Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in theredwoodpack's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
7:24 pm	Final Fire Posting (video links, photos, etc) Final edit performed at 3am on 5/31 including photos and slightly updated facts Well, here it is, the final post regarding the fire. I must say I was amazingly impressed with how fast it was contained given the huge spread there was the first day (Thursday, May 22nd). The big reason it spread so quick that first day was the insane winds going in all directions. They kept shifting and sending the fire out in ways the firemen couldn't predict or handle at first. The second day there was a misty fog in the morning and a very cool temperature. Those two things helped save many homes. I'm firmly convinced that if the winds had kept up longer on Thursday we might not have had a cabin to return to. By Sunday the fire was 75% contained and it looked like the fight was pretty much won. Still, the roadblocks were in place and there were some nasty hot spots. On monday the fire was 70% contained due to some spread with winds. Most folks enjoy a calm relaxing memorial day. I woke up to hear there was a town meeting starting right when I woke up. So, I raced down to the meeting area in the church. I found out that the looting was only shown to have 2 confirmed cases. The person that told us his door was kicked in just happened to be one of the two. The reason it happened was due to a miscommunication with police regarding the roadblock. This is apparently why Browns Valley Road didn't have a road block later at night the initial day of the fire. I had thought it was a good sign initially, something along the lines of there was more time for people to get more of their belongings. Sadly that was not the case and a few vandals managed to exploit the situation. By Tuesday my fears for the fire were pretty much over. I was focused more on capturing the support from the community for the fire fighters and officers who helped protect us. You can see that in the shots below. Now, on Wednesday I have the time to journey back into town and upload the newest/final links I have regarding the fire. One of which is the "20 seconds" independent film interview. First, the final stats from Cal Fire: 4,270 total acres burned. 35 residences and 64 outbuildings destroyed. 12 reported firefighter injuries. One of which happens to be a friend who hurt his knee late Saturday night I believe. The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation. From the eye witness reports though it sounds like a property owner burning debris on his property started the fire. Total personnel used during the fire relief effort is 2,519. The estimated fire suppression cost to date is $16,100,000. Second, some youtube video highlights. I've viewed 40+ videos on youtube regarding the whole thing while here on DSL. These are the best, most directly pertinent, or most interesting. 20 Seconds Interview The Summit Fire "It's Huge" - shows the relative size of the area affected The Summit Fire Progression - Explanation of the fire's progression using Google Earth's infrared cam and Cal Fire Data Third, information regarding something I attend every year and suggest to those friends who wish to share it with me: The 49th annual Corralitos Lumberjack Breakfast It has been postponed until June 1st as compared to it's normal time on memorial day. The breakfast runs from dawn until noon. It will be held in the Corralitos Community Center in downtown Corralitos (you can't miss it). There will be free parking, but lots of people attend so it's tough to find a spot unless you're early! Food for your ticket will be - hotcakes (all you can eat), bacon, eggs, hash browns, juice and coffee. Tickets for adults are $8 per person. For those 12 and under tickets are $5 each. There will be early day gas engines and antique cars on display (very fancy Packard's, old race cars, etc!). Lastly/Finally, my final selection of photos to share: The final CDF fire map (with a minor edit from me where our house was relative to the fire) Not a photo, but a final article showing the fire's spread and details The head of the police force speaking at the Corralitos community meeting regarding the fire incident The CDF speakers Taking questions from the audience A very concerned audience A couple of the MANY animal control vehicles that helped with livestock and otherwise The mount Madonna fire staging area showing the bulldozers in waiting The Summit Road Police Road Block The Mount Madonna State Park Road Block The Pole Line Road Police Road Block The Browns Valley Road Police Road Block Another small thank you from down the road The edited posters for the best breakfast event you can attend =) Thanks again to all of you for your support, friendship and offers of assistance during the fire. It means the world to us and we truly feel blessed. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 25th, 2008
6:41 am	Fire update for 5/24/08 EDIT - To see newer entries regarding the current concern with the Santa Cruz Summit fire please click here - http://theredwoodpack.livejournal.com/ I'm writing this post after my shift at the emergency veterinary hospital I work at. It was somewhat nerve wracking to leave Brandon at the house with the animals while I drove the routine 1 hour away to San Jose for work. All through work I couldn't get rid of the thought of having to rush home if it got windy and sent the fire headed back towards the cabin again. So far though, luck has REALLY been on our side. I've seen footage and heard directly from those less fortunate near us. I thankfully haven't heard about that much looting, but the fact there was any at all is still quite upsetting. I've mentioned here that the fire actually reached our road and was half a mile away before, but now I have the time to give that a little more context. Redwood Road is located right where the fire touched down on Browns Valley. On friday I got to see the firefighters in action battling the blaze there. In areas the brush was allowed to burn to prevent possible continued flare ups. Some of the photos from my last post were directly from that trip to Redwood Road. The part I hadn't mentioned is how far the burned up brush continued down Browns Valley Road. To be technical, the road's name changes from Browns Valley Road to Hazel Dell Road as soon as you cross the intersection for Redwood Road. Regardless, as I drove my motorcycle further along you could see just how far the fire had spread. We were quite lucky that it didn't jump Browns Valley Road since there are very few deep trails that go along that side of the road. There's primarily just logging paths for the most part. We are one of the few houses. As we woke up Saturday we still very clearly heard the helicopters and the big chinook scanning the area and carrying water for the drops. There were still very few pedestrian vehicles coming down our road. Many fire trucks and police cruisers were still obviously needed as they passed by frequently. I took some time on Saturday to call many people and respond to the massive load of email I received after mentioning this blog. We found that we could leave the road block at the western entry of browns valley road as long as we had a driver's license to show our home address if we wished to go back to the cabin. This was important as we were low on food for the animals as well as general things for us to eat at the house. I spent some time chatting with the firefighters and thanking them for their hard fought efforts. Brandon had likewise talked with the main group down at Redwood Road to see if they would be interested in us offering free BBQ. Apparently the crews are doing well though as he was told they have everything up to steak at the rest points. So, to just show our support, Brandon constructed a "Thank You" sign to join the many others that are going up around our area now. I've talked with SPCA officers about several dramatic rescues. At one point I saw a good 6 animal control vehicles go past in a convoy and later got to talk with a Santa Cruz AC officer about what that was for. Apparently there was a house which had a large group of alpacas and the fire was just about to overtake the property when the AC trucks arrived. The animals were loaded up just in time and taken to safety. I'm assuming this means the Watsonville Fairgrounds considering the large portion of sheltered livestock animals are being housed there. Apparently the animal shelters are helping house the cats and dogs in need if people do not have alternate means available. As it stands currently it