditioned. My fellow volunteer screamed at least three times. The first was due to a spider crawling up her arm, the second was also due to a spider, and the final scream was due to a mouse that popped out of a box. Each time she screamed I just about had a heart attack. It was made even funnier by the fact that this volunteer is not very squeamish, so to hear her scream was pretty funny (after determining that it was not due to anything life-threatening).
Just as I was leaving, a summer thunderstorm cropped up, due to the heat. It brought a wonderful breeze and a ten degree drop in the temperature. It wasn't too bad of an end to the day!