Kissed by a Wolf

So when you approach a wolf here, you need to talk to it so it gets a feeling of trust. Imagine a stranger staring at you and walking up to your face without saying a word, that's what a wolf sees. I did the usual, walking up to two wolves, "Nike" and "Tehalin" and these two love to give kisses. I'm not sure if they like the taste of moisturizer on my face or the smell of Colgate or just enjoy for the sake of licking/kissing. In any case, I must say a kiss/lick from a wolf is a lot cleaner than a dog...or at least it doesn't smell as bad. I've had some ex's with worse smelling breath.

Nike, the female caught me off guard as I was chatting with her brother Tehalin, and during mid-sentence she managed to stick her tongue straight into my mouth...blah, attempted french kiss by a wolf. I felt slightly violated, but I'm sure it was just her way of showing affection in which case I feel kinda special...awwww. (pause for 10 minutes) Writer's block and bedtime...

Circle of Life (Part II)

One more quick post before bed. If you're faint at heart, you may want to skip this one. Don't let that cute little picture fool you about the post...

So I had planned to go up to the sanctuary this morning and just moments from getting out of bed to get ready when I received a phone call from Lois. The day prior I told her I wouldn't have an issue helping out with picking up roadkill since its dead anyway and I figured I could stomach it. It just so happened that it happened and she was calling to see if I were interested in helping out...sure, why not, I was in the process of heading that way anyway. So I made up some tea and oatmeal to eat on the run.

I met Lois a couple miles up on the road and there he was, Bambi tossed off in the ditch, eyes glazed, tongue sticking out...barf (not really, but I went to my happy place where Bambi was still alive frolicking in a field). We grabbed him by the legs, drug him over to the truck, hooked up a winch cable around his neck and pulled him up into the truck. There's something about touching dead limp deer that made me for the first time in my life actually think "I now wish I had some hand sanitizer". After Bambi was all loaded up, I got in the car and ate a couple spoonfuls of oatmeal and rubbed my eyes from being tired and then realized, that's gross, I didn't even wash my hands yet.

We introduced Bambi to his new home at WWS, a small 2x4' room with Air Conditioning that worked very well, that's right, the freezer. A piece of cardboard was placed on the bottom of the freezer and Bambi set in. There's a reason for this cardboard and I realized the importance quickly...If wet flesh touches the side of the freezer, it can turn into a situation like that kid from "A Christmas Story" where the kid is dared to stick his tongue on the flag pole. Well the deer's nose hit the side of the freezer and instantly stuck there. Sorry, I lost man points right there, I was already at my daily dose of grossness and I was not about to pull that deer off...so Lois did it. Riiiipp, cringe, shivers went down my back. And to think, I was in the Marine Corps :)

Circle of Life (Part I)

I already spent one day helping out the WWS. I spoke with Lois about what she's gone through with the place, how it got started and what the future plans are. I also helped prepare the wolves' food. For those that know me, probably know that I'm a vegetarian and I'm also a bit of an empathetic person that won't intentionally harm another living being. So this is one of the most difficult things for me to do...prepare dinner for wolves. It consists of ground meat, chopped up chicken, other animal things (zoo food), rice and dog food (dry and wet); all of which is laid out on the counter.

When I first saw it I almost threw-up in my mouth but I held back...I used to be an omnivore after all, I could handle this. There was enough meat to feed a small village in Africa for a week. However transporting it to Africa would be costly and it would be rotten by the time it got there so its better off to feed to the wolves. So I plopped my hands into the ground meat and shoveled out a handful for each bowl (10 wolves, 10 bowls). I repeated this till all the dishes of meat were approximately separated out and then its hand mooshed together like mom's meatloaf and served on an aluminum platter.

Here's the interesting environmental lesson of the day. Around the habitat there's these ever annoying ravens, hundreds of them....and they all know when feeding time is. In the wild, wolves, ravens and other critters have a symbiotic relationship with each other. What the wolves can't finish off from a kill, everything else gets. These ravens are greedy little b#$@%$#s though. If the wolf turns away from its food, the ravens swoop down and grab what they can and take off...they don't wait till the wolves are done to get the leftovers. In the wild, it works out great. In a controlled environment where the food is being donated/paid for, its really irritating since the ravens will eat a good chunk of the wolf's meal. Apparently this is a common problem at most zoos, sanctuaries, farms, or anywhere the food is not completely enclosed. Whoever comes up with a long lasting solution will probably be a multi-millionaire and savior to sanctuaries throughout the world.

Found a new wolfpack...

For those that don't know, I recently moved from Southern California to Oregon to take a summer job with the EPA as a Biologist's Assistant. I haven't written a blog for quite awhile as nothing out of the ordinary has really been going on....until recently.

I was helping my landlord unload a van full of trash at one of his properties and he mentioned that just up the road was a wolf sanctuary. Really? I've always admired wolves...while I didn't know that much about them, I always found them to be fascinating and one of the many misjudged species. I often felt that I could relate to the "lone wolf" that could set out on its own or join up with a pack. This also may turn into a unique opportunity to work with them since I lived so close. I asked my landlord if he knew anything about volunteering with them and he said I would have to talk to Lois, the founder of White Wolf Sanctuary (WWS). Shortly after asking him, one of the volunteers came down to meet a tour group...there couldn't have been better timing.

I spoke with her for a little bit to get more info of the kind of volunteer work needed to be done. The job list is probably endless...mowing, feeding, watering, cleaning, fundraising, paperwork, etc. etc. etc. Being a jack of all trades I figured I could fit in there somewhere, so I made a reservation for a tour the next day.

The introductory presentation was pretty educational and the way Lois spoke, you could tell she had a real passion for what she did. I'll get more detailed in future posts, but I can see so much that this place and these wolves have done and can do in the future to educate people about the environment and maybe even themselves, I decided immediately I wanted to be a part of it and Lois let me in.

There's a laundry list of stuff I want to help with, so focus is going to be an issue as it always is with me. I also know my personality so I'm watching that to see if this is just another novelty thing that I do, however, I don't think this one is since it falls along a passion that I have. So, if you like, you can follow along my Oregon Trail...there will be a variety of postings of all sorts, some serious, some funny, some education and others will just be whatever, a lot of it will be dependent on my mood. Comment if you like, you could probably get newsfeeds as well...anyway, on with the show.