appears the fire is safely contained and past us. We now just fear for other friends and neighbors further down the canyon and up towards the summit. The always amazing Corralitos Lumberjack Breakfast has now been postponed due to the fire until June 1st. I'm very anxious to attend this as it always shows community support. This one will definitely have a large amount of stories for everyone to share together. There will also be a large fund raising drive to help assist fire victims. I'm sure there's more I could mention, but for now I think I will settle with letting my photography do the work for me. People expressing their thanks and support of the relief effort Just down the road from us Next to the Corralitos Meat Market Shots taken at the Corralitos Meat Market Plaza The red cross The local boy scout troop raising donations for fire victims and mentioning the postponed annual Lumberjack Breakfast The Incident Action Plan The fire transport map People discussing the current fire hot spots Pointing out locations And more discussion More shots of the firemen who've helped us all At the staging area Another staging area shot And another staging area shot More crews awaiting their turn next to the church A different shot of the same crew And a final shot of the same And lastly a shot of the road block assisting the prevention of looters entering the canyon section of Browns Valley Road The road block (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 24th, 2008
2:23 am	Do You Smell Something Burning? EDIT - To see newer entries regarding the current concern with the Santa Cruz Summit fire please click here - http://theredwoodpack.livejournal.com/ Wow...I can't believe I'm typing online right now. The past 48 hours have been stressful, very lacking of sleep, and also quite amazing. I got home from work around 6 to 6:30am Thursday morning. I had just had our most recent wolfdog rescue animal, Ankou, spayed and was looking forward to some decent sleep and unwind time considering I had to stay extra for Ankou's surgery. I remember vaguely noticing clouds as the sun was getting close to peaking over the mountains. I remember thinking..."huh, looks like it might rain. Glad I'm in my truck." I then got home and went to bed. Flash forward a full two hours and suddenly Brandon is coming through the bedroom door. It takes me a minute to fully wake up because I was in DEEP sleep. He then mentions in a very quiet voice that there is a huge fire coming over the mountain and that we may need to be evacuated and wants to know if I want to get up or not. I think I asked him if it was close and if he could see flames. He said no and so I said "wake me up when it's more serious." Ok, now at this point I try to go back to sleep, but now can't quite manage it because I'm mentally working out how we'd fit our TWELVE current animals into the vehicles and in what groupings since not everyone gets along. I think I did finally manage to get to a fitful sleep, but was woken up by the phone (which normally wouldn't wake me up even if it was on my head). It was my parents calling from Florida. I think it was somewhere around noon at this point. They had seen a report on the news about the "Santa Cruz Summit" fire and wanted to know if I was ok. I blearily and slowly regain full consciousness while talking to them and watching the TV which Brandon left on showing the news reports. Now I realize how serious this is. Both the TV and my parents are telling me about thousands of acres up in flames and that it started on the more northeastern side of the mountains. I'm seeing the coverage and realize it's bad. I look out the window and see it's orange outside due to the sun shining through the smoke. After reassuring my parents that I'm going to find out more and get things ready I hang up. Brandon comes back a short time later and it starts getting smoky. When the ash starts falling like snow we start gathering our things. We know there's not going to be much room given all the animals. Still, we pack. We get all our valuable and sentimental things. Then we remember to get some practical things. It's a very oddly detached feeling to prepare to lose your home. Like something isn't quite right and it's almost not real, but you know for certain it is. Almost like deja vu in a strange sort of way. So, within the course of 30 minutes we have all the most important things loaded, then in an hour all the practical as well. We hear that there is a road block to the west of us out of the valley. There's a fallen tree blocking the road and power lines all over the place. PG&E is working on it. We're still calm. Very calm in fact because everything is set to go. At that point it still wasn't even a real worry that we truly have to leave yet. At around 2pm, due to the bits of charcoal falling and the intense level of smoke in the valley, we decide to load up the more difficult to wrangle animals first. The first one up is Trout. He's a 100 pound geriatric rescue we've had for a couple years now and after I've gotten him down the hill I put him in the back of Brandon's truck. I go back inside for a short second and answer a phone call. During it I hear a large CRACK and then my call is cut off as the power goes out. My heart stops as I go outside and scan to find where the tree fell. I can't see it, but start to look out towards Brandon as I hear him yell out "WOW! Did you see that?!" I just see the pop of the cables as I make it halfway across the bridge towards him. A small fire is started by the downed sparking line but, thankfully, it sputters out quickly. Why it goes out is beyond me because the reason the tree cracked in the first place is the winds which were going in all directions now at around 40mph. Now we are effectively trapped since the tree fell across our eastern exit. I ask Brandon if we have a chainsaw we can use, but unfortunately find out it needs electricity. We discuss what to do for a minute and then see/hear the neighbor firing up a chainsaw. We both head down and start clearing the wood he's cutting free. A large section has to be left hanging and tugging downward on the one remaining wire. We are carefully avoiding the downed ones in the road. Since we now had a decent exit opening underneath the remaining tree I used some of the heavy pieces that were cut and threw them at the cables to whip them off the road. Luckily it works and now the way is totally clear. Crisis averted. So, back to the cabin. I load up Ankou to join Trout, then get Phelan with Brandon's help since he's the most unmanageable of all our animals. From there I loaded up Mrs. B, Killian and Pinefire to join Phelan in the back of my truck. This leaves all the easy to manage animals to be loaded. At this point we decide to wait and see where things go. PG&E clears the western part of the road and thanks us for clearing a path for the fire engines with the other felled tree we cut up and moved. I swear I saw no less than 50 fire engines and 20 cop cars go past at that point. This is all still with it being a voluntary evacuation. I decide I HAVE to get more sleep if we're doing the waiting game. The power is out, it's silent. We are ready. Brandon fields calls (with our non-portable phone) from numerous friends about our safety and welfare while I again have a fitful sleep. Aiko and Shy are howling across to the animals in the vehicles and they are howling back in return. After awhile of this howling I give up on the sleep. Time passes and the smoke gets worse. The evacuation becomes mandatory. I believe it was around 6pm we finally loaded up all the animals to head out. We made a motley looking crew and were QUITE the spectacle. Imagine this because this is what it was...A huge 3 foot by 2 foot painting rests on the front bumper of Brandon's dodge ram charger. This bumper looks like something out of the Mad Max movies. My motorcycle bags and various other odds and ends are also on this bumper. Brandon is sharing the cab with our new wolf cub Elko who is in his carrier/crate (he's only 7 weeks old). Then in the back there is a 5 foot ancient spear/trident/polearm of some sort sticking straight up. You see a ton of classical paintings and a suit of Japanese armor. Also present are Wookie (my rottie mix), Ankou (the rescue girl), and Trout (the geriatric rescue boy). Then comes my truck. In the back camper shell area are the main 6 of The Redwood Pack (Killian, Phelan, Mrs. B, Pinefire, Aiko and Shy). In the front cab is Tatyana (our terrier mix) and Gurty (the separated member of the pack). We give a teary look to the deserted cabin and start the drive to the Corralitos meat market. When we arrive at the market it is bedlam. We are told this is the calm version since apparently it was a zoo from around 7-8am in the morning to noon. There are 3 different news crews there and tons of people. The local church is offering shelter, food, and drinks to people. Brandon and I gladly accept and take turns getting to watch a bit of the news on the TV inside versus watching our 2 vehicles full of animals. Many people notice us and are relieved to know we made it out ok and are asking about where the fire is at. We're only getting bits and pieces of the story. While I have the back window of my truck open with the pack saying hi to folks and getting better air flow in the camper shell, KTVU Channel 2 comes over and asks if they can interview us. We do so and later end up on TV along with all the rest of the evacuees. To see the footage you can go to the main link for it here (DSL or Cable needed): http://www.ktvu.com/video/16371265/index.html Or, if you wish to download the flash file directly (16MB), you can probably get it faster on my link here: http://www.chameleon.net/~twolf/fv/scfire.flv Many thanks to my friend Warren who found the footage online and passed it along to me today. Also thanks to Dayna for the link! I hope to add another link to this post for a more compressed standard format version that dialup users (or less computer savvy users) can play tomorrow. I had another TV interview with an indy TV group out of San Francisco called 20 seconds but I don't have any info on that beyond a business card. More on that in a future post. At this point my motorcycle is moved to someone else's house for safe keeping and we now need a place to sleep. Many thanks to all those who offered us help and/or space for the animals. In the end we had some local kind neighbors (Tisha and Bill) offer us a place to kennel the pack while we slept near them in our vehicles. Many thanks go to them for this as it was good to be close to home. It turned out particularly good as Brandon went back to sleep at the house around midnight or so since the fire was somewhat contained. I didn't know why this was such a good thing or such a priority for Brandon until 8am the next morning (Friday 5/23) when I drove back to the cabin. A neighbor from up Browns Valley Road drove past and mentioned that his place suffered looting. Apparently someone kicked in his door and stole quite a few things from his place. Most likely since Brandon was home our 42" TV and other bigger valuable items were spared. The looting got news attention and most of today was a bit frustrating as we at first were able to leave the house and return with proof of residence along the road (drivers license), but later were not allowed to pass the roadblock and come back. This is important to help stop looting, but it also causes issues for getting things back to the house too. So, we've been watching the house all day and the pack is doing well back in their enclosures. Thanks to the cold misty weather last night and the very still to calm winds today the fire is looking much more contained. Still, the fire is less than half a mile from our cabin and if the wind picks back up we could be in serious danger again. Thus, I've missed 2 nights of work, we still have our vehicles packed to the gills and are ready to load up all the animals again if the need arises. The power came back on around 2pm or so today (with one small 1 hour hiccup) so thankfully things are workable now here at the cabin. I had gotten my motorcycle back earlier today so had some freedom to go up and down the canyon getting photos and video. I also walked up my mountain path to the 700 foot ridge and got photos/video of the helicopter water drops and the smoke just down the road as well as in the distance. So, for now I leave you with links to a few photos below showing images of our packing and the relief effort of all the firefighters. First up shots of the relief effort Fire trucks passing through our newly cleared eastern exit Fire trucks lined up and planning out the strike against the major fire on Redwood Road a half mile from us Another shot of the Redwood Road Fire brigade A line of emergency response and pedestrian vehicles getting towards the more densely wooded houses A shot showing PG&E finally working on the tree we mostly cleared on the downed power line Water from above for the fire Another arial photo And a final arial photo Fire fighters along Redwood Road today Trenches dug and trees smouldering A b/w version of the same crew working on the smoldering tree stump The driver of the rig watches the team The grouping of rescue vehicles at the east entrance to Redwood Road Another shot of the grouping Next shots of the brush fire in progress and prior destruction Redwoods with ash looking like snow at the base More of the redwoods and ashes. The redwood bark is a natural fire retardant The brust fire along Redwood Road Another shot of the brush fire. This was allowed to burn at a slow rate to burn away the brush and prevent the fires from restarting Now some shots of our packed up vehicles before and after evacuation. No wonder we drew some attention. Trout in the bed of Brandon's truck with a good portion of antiques A shot showing the first 4 of the pack loaded up in the back of my truck Tatyana and Gurty share the cab with me Ankou and Wookie examine what's going on around them near the meat market This shows most of the group and the stuff The pack gets some air through the camper shell and says hello to passers by And here's a view of the "calm" bedlam at the Corralitos Meat Market Lastly, photos showing the smoking countryside and skies of our home The first of 2 views of the sun through the trees The second of 2 views of the sun through the trees The smoke from the fire as viewed from Mt. Madonna Road aiming back towards Corralitos A view of the canyon above Redwood Road. Taken from the ridgeline up on my mountain path A second view of the canyon above Redwood Road. Also taken from the ridgeline up on my mountain path A final shot showing the smoke layer slightly lifted above the road once the winds died down Current Mood: nervous (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007
1:53 am	Recent Happenings from January to February Alright. Many folks have probably given up on my LJ entries and I don't blame you. I'm overdue forthis journal and couldn't possibly remember or write down all that has occurred. A brief synopsis would be that the 3 geriatric wolfdogs from Aromas were relocated here, several home checks and placement assistances performed, and a new pen constructed for 2 more rescues Brandon and I took on thanks to several members of the wolfdog rescue I now belong to. However, there is one very prominent recent even that won't vanish from my memory for awhile. To be specific, I was attacked by one of our two newest rescues. Many friends met both Manny and Lilly including fellow members of the wolfdog rescue. Manny was the grumbly one at first and I'm sure that had a lot to do with the fact that he was protecting his mate. Well, Lilly (the one I became most attached to) turned out to be the unpredictable one. First, a shot of Lilly to give an idea of how bonded this girl was from me almost from the first day... Lilly bonded to me within 2 days. I'd never seen anything like it. Even Brandon remarked at how uncanny it was. We had no enclosure they both could go in right away and so they both got a LOT of inside time with me. They slept in the bedroom with me every night. Lilly would lie right next to me on the bed. Things were good. We'd rescued them from a person in Utah who needed immediate sanctuary for them since he apparently waited until the last minute with local legislation. When I picked them up near Barstow from Grandmother's Rescue Center I was shocked to see Manny as he looked pure. Lilly was close behind but had some doggy features. They both blew our pack out of the water. We were originally going to place them with a wolfdog trainer for movies up in Canada, but Brandon and I got attached and so it was set for them to be our newest additions. Photos of them both are on my DA account btw: http://timberwolf4u.deviantart.com/ Once a pen was built we had to ween them into staying in it. That didn't work so well. Howling was ensuing...primarily from Lilly. Her separation anxiety was HUGE. First she tried to climb out of the pen. So, during the securing process she had to be on a tether. I would never tether an animal long term as I know how it affects them. Lilly seemed practically used to it and that was a bit odd. Once the pen was fortified the tether wasn't needed anymore. She