Irwin

Male High-Content Wolfdog

He is 10 years old and his birthday is April 15th, 2014.

You can see him on the Tour Path!

Before life at Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, high-content wolfdog Irwin was born to a breeder in Ohio and sold as a pet to a private owner. He remained in his original home for the first several years of his life, raised alongside the family’s black lab, who loved him like one of her own. Unfortunately, a day came in which Irwin demonstrated some undesirable behaviors toward his owner, who quickly realized that he was not the pet she hoped he would be. As a result, she began searching for a new home for him.

After several sanctuaries turned down requests for his rescue, Irwin was placed with a second owner in a private home in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, after more than a year in his new home, he once again demonstrated some unpredictable behaviors, resulting once more in the need for sanctuary placement. Wild Spirit was initially contacted and asked to take him in, but at that time we did not have any single females that staff believed he might be compatible with. As a result, his request for rescue was declined.

Months later, however, we found a potential opening for handsome Irwin. As fate would have it, our lovely high-content wolfdog Naia had been removed from her shared habitat with Arctic wolf, Flurry, as the two had become incompatible as Naia grew older. As such, we began to consider a new companion for her and Irwin came to mind immediately. Being much younger than Flurry and with higher energy and (ideally) greater patience with Naia, we hoped that the two might be a great fit!

“Operation Irwin” took place in October of 2020 when staff set out on the two day journey to retrieve our new rescue and bring him back home!

During the drive it was difficult to get a proper feel for Irwin, and though he did eventually warm up enough to allow staff to pet him through the chain-link, it was still unclear what his response to new people and animals might be. But upon arrival at the sanctuary, Executive Director Brittany was able to take his leash and lead him from the rescue van and into his new enclosure without issue.

Irwin was strategically placed in an enclosure right next to Naia’s, allowing the team to watch their interactions through a shared fence line before fully introducing them a couple months later. After just a few short play-dates, Naia and Irwin were moved to a large enclosure right on the tour path, where they are now living together happily.