The Wolfwood Sanctuary west of Ignacio is a life home for around 60 wolves and wolf-dogs, many of them rescued from horrible abuse or neglect situations.
Wolfwood has state and federal licenses as a rescue facility for wolves and wolf-dog hybrids, owner Paula Watson said. She stressed that they don't breed or sell animals.
The sanctuary moved to its current remote location in 2002 after operating near Pagosa. It operates with donations, grants, and volunteer helpers. Their big annual fundraiser will be 5 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10, at Digs Restaurant in Three Springs, with an art auction, food, spirits, live music, and free wolf kisses. Event tickets are $25 at the door. A list of participating artists is at www.wolfwoodrefuge.org.
The website also has pictures and information about all the animals.
Watson led a tour of the sanctuary on Wednesday. There's a spectacular view of the mountains. A kennel in Watson's front yard houses a new puppy, Wile E. coyote. He was found abandoned and unsuitable to be released back into the wild. Watson adopted a mixed-breed dog puppy to be his part-time playmate, with supervision. Like the coyote puppy, the wolves and wolf-dogs are not candidates for adoption or release into the wild.
Wolfwood helper Ben Ehlers brought Trinity, a female wolf-dog, to meet visitors on Watson's porch. Trinity is one of the ambassador animals that goes to educational events. "If Trinity is OK, everybody is OK. But she isn't pet material," Watson said. "She doesn't like to be inside. She'll kill a cat in a second."
There are lots of differences between wolves and dogs, or wolves and coyotes, Watson said. Trinity's legs are shorter than a full-bred wolf. All wolves are born in the spring. Trinity was born in August, so she can't be 100 percent wolf. No full-blood wolf will have blue eyes. Wolf eyes are more slanted than dog eyes, and they tend to be gold. Wolves have long noses and an incredible sense of smell. They have long curved fangs to grab prey. Their back teeth and powerful bite can crunch bones.
In the wild, a wolf is successful at catching prey maybe one out of 10 tries, Watson said. "They don't eat every day, but they can eat 20 pounds at one time."
The Wolfwood animals are fed twice a week. The coyote gets food every day.
Full-bred wolves always have stand-up ears. Their ears are smaller than some dogs, such as a shepherd, because they are adapted to cold climates.
Wolves can hear your heartbeat, Watson said. They can smell changes in your body chemistry. In the wild, wolves live around six years. The oldest animal at Wolfwood is 16 1/2. Watson doesn't expect her to survive this winter.
Wolves don't like heat. Full wolves shed around 20 pounds of fur before summer and "look like a drowned rat," Watson said. Wolf dogs like Trinity don't do that. She has a lush coat through summer.
"When we get an animal in, the first thing is rehabilitation. A lot of them have been abused. Next is socialization," which Watson said is not the same as domestication. Sometimes that happens fairly quickly. Sometimes it takes months. Some animals have been so traumatized that it may not happen.
Some have expensive medical issues. They aren't turned away because of that.
"We see a lot of bone cancer or ruptured spleens from being kicked," Watson said. The newest wolf-dog that just arrived from Montana is very fearful and skittish. She was kept in a small crate in a grooming salon for the clients to see. The owner didn't give her enough water, so she wouldn't urinate. "This animal is very traumatized. (Socialization) will take months. She will never be an ambassador," Watson said.
Even with socialization, wolves will treat a human the same way they treat each other, and that can be rough, Watson said. They communicate with each other with various sounds and with body language. People who interact with them need to be mindful of that. "We have to teach them (the wolves) not to bite down as hard as with other wolves."
Watson led the visitors to Ra and Tala, full-blood wolves from Alaska. "They came to me very sick and neurotic," she said. That's what happens when a baby wolf is taken from its mother. Ra is a fear biter. Tala has a very compromised immune system. Neither of them is an alpha animal.
"Ra was so in need of a mother, I am his mother. I'm the only one who can handle him," Watson said. He howls when he wants his mom.
Wolves have to be taught to hunt. They learn from their mother to hunt specific prey, she said.
Next on the tour was the Alaska pack, including ambassador wolf Oakley. The nine pups were confiscated in an animal cruelty case. The prosecutor called Wolfwood to take them before they became case evidence, because then they'd be euthanized. "We've had them since they were three or four months old," Watson said.
"You have to teach them to be wolves," to not shake each other (that's for prey) and how to howl. They are taught that food in Watson's bucket is hers until she gives it to them.
Visitors can go in the pen with Oakley, separated from his pen-mates. Pack-mates relate to each other face to face. Watson directed human visitors to get to face level with Oakley, with back against the fence for wolf rubs. After the face kiss, he turns around for a butt rub.
Oakley's group recently reached two years old, when in the wild, some pack members (the alpha wannabees) have to leave. Three of the nine are now in their own enclosure.
Wolf-dog Jinn was bought by someone over the internet for $2,000, Watson said. The breeder bred for cute little puppies that looked like stuffed animals, to sell for Christmas - i.e. born in the fall, so not full-blood wolves. But Jinn acts like a wolf and is not a good pet.
Watson finished the tour with Majesty, a big beautiful female. "Majesty is our hardest case. ... She was kept on a chain. She hung herself and is brain damaged, so she is dangerous. The chain was so embedded in her neck that we had to have it removed surgically."
Watson went into the pen entry, with an inner gate between her and Majesty. Majesty approached in a very submissive posture, like a puppy, "but she will grab you and take you to the ground. She'll turn in a second and come at you. ... She loves us and we love her, but she's very damaged." They avoid using drugs to control behavior, but Majesty gets Prozac.
Watson said, "I tell kids wolves aren't vicious man-eaters, but they are apex predators. Please don't have wolves in your back yard... Save the wild places (for them). Have dogs and cats."
She also urges people not to donate to sanctuaries until they actually visit. Some of Wolfwood's most traumatized animals are from alleged sanctuaries. Kodiak and Jill came from one Watson calls the Sanctuary of Sorrows, with 150 animals in airline crates in a warehouse. The operator bribed local officials to look the other way until a woman got photos and posted them on the internet.