found she couldn't get out...howling continued. Since Manny and her had tied quite a few times and we REALLY didn't want puppies I got Lilly spayed ASAP. Well, she seemed fine just after that but quickly began the howling again after recovering. So, we attempted to use common veterinary separation anxiety drugs. First acepromazine, then clomicalm and Xanax. Those helped for a little and then she got worse. We took her off the drugs and she got even worse. All of those events occured about 3-4 weeks after they had been here. Typical to see true signs of the real behavior of the rescues. Well, by the first week of february and after tons of walks and socialization it was obvious Lilly was an extremely alpha female. She wanted to really lay into the pack. She tripped me off my feet once and started a fence fight with Mrs B that left 4 nice snipping teeth marks on B's nose. It was funny as it looked like a hand. Well..that little scarred hand like design on her nose was foreshadowing. Lilly's separation anxiety with me turned strange as she would whine and howl for me then growl when I went up to take her from the enclosure. Growling became snarling and posturing. I tried to calmly assert my position. I wasn't exactly ignoring the growling, but I wasn't not doing anything either. I'd walk her slightly behind me on leash. I'd do gentle reinforcement methods with her. Nothing was working. Well, on the 8th of february everything came to a head. I was in the enclosure and was leashing Lilly and Manny up to bring them with me to work again to avoid howling with the neighbors. Manny charged into the mantrap knocking me back into the gate. It wasn't a big deal, he just bullied his way in as usual. He's a monstrous brute that weighs at least 130 pounds. My foot fell between the mantrap gate and the bottom step. I had both of them leashed already so I just wiggled and got my foot out. As I turned I noticed Lilly was jumping up at me. She'd done some of that before and I'm used to our pack doing it so I reflexively backed up (against the gate) and pulled my face a bit to the side. It was then Lilly had grabbed the left side of my face between her jaws. I was stunned/shocked for a moment at the thought "wow, she just attacked me." Normally these guys will give a warning bite and let go. Not Lilly. I reached up and grabbed her muzzle with a hand each for top and bottom. She yanked a bit (giving me several lacerations) but I got her off. However, I effectively swapped out my left hand for my face. This was actually a VERY lucky thing as it could have been my throat, more of my face, or even my gut. I guess working in the ER has *really* trained me to be calm under fire as I held my calm very well as she proceeded to munch on my hand. Brandon did hear me yell though as she started to drag me back into the pen. He asked what was going on. I was focused on saving my hand and stopping the attack and didn't have time to answer as the bite was getting stronger. Since she was trying to pull me uphill I let my forward momentum pull me over her and I whipped my right arm over and around her neck in as tight a sleeper hold I could muster. She didn't like that. I realized later what a stupid thing I did at that point but I bit her muzzle while yelling to Brandon "I'm bit!"...which was actually quite hard to do and somewhat muffled while I was biting her. Thank god he heard me regardless. So, at this point I'm noticing the hold isn't doing much and she's biting hard. I'm feeling my bones bending and my hand being rended. So my right hand clutches at her throat/trachea and I sqeeze but she's still not letting go, but I've got her immobilized. She can't pull me up but I can't get my hand back either. At this point I had been trying to get her jaws open using my other hand and it was getting punctured up but I did weaken her hold some. I have 3 of the 5 fingers free and when I sense my right hand is going to get more damaged if I keep it up I go back to the throat grab. Brandon is about 20 feet away at this point and in full view of what's going on when Lilly starts to croccidile roll my hand counterclockwise. It was at this point that Brandon stopped in his tracks and I screamed out as my finger was rotated 180 degrees giving a loud CRACK. My 4th proximal flange (area of the ring finger from 1st to 2nd knuckle) snapped in a spiral fracture due to the pressure of her twisting motion. After my scream I regained control and shouted quite angrily to get Brandon's attention again. I do find it amusing now to think about it because it's so to the point, but I yelled "There goes a finger!!!" He snapped out of it and joined me in the mantrap where Manny tries to bolt past him. Brandon grabs the leash with his free hand. In the other hand is the poop scoop handle...just a hollow thick aluminum pole basically as the bucket portion fell off long ago. Once he has Manny he asks me in a loud panicked tone "what do I do?!" I yell "HIT HER!" And he smacks her square on the head. It does absolutely nothing. Brandon pauses and I'm still fighting for my hand. I yell "hit her" and he hits. We repeat this roughly 5 times. I realize that's going nowhere and now Brandon is worried because Manny is growling and half jumping because Brandon is beating on his mate. I don't remember exactly what I yelled at this point but it was something along the lines of "give it to me" and I quickly snatched the rod from his hand as he extended it to me. At first I shoved it between her premolars for leverage. The biting couldn't continue, but she was denting the handle with her massive jaw strength. She was only 75 pounds and still able to exert this massive amount of damage. Manny has settled down thankfully and since the scoop is about to become ineffective I had the wits enough to yank it halfway out of her muzzle, redirect the angle, and then cram it down her throat. At that point she was forced to let go. My hand was freed and I shakily lept to my feet and backed up. Thank god her choker came down and got caught between her jaws as the scoop handle fell to the ground. She was focused on chewing that. Manny was still out and Brandon was about to rush him down the hill. I realized he couldn't come with us to the hospital or stay in the house and quickly yelled out for him to stop. It was a tense moment between him and I when he asked how we were going to get Manny back in the pen safely. I quickly grabbed Manny's leash with my one good hand and drug him back through the mantrap and into the enclosure. I left his leash dragging, closed the gate and stepped out of the mantrap as Brandon closed the second gate. We were now safe. I was totally in shock but my hand was throbbing and I was starting to get past the adrenaline and feel it again. We made it down the hillside to the house. Brandon does -not- do good in these types of situations and I am totally fine with that but I had to get him less panicked so we could do things right. He wanted to rush out the door straight to the ER. I stopped him and told him were were guaranteed to have to wait at the ER. So, instead, I had him first call my work to tell them I wasn't coming and and second call someone to watch the pack and shut everyone up while we were gone so the situation totally wouldn't spiral out of control with the neighbors. It didn't take long but it must have been an eternity to Brandon. He was again ready to dash out the door when I thankfully remembered we should have a cell phone and directed him to where mine was. It seems totally rediculous to me now but I was appologizing to him in the truck as he was driving me to the ER since I had been snapping back nastily and barking out orders the whole time. His response to me later was "I can't believe how calm you were during the whole thing." I could tell that it actually had creeped him out a bit. As we got to the ER I was really going into shock as I could barely feel my tingling legs as I was walking from the parking lot to the lobby. I could go on at this point about the insanity with the absolutely HORRID nurses who didn't believe I was going to pass out, didn't believe I had either a fracture or luxation (dislocation) with at least one finger, the IV fluids going subcutaneously and so on. However, that's another story. I will never go to the Watsonville ER again. As it was things turned out ok. The 4 stitches that were placed in my face are now out and it's hard to believe that the wound looked so bad as it did initially. My punctures on my right hand (6 of them to the bone) have all healed up fine but several are still painful when pressed in certain ways. My bird finger on my let hand had a nasty incisor drag which peeled up flesh down to the tendon but it has healed...although it is still sore to the touch. Lastly, my ring finger on the left hand was reset by an orthopedic surgeon and has healed nicely although the fracture is slightly displaced. It will take time to see if I'll have my full range of motion again with the ligaments and tendons on that finger but obviously I'm now able to type ok again. I'm quite hopeful and still believe that I was amazingly lucky all things said and done. Just to give you an idea of pre and post damage bonewise....here's my x-rays. So, what happened with Lilly and Manny afterward? Manny is still here and doing pretty good although he gets a bit howly when left alone for too long. Lilly on the other hand (sorry, couldn't resist) amazingly was spared from the primary thoughts I had of euthanasia. She went back to the rescue I got her from and will be transported across the US to a facility that deals with vicious/unmanageable wolves and wolfdogs. So far she's doing good back at Grandmother's Rescue Center. I'm very bittersweet about the entire affair and totally unsure what I could have done to have both prevented or altered her behavior. In the end I have to chalk it up to a very dangerous learning experience and be thankful for my outcome. Now you know some of where I've been. More on the other rescues later. (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 15th, 2006
1:33 pm	Rescue updates It's been a long time since an update on here. I hope everyone is still curious how things are going with the rescues since there's a lot of updates this time around. The last I left off was way back at the beginning of January. Thorne and Rebel had been shot by animal control but had somehow survived. The media was reporting on the pair and the local Williams community up in Oregon was in somewhat of an uproar. I hadn't seen any more newspaper articles and after talking with some of the more concerned people in Williams I found a lot of confusion and miscommunication. Over the past months I had been communicating with an amazing wolf rescue person up in Oregon by the name of Kim. She was acting as the contact for Sandy to find out what all was going on with the pair while Jenny was keeping us appraised of the news. The last I had heard at the beggining of April, was that Thorne had a shoulder wound and Rebel had the tip of his tail (estimated last 3 inches) shot off. By mid-april animal control was out of patience again and ready to take up arms. Reports from the community regarding the "loose wolfdogs" were still routine. We had to make a move for capture even though there was still no solid placement option. However, I had found a temporary location to move them to which was close to my home here in California. It just needed a lot of work. The place I found was an old native animal rescue that was quite run down. They were a last resort but I needed to have that option prepared so I began work on thier old wolf enclosure. The enclosure was quite large for the facility (around 4000 square feet) and had great fencing so it was a promising start. A LOT of poison oak had to be removed and dig out ground prevention repaired though. Here are 11 different views of the enclosure beforehand with closeups/comments discussing repairs needed. Feeding Chute Front Side View Mantrap Area Gate Latches Dig Out View 1 Dig Out View 2 Dig Out View 3 Dig Out View 4 Top Section of Pen Far Side of Pen Doghouse Over a period of 3 weeks the above enclosure was repaired. I had some limitations given by the owners of the rescue, but in the end I was able to change most of the things I had primary concerns for. I didn't have much time to get all of this ready and during this work on the enclosure animal control called to give an ultimatum. I was going to my sister's wedding on April 20th and they wanted Thorne and Rebel gone by then. There was no way things would be ready in time and thankfully through Kim's talks with Andrew and several promises on my part we bought some more time. After returning from florida and the wedding I would have 1 week to finish the pen work with just one helper at the rescue. Afterwards I would have to do the capture/relocation that weekend or animal control would be involved again. April 27th I purchased 3 yards of granite rock with the remaining donation funds for the enclosure. That is a LOT of rock and it all had to be moved in 8 hours...which it was. The slopes with ground cover up top had been leveled out underneath and the rock poured on top to fill any open diamonds of fencing. The doghouse area was cleaned out inside, the fence repaired in areas. I worked at the vet hospital that night for 8 more hours and then drove 7-8 hours more to Oregon to meet up with Kim for the capture. When I got to the property I saw Thorne barely contained in an enclosure. I say barely contained because the hotwire wasn't even plugged in, the fence holding him in was flimsy/hastily contructed at best, and also the height of the new fencing would have been easy for him to jump over if he had the inclination. He honestly could have gotten out at any point so instead of using Thorne as bait for Rebel I elected to dart him right away with the help of Kim. When the hotwire was plugged in we found that it wasn't even functional. This apparently surprized Sandy who hadn't checked it. The darting was a bit traumatic for Thorne and took me one miss and one solid hit to bring him down. Once anesthetized we examined Thorne's gunshot wound to find that he apparently was only grazed by a bullet along his shoulder. It appeared to be a mild "in and out" wound that had only earned him a limp and a mild infection which I opened/cleaned. At the worst it appeared that he may have some slight nerve damage. Either way he was ok and revaccinated/moved to the back of my truck. Here are some photos of the process thanks to Kim. The darting process. Thorne is circled in red and is moving quite quickly. Even contained this is difficult to do accurately. A view of Thorne's shoulder wound while anesthetized in the back of my truck. In the back of my truck with an awake Thorne. I was replacing my remote controlled halogen lights which we used at night for instant flood lighting. A final shot of me sitting right next to Thorne with him hiding behind me. This is not bravado. I trust him this much. These animals are not the vicious killers everyone would make them out to be. After Thorne's capture we focused on Rebel. The enclosure was reinforced and rigged with a gate that could be closed with a rope from about 150 feet away in my truck. I had my remote halogen lights set so that we could see the whole enclosure if Rebel was caught at night. Kim and I stayed up for many hours that friday and saturday night hoping to catch him while in contact on hand radios. Although we did see him numerous times he never went into the enclosure. The closest he got was eating the meat out on the road during the day. When we first saw Rebel's tail, it was obvious there was more damage than just the tip being shot off. A good half of his tail was gone and it looked pretty goofy. However, he was happy (although timid/skittish) and the wound looked like it had healed well from what we could see. Sandy provided us some bait and Kim and I laid out raw chicken and bison kidneys. There were crows and/or ravens everywhere that were trying to eat our bait so warning shots with a slingshot/rocks had to be used to keep them at bay sporadically. Kim and I later rehotwired the pen. The final day, when it was obvious Rebel was not going to be caught, we came up with a plan to hopefully buy Rebel more time with the neighbors at least. Kim, Sandy, and I drove to the primary neighbors calling animal control with complaints. We showed them Thorne in the back of the truck, asked if the animals they had reported looked like him, and described Rebel's now outstanding feature of only half a tail. I think quite a few neighbors were surprized that the animals they were reporting were not these loose wolfdogs. The colors and features were wrong. They'd never even seen Rebel based on the missing tail. So, that seemed to help a lot. It seemed that many people were unsure what to believe based on what the local paper and animal control had told them. There wasn't enough communication about what was happening. Some knew that the animals were shot but didn't know they were still alive. Some thought animal control was no longer involved. It was a mess and understandably people were upset/protective of thier own animals/land. The point that I hope Kim and I reinforced the most is that the correct animals should be reported because then animal control could truely work towards fixing the problem with whatever nuisance animals were in the area and let us work on removing Rebel. Kim and I had done our best and eventually I drove home with Thorne to put him in his new temporary home. He is working out quite well but still has a slight limp. Occasionally he will give short howls and he really wants to play with the 2 old wolfdogs next to his enclosure. As for Rebel, he is still at large up in Williams but has been seen much less frequently now that Thorne is gone. He's more nervous than ever now that he is on his own, but as far as I am aware there are no more concerns from animal control or the locals. The week after Thorne was removed there was reports of Rebel running and playing near children, but that was brief and no more word has come since. So, hopefully at some point in the future there will be new updates regarding his progress. Thorne's permanent location is still to be determined but Kim is doing her best to find someone willing to house this happy boy. Until then I am paying boarding fees for Thorne's temporary home. For now I leave you with photos of Thorne from yesterday 6/14/06 at the wildlife rescue and some shots of the repairs to the pen. Happy Thorne looking about Happy Thorne running all around Group of photos showing pen repairs Current Mood: accomplished (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 28th, 2006
9:18 pm	Another twist to the story, 2 of 3 still alive! The story of the Los Gatos wolf hybrids continues. Just over a month ago I wrote of how all of our hard efforts had ended tragically with the intervention of Josephine Animal Control shooting 2 of the 3 relocated hybrids along with 3 other animals. The new news is that apparently animal control either didn't check for the bodies or couldn't track them once shot. However, Sasha is lost to us forever along with the Clackamas trio. Recently Rebel and Thorne have both been spotted...injured, but alive. Thorne has a shoulder wound that has limited his mobility on a foreleg and Rebel has lost the tip of his tail. Here's a photo of the group if you are new to this journal: Our rescue team includes veterinarians, vet technicians, and experienced wolf hybrid owners/rescuers. We are working on containment and relocation to a permanent and extremely secure/fortified home for these animals to live out the rest of thier days. Unfortunately these animals need medical attention for their gunshot wounds. If you wish to help by donating to this project, you can make donations online with paypal to the account timberwolf4u@hotmail.com. Just click on the link below: If you prefer to send a check or money order then email me at timberwolf4u@hotmail.com for the physical address to send a check or money order to. Feel free to ask questions and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Please be patient with email as sometimes it takes a few days to respond. We are all busy trying to organize support for this rescue effort both in Josephine county and abroad. We have a place for these animals to go, we have the resources, now we just need a little financial help for veterinary care, transportation, and fortifying thier new enclosure. If you can't donate then you can still help us by spreading the word of what we are trying to achieve. Pass this website on to others! Want to know all the past media coverage surrounding this project up in Oregon? When possible I have linked to the newspaper articles online. Otherwise, articles have been copied from the originals we recieved from their archives. Archives from the Daily Courier can be requested by e-mail at librarian@thedailycourier.com. Feel free to click on the links below to see how the media handles an escape situation: Grants Pass Daily Courier Article Dec. 20th and 28th (scan of paper) Grants Pass Daily Courier Article Dec. 13th Grants Pass Daily Courier Article Dec. 12th Grants Pass Daily Courier Article Dec. 9th Oregon Mail Tribune Article Dec. 6th Grants Pass Daily Courier Article Dec. 5th Oregon Mail Tribune Article Dec. 3rd (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 13th, 2005
3:04 pm	The best laid plans of wolves and men This post is not a happy one regarding the rescue efforts with the Los Gatos trio. After almost a year of work, there is an unfortunate but definite end to this project. As previously mentioned, the trio which was placed in Oregon had escaped thier enclosure. Thorne and Rebel were recaptured and the Wildlife Waystation in southern California was offering to take the trio in if we delivered them there. Unfortunately, this second newspaper article from a local Oregon paper put an end to that on Dec. 6 http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2005/1206/local/stories/06local.htm. A San Fernando county official (from where the Waystation is located) apparently read the article and told the Waystation that they could not take in any more animals due to the re-zoning that they are currently undergoing. This simple step unfortunately cut a very important lifeline we had for help...a place for the animals to go. Everyone involved scrambled to help us find a new place to relocate these animals while I drove back up to Oregon for the final recapture attempt. I thank those who put forth an effort to find these animals a home. Of particular mention are Kim Kahl (who helped us place these animals in the first place), Frank Wendland (of WOLF sanctuary in Colorado), and both Corina and Martine at the Wildlife Waystation. I found this information out early last thursday morning from the Waystation and was at a loss for what to do beyond hoping/praying for the best. Even without a place for the trio to go plans were in the works so I continued with the recapture attempt. Just before leaving that day I was contacted by a newspaper reporter from the Grant's Pass Daily Courier. The articles by the Mail Tribune seemed to focus only on the negative aspects of what was happening and so I was leary of talking with the press. However, this reporter was quite cordial and seemed to want to focus on the other side of the story. I talked with her for about a half an hour and hoped it would turn out for the best. I arrived early friday morning, thanks to a friend helping me with the drive up, and after some sleep set the plans into motion for capture. We had 4 people present and everything laid out. While we came close to luring them into an empty enclosure there was no sucess. Instead there was just a lot of waiting. Josephine Animal Protection and Regulation (animal control) lent me drugs for the attempt as well as thier CO2 pistols for darting. During the waiting I showed everyone the DVD I had made of the trio for the public meeting that is sceduled for Dec. 19th. It included the clips of the trio playing with a dachsund mix, Rebel being scared away from his own food by a cat, Rebel playing with Jenny riding her horse, the trio interacting with dogs on the ranch in Los Gatos, and other video segments showing thier gentle nature. Saturday we had noone to wait with us as animal control left the whole process to us. We moved to capture Thorne in his pen since he was the only one still contained. We did successfully dart him after numerous attempts and placed him in a holding trap from animal control. It was small, but hopefully he wouldn't have to be there long. We were going to use him as bait (along with some bison meat laid inside the pen) to catch Rebel and Sasha. It didn't work. We withheld food from these two and they scavenged enough meat from around Sandy's home to get by. That day I saw the long detailed article in the Courier giving ways for the public to see this site as well as contact me if they wanted to help. I was happy to have at least a way to present these animals to the public and glad this paper was both fair and presented an unbiased stance on the situation. However, this left just sunday morning for a recapture attempt where I would be present. This also proved unsuccessful. Rebel and Sasha were around the property constantly, but not coming into the enclosure for capture. With no options remaining, I had to leave Thorne there either caged for animal control to pick up or for Sandy to use as bait to catch the other two. I was hoping we could buy more time to find a place for them to be relocated to during this process. At the least we would be able to save Thorne. Yesterday I listened to my answering machine and heard details from Andrew, the lead animal control officer, regarding what had transpired on the property that day. Despite all of our efforts, this was to apparently meant to be a tragic end. Andrew said that earlier that day they attempted to dart Rebel and Sasha, but were unsuccessful. Sandy signed them over to animal control and with that step they were authorized to shoot them to death...which they did. What's worse, Kim had also previously placed the Clackamas trio (3 other hybrids) with Sandy as well. These were the three which were the first to get loose. They had killed some chickens and a dog which were mentioned in the first newspaper article. Animal control also shot these three animals to death as well. No darting, no euthanasia which would at least be humane. Andrew's supervisor said 2 weeks had gone past and something needed to be done. Sandy apparently agreed. She was offered to have all fines and citations removed against her for everything that had occurred and this was the end result when she agreed. I called Andrew and asked him why this had to occur. He said that Sandy was presented some options and this is what she chose. I asked why they were shot and he said they didn't want a risk of a bite and didn't want to have to sedate the animals twice just to euthanize them. Animal control had a lot of pressure from the public since people were calling them with all manner of accusations as well as calling the state police and other agencies. Still, we thought we had a little time and had several options surfacing for relocation. I am mortified beyond words and completely broken by this turn of events. I want to place blame and I want to be angry at someone...most of all myself. I'm not sure at this point whether any decisions were correct. Should I have helped relocate them in the first place? Should I have chosen the Wildlife Waystation instead of Sandy to begin with? Should I have helped capture Thorne at the end? Thorne is the only one left of the trio that is still alive. While the others were being shot he broke free from his cage and apparently even got out of the enclosure the cage was in. Andrew said Sandy would have been allowed to keep him if she could contain him. That was the tradeoff for the deaths of the Clackamas trio. She had to have the number of animals reduced to 6 on her property. In effect she was trading 5 lives for 1. Not even that was to work out. She is still looking to capture Thorne again. I don't think that he will be back. Even if he did come back I don't think Sandy could properly contain him, that animal control would allowed him to stay or even have the option to be sedated for relocation. I think he would be shot. When I left Oregon I was crying due to how things were headed and my last unpleasant images of Thorne in the cage, but I had a small measure of hope that things may still turn out right. That hope is gone along with a long list of lives. In the end I can only take heart in that we tried our best every step of the way. This story was just apparently not meant to have a happy ending. I'm both sorry and thankful for everyone who helped along the way. This was not what any of us wanted. Rest in peace Rebel and Sasha Rest in peace Chance, Star, and Karma Current Mood: crushed (Comment on this)
Monday, December 5th, 2005
11:27 pm	Some Good News for a Change I wanted to post some of this earlier, but at least now I can relax slightly until thursday night. Work held me longer than anticipated today and I barely had time to get home to contact the people needed to even have the chance of rescueing the trio yet again. Once home I tried desperately to get through to Josephine Animal Protection and Regulation but got busy signals for almost a half an hour. That worried me so I turned my attention to finding out if I had a place to move the trio if they manage to be captured. I had previously contacted Martine at the Wildlife Waystation located here in California and was hoping to touch bases with her again today since she knew of the previous need for placement and offered the Waystation as a possibility. Unfortunately, when I called she was on vacation but I spoke to one of her assistants named Corina who was VERY helpful. After explaining the situation Corina spoke with her supervisor and we now have sanctuary at the Wildlife Waystation. This lifted my spirits immensly and so I went back to redialing Josephine AP&R. After 5-10 minutes I got through and spoke with an operator there. I asked for Andre Aguinaga who was listed as the lead animal control officer in the newspaper article link I posted yesterday. Apparently the paper forgot a W since his name is Andrew and the operator said he wasn't available. I asked about the situation with the trio and she told me that there were no current plans for any officer to "shoot" the animals with anything more than sedatives. Apparently another officer was speaking out of turn with this previous information. She did of course warn me that local neighbors still had the right to shoot them if they so wished. I recognize they have every legal right to, but I hope this doesn't happen. I explained what the temperment of the trio was to hopefully dispell some of the fear that this whole incident has generated. She took my contact numbers and said she would pass them on to Andrew as soon as possible. I headed back to work feeling a little better/luckier than expected. Not long after I was back at work and cleaning our CT scanner I got a call from Andrew. We talked for awhile about all the phone calls they had recieved as apparently everyone is reporting missing animals now that there is a possibility to jump to. I told him about the footage I have of Rebel being scared off by a cat and the trio playing with the dacshund. I also talked about the horses, cows, and other dogs they'd played with while here. He was very understanding of all of this and willing to give us the chance to help these animals again. I informed him of my plans to come up this coming weekend to try and dart down the trio yet again for relocation. He seemed very apprieciative of this yet still understandably upset of the situation that has generated from this. I've talked with Sandy regarding all of these things and apparently there will be a town meeting scheduled around Dec. 19th regarding this whole issue. Both Sandy and Andrew will speak about these animals and the situation. I'm going to work my butt off to provide footage on DVD and/or VHS that can be used so folks can see what this trio's true nature is. People may still be fearful, and of course they could still attack something...but it's so unlikely given thier current and past behavior. At the moment Sandy is still feeding them and they are hanging close to her property instead of venturing into the local community. I can only hope things stay that way until I can get up there this weekend. Thankfully, as an added bonus with Andrew's willingness to allow this whole plan he is also willing to provide extra drugs if I need them for the darting. I hope it doesn't come to that as this may very well be a one shot affair with the remaining drugs I have. The plan is hopefully less risky than it was here due to the possibility of more help with people to monitor where the animals go after darting. That step (rallying the neighbors that have expressed willingness to help) lies in Sandy's hands until I get there. Because of this whole affair I will not only miss my first christmas party at work with all of the night crew I supervise (as well as other staff members), but this is going to cost me a lot of time, gas/money, and energy. I really pray I can pull this off in the tiny time-frame I have allotted. I'm going to see if I can get a friend who works with Hyenas in Berkley to assist me in the road trip driving for this whole affair as he's a big driving fan. This is requiring some HUGE sacrifices on my part but I feel a heavy responsibility for these animals and thier wellfare. I want this to work so bad, but in the end it's all up to them and the drugs. So, that's all good news so far and the first major hurdles which I thought would be so impossible, have now been micraculously overcome. Now, the second and final set laid out for the finish line: 1) I have to fix my back truck window that was damaged by vandalism 2 months back before I can do this or I won't have a secure way to transport. 2) I have to be successful between Friday and Saturday at darting all 3 for transportation. This is because I still have to allow time to transport them all the way back down to Southern California to the Wildlife Waystation AND make it back in time to work in surgery on monday morning at 9am. So, there you go. You're as informed as I am at this point. Despite all that insanity above I still managed to wake up in time this morning to go and set a court date to fight a retarded speeding ticket this morning from a few months ago and make it to work on time at 9am. Life's a real treat ain't it? I guess without challenges in life you never feel rewarded. Now, if I can only figure out a way to decrease my stress and pay off some bills! Keep me in your prayers and wish me some luck. Despite all of these positive things there's still a long path ahead of me and a lot of luck needed to pull it off. Current Mood: hopeful (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 4th, 2005
