Sad news struck Silverton on Sunday when the town’s longtime protector, official mascot and resident wolf-dog, Wolfie, died.

For 11 years, the cross-breed – a hulking shock of fuzzy black fur with an intense stare – has been an elusive fixture of Silverton. He first wandered into town in 2005 as an unwelcome stray to some residents who were afraid that Wolfie was eating pets and needed to be put down.

But over time, Wolfie went from feared beast to beloved protector.

Though he remained feral and perpetually wary of human hands, Wolfie was said to be a fiercely loyal town guardian, credited for warding off predatory wildlife from house pets and Silvertonians.

Eventually he was coaxed into retirement in the fenced-in yard of Dean Bosworth and Paula Troutner.

Neither Bosworth nor Troutner could be reached Monday for comment, but Melody Skinner, who shared caretaking responsibilities, reported Wolfie died a natural death.

He was thought to be about 15 years old.

“It will be a great loss. He was a sweet boy,” Skinner said. “His mission in life after he moved into town and people started taking care of him, was to keep our end of town free of bears, coyotes and foxes.”

Like many Silverton residents, Skinner has an archive of Wolfie encounters and anecdotes.

Skinner said she was recovering from chemotherapy and radiation treatments when Wolfie made his first appearance in Silverton. Her efforts to get her body back in shape meant long hikes with her Rottweiler on a trail above her house.

She and her dog soon realized they had a shadow: Wolfie was following along off-trail.

He was also an avid waterman.

“In spring, he’d go up to the snowmelt ponds and lay there, so happy to be in the water,” Skinner said. “He was so deliciously smug about it.”

The community could not officially adopt the animal, so instead the Silverton Town Board declared Wolfie the official town mascot in 2007.

The reality that he was getting on in years became more apparent last year when he suffered a stroke and nearly died.

Skinner noticed Wolfie going downhill on Saturday. She said she saw him Sunday morning and got the sense he didn’t want her around. When she returned around noon to check on him, he had died.

When the news broke on social media, Wolfie’s many admirers were devastated.

“Gonna miss the old man!!! He actually let me pet him once!!!” posted Pete Sampson on the Silverton Community Bulletin Board.

“Another Silverton marvel moves to Legend status,” wrote Crystal Lemmons. “We will miss him.”

A silver lining: Wolfie’s lineage lives on.

Wolfie was fixed of what a town trustee called the wolf-dog’s “man problem” years ago, but not before he sired a litter of pups.

Rio, Wolfie’s son, is the spitting image of his dad, which is confirmed by townsfolk when owner Larry Raab takes Rio for a walk downtown.

“Whenever my wife or I walked him downtown on a leash, some people asked, ‘How did you get Wolfie on a leash?’ He’s enough resemblance that people mistake him for Wolfie,” Raab said. “It’s unfortunate Wolfie moved on, but he was certainly slowing down.”

Rio’s sister of the same litter, Mora, died last year, which appears to leave Rio the last of Wolfie’s bloodline in Silverton.

It remains unclear if there will be a memorial service in Wolfie’s honor, or if the life-size bronze statue residents have proposed in the past will come to fruition; Skinner said the town is still processing his death.

“Silverton’s lost a little part of its soul,” Town Administrator Bill Gardner said Monday. “What a wonderful animal we had in this community. Such a symbol of our wild mountain heritage and the care everyone gave to him.”

jpace@durangoherald.com