Bjorn joined the Big Pack in the Sky on January 19th, 2023.
He passed at 2 years old following the consumption of a foreign object.
Bjorn was born in May of 2020, and arrived at Wild Spirit in December of 2022. His journey to Wild Spirit began when we were asked to make a miracle come true by taking in five high-content wolfdogs: Fenris, Freya, Aries, Sitka and Bjorn, in need of urgent rescue after their owner passed away. At the time, we were beyond our maximum capacity, with not a single empty enclosure for new intakes. While we wanted nothing more than to save these animals’ lives, we weren’t sure it was possible with our limited resources…
Fortunately, we weren’t alone in wanting to see this rescue through, and in a matter of days an entire team of people from across the country had agreed to assist us in going to get the animals AND putting up five new enclosures once we got back home with them! Thanks to this massive show of support, we made plans to retrieve the animals, meeting up with half our team in Kansas while the other half stayed behind to work on constructing the new enclosures.
After arriving at the owner’s property and seeing the animals for the first time, it was clear they were all experiencing extremely high levels of stress following the loss of their owner, and as a result of our presence as well. As such, we quickly came up with a game plan for getting the animals out of their enclosures, vetted, and into the rescue van as quickly as possible. Thanks to the experience and teamwork of all involved, this process went off without a hitch, and within a matter of hours, all five wolfdogs had been seen by the vet and loaded for transport!
Before leaving the property we learned of three additional high-content wolfdogs also living on-site (which included Chuppa and Willow) surprising everyone in our group as they hadn’t been mentioned in previous conversations. We decided to ask the owner’s wife whether they needed placement as well. She said they did but she hadn’t thought to ask due to their age, assuming we wouldn’t want them. We advised that while we didn’t have any empty enclosures at the moment, we would be willing to come back for them as soon as possible if placement was needed. She agreed, and we made plans to return for them as soon as we were able.
Of the five Kansas rescues, Bjorn was one of the youngest, and also one of the least social. As such, it was common for him to avoid his new Caretakers here at the sanctuary, waiting until we were long gone to even approach his meals. Regardless of his shy nature, we were hopeful that he would come to trust us with enough love and patience. Unfortunately, that day never did come, as Bjorn tragically passed while being rushed to emergency just a few weeks after bringing him home.
A necropsy revealed that Bjorn passed due to an intestinal rupture/perforation resulting from the consumption of a foreign object. Typically, fatal intestinal blockages cause symptoms within days of consumption with animals experiencing a gradual decline; however, in rare cases, objects are able to reside in the body for weeks to months in partial obstruction (allowing the animal to remain asymptomatic until it shifts to complete obstruction), as waste is still able to pass through the bowels. With the culmination of Bjorn being a new animal, his extremely shy nature, his unknown previous exposure to something harmful, and his lack of symptoms during his weeks with us, our team had no opportunity to save him.
Sadly, due to Bjorn’s short time with us, we did not get the opportunity to get to know him, or take many photos of his time with us.