7:01 pm	Unfortunate News Well, it's been quite awhile since I've posted here. The videos still are not prepared for the site and sadly a few days ago I recieved some very unfortunate news. The trio which we were successful in capturing after months of hard work has decided they want a little more room to roam up in Oregon. It's snowing up there now and thanks to the weather the trio found an avenue for escape. Sasha, Rebel and Thorne got loose for the first time last Monday while Sandy was away at work. Some snow felled a branch on the hotwire allowing them to dig a way out in an unforseen corner of the enclosure. Sandy managed to get both Thorne and Rebel enclosed back in the pen, but the next day Rebel (now with a penchant for digging) tunneled a new way out. This is really surprizing since he not only got through the rocky terrain there but also the dig fencing along the ground. Thorne has decided to stay put. This is most likely due to Beamer and Wampum which he has bonded really well with. Unfortunately Sasha and Rebel don't seem as reluctant to stay put. The media covering this has presented the viewpoints of the few neighbors that are worried and the loose members of the trio are facing being shot to death by locals if they tresspass on their property. Sandy has tried using Wampum and Beamer as bait to draw the others back but even that was frowned upon even though they were easily brought back to the property. The situation probably would not have been so bad if Sandy didn't have a previous escape several weeks earlier from 3 other hybrids she owns. They were easily brought back to the property and placed back in thier own pen but caused some havoc with chickens. The trio currently in question however has played with cows, horses, and numerous dogs when they were here in the Los Gatos area and are hardly a threat. Numerous neighbors are willing to help but the problem is twofold due to the time period available: 1) Difficulty of capture - Howling Acres (a nearby wolf sanctuary that Sandy works at) has dartguns they can use, but apparently not the drugs needed.  While I could provide the drugs there's not enough time.  The likelyhood of finding them after being darted when loose is extremely low as well given thier ability to move great distances before the drugs take effect. Previous posts regarding our attempts should make that quite clear. 2) Temporary Containment - Unfortunately Sandy's containment is obviously no longer effective. She wants to put up a perimiter fence that will enclose her entire property to prevent this situation from happening again, but at least for the immediate animals needing to be captured there is not enough time. So, if someone does managed to dart and move the animals they need somewhere secure to go even temporarily.  Howling Acres can't house them temporarily and even though I'd like to simply bring them back here I don't have the time available. So, if anyone out there knows somewhere these animals could go temporarily or of a professional in the Oregon area that could dart these animals down (or even provide drugs to do this) it would be greatly apprieciated. Sadly, the situation does not look very promising. To view the article online regarding all of this go here: http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2005/1203/local/stories/01local.htm I still feel that our team did the best we possibly could and had amazing accomplishments with this project. However, in the end it seems that Thorne may be the only one to benefit all of our work. Owning and caring for hybrid/wolfdog rescues is not easy and the type of animals we were working with shows just how difficult it can be. I'm still holding out hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel for Sasha and Rebel, but I can't help but feel immensely disheartened by this drastic turn of events. Now, if that unpleasant news wasn't bleak enough I'm also still involved with attempts to place the 3 animals in Aromas (Ackycha, Zorro and Trout). The new owner, Dee, is starting to see that the likelyhood of them all finding a home together somewhere is next to impossible and listening to me now regarding individual placement. Thankfully she's given a little more time for thier placement as she's coming back at the beggining of the year to the property again. However, thier rescue options due to behavior and age are slim at best. I'm working hard to find a solution to buy them more time as they seem very sweet if not very social with strangers. I've recieved a few emails thanks to a wolf rescue website I've found and am looking at new possible connections through some groups I've joined, but things are not looking good. These animals will face euthanasia if something can't be found soon. You can't win every time and you can't save everyone...I know that, but somehow I'm starting to feel with certain situations it's hard to leave feeling you've accomplished anything beyond false hope. Thank you all for taking the time to read this. If you can help in any way with suggestions or otherwise, please comment here or email me ASAP at timberwolf4u@hotmail.com. (Comment on this)
Friday, September 30th, 2005
3:47 am	The multimedia post (part 1) Here we are. Finally some pictures and videos for you all. I appologize for the delay but editing digital video was a lot harder than I expected. Thankfully I think I have the general process down pat. The results below are 2 pretty decent file sizes (sorry fellow dialup users) but I think they are definitely worth it for folks with DSL or Cable. So, our hybrid friends have been doing wonderful up in Oregon so far. Sandy reports that Rebel is really enjoying Wampum's company and the two are getting along fantastic with play and teasing each other. There has apparently been lots of play early each morning with lots of circling and chasing. The bison and venison organ meats appear to be going over quite well with the trio too. So, now on to the digital video clips. The first shows the very first interaction with the trio that I had around 8pm at night. The second showcases more behavioral testing but this time involving Bodie and Brandon. I hope you enjoy! Night feeding with Skye - This clip is 15.7MB in size (roughly 3 hour download for dialup and 5 minutes on broadband) Bodie meets the trio - This clip is 20.5MB in size (roughly 4 hour download for dialup and 8 minutes on broadband) If these files are too large just post a comment here and I will edit the post to include smaller (low quality) uploads as well. Now, for some pictures. This first photo is of Sandy with Beamer (in the front) and Wampum (in the back). This second is a grouping of photos showing the vast area of the new enclosure Now here's a look at the other animals at Sandy's property in the 3 enclosures. The first 2 are Beamer and Wampum who share the pen with our trio. Next post will include a video file of thier first interactions with the Los Gatos trio. The second photo shows another recent group of rescues that Sandy has taken on. The last photo shows a pair of animals that Sandy has watched over for quite a few years. The poor guy on the right (Yukon) had his throat slit by his original owner. Thankfully that person went to jail and Sandy helped provide him a place to recover. Last, but not least, here's a few shots of the trio scouting around the pen. Unfortunately the photos I took didn't come out too great due to the lighting in the pen. However, you can see the happy faces. I hope with the next post I can provide all of the rest of the video clips for folks to download. Time has gotten pretty scarce recently though. Part of the reason for that is that we've gotten involved in aiding someone with 3 more hybrid rescues. The original owner, Joyce, unfortunately passed away and her daughter Dee is trying desperately to find someone to place the animals with over the next few months. Both Brandon and I actually knew the owner as an acquaintance and are trying to help in whatever way we can. These 3 animals are not that sociable unfortuