What's Going On at Wild Spirit?

August 19, 2008


Rio Rancho Thunder Rally While at the Fire and Motorcycle Rally, some nice folks came up and told us about another motorcycle rally in Rio Rancho. After looking into it more, we are signed up to be heading over for the Rio Rancho Thunder Rally! Our outreach team will be there for all three days, along with one of our wolf ambassadors to meet and greet the public. With wolves, live music, and motorcycles...how can it go wrong? Hope to see you there! Date: Friday - Sunday, September 12th - 14th Where: Camping World RV Sales 14303 Central Ave NW Albuquerque, NM Website: http://www.rioranchothunder.com	Some people were having trouble locating the button for the Christmas card ordering page. With a few minor tweaks, the image looks more like a typical "web button", and hopefully, looks more inviting to click on. Or, just visit the page by following this link. Remember, with every card sold, the proceeds go directly back to the Sanctuary!
	Both Raven and Forest had fun traveling outside of the Sanctuary last week. On Wednesday, Raven and Leyton visited the Mother Whiteside Memorial Library in Grants. With a room full of children and adults gazing on, Leyton explained all about wolves and our Sanctuary. The presentation even resulted with us on the front page of the Gallup Independent, and you can check out the article on their website - "Call of the Wild". Then that weekend, Forest and the outreach team traveled to Albuquerque for the grand opening of the Fine Art Gallery by the Casa de Rosa assisted living center. Forest was not the only animal at the event - veiled chameleons, hissing cockroaches, boa constrictors, and many other critters were present. The local petting zoo was home to several farm animals, and when Forest went over to see the alpacas, they rightfully frightened him away. Overall, it was a busy week, but worth while!
On the Road Again Two new animals will be arriving soon, which means two cross-country road trips for these traveling critters. On Wednesday, staff member Angel and volunteer Mary will be making the long trip to Boston to pick up a brand new animal coming to the Sanctuary, Contessa. With both Lakota and Axel needing a new female companion, we were happy to accept Contessa into our four-legged family. Angel and Mary will be taking a leisurely drive up, but on the way back, it will be a non-stop, 48-hour drive to get Contessa out of the van and to the Sanctuary as quickly as possible. We will have more details on brand new Contessa once she arrives. The other animal arriving soon has been a little boy we've been talking about for a while now. Romeo, the red fox from the Davenport Zoo in Iowa, finally has an arrival date at the end of the month. Luckily, we won't be making another trip to the northern state; instead, some of the zoo keepers will be making the drive. Not only do they want to see Romeo's new home, but also check in on three of our other residents that recently migrated here: Brutus, Navar, and Akela. The next few weeks will be crazy busy, but we are always excited about our furry family expanding. Plan a trip to the Sanctuary to see the new additions! Health Updates It seems that the last month or two has been particularly rough on our animals health-wise. We have been trying our hardest to give everyone the best care possible, which has usually worked out well (like Oscar and his infection that we were able to quickly get under control). However, some animals are still having some difficulties. We have been keeping you updated on Sunbear's growth in his groin region, and unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be getting any smaller. His skittish behavior around people made him hard to inspect on a daily basis, so we placed him in an isolation enclosure in our one-acre enclosure. Although we were now able to keep a closer eye on him, it was obvious that he missed Luna and his old enclosure. Poor Luna was depressed without her handsome man, and we weighed the options of keeping him out of his enclosure. Finally, we decided to move Sunbear back in with Luna, and hope that human interaction will encourage him to come close. Sequoia has been plagued with bad luck. She had a large tumor removed from her side a few months back, and we were hopeful that it would not return for quite some time. However, cancer is notorious for not staying away, and it reappeared not too long ago. Now, it is growing bigger every day and is very noticeable under Sequoia's coat. Plans to bring her back into surgery are underway, but our concern is that the surgery will leave her with a giant spot of missing fur. She would be completely vulnerable to the season's flies, mosquitoes, and blazing sun. We hope to have her operation sometime in late September when the majority of the pests are gone. We will continue to keep you updated on the well-being of all our critters, especially those that are going through problems currently. Please send well-wishes and good thoughts!	Work on the fox enclosure is getting accomplished at a rapid pace! The other day, good friends of the Sanctuary, Terry and Bobby, brought along a group of people to help paint a mural on the back wall of the enclosure. It...looks...AMAZING! The roof has been installed, more vegetation planted - you can't believe that there use to just be a patch of dirt there. With a couple more days of hard labor, the enclosure will be as good as done. Good timing, too, because Romeo will be on his way very soon...
	The mosquitoes are everywhere! They are plaguing the Sanctuary and biting anything that moves (or stands still)! We have tried several different tactics to repel the vile beasts, from over four different brands of bug repellent, to mosquito dunks, and even concentrated garlic oil sprayed around the Sanctuary! However, we think we might have found something that works. The Liberty Mosquito Magnet attracts mosquitoes by impersonating a human by emitting carbon dioxide, heat, and moisture. When the mosquitoes get close enough, they get sucked into a vacuum where they die of dehydration. With this weapon in our arsenal, we should be able to eliminate the mosquito problem once and for all! For more information, please visit our Wish List
	"Thunder - Shhh! I'm Playing Hide-and-Seek! Visited the sanctuary and have a great picture to share? Send your photo to webmistress@wildspiritwolfsanctuary.org and have your photo featured as Photo of the Week!
I Need a Home! We have a low content wolf-dog that needs a home! She came here with her three pups, and now that her kids have been adopted out, we need to find a home for Momma! She is sweet and social, and although she has been spayed, she has not had all of her shots yet. We do not know her exact age, but we believe she is at least six years old. She would be a great companion in an adult home. If you have any questions or have an interest in adopting this sweet girl, call us at (505) 775-3304 or email us at info@wildspiritwolfsanctuary.org.	If there are no breeding opportunities for a wolf in the local population, a wolf might begin to travel long distances to bring itself to a new population. Moving usually in a single direction, they can travel to areas up to 531 miles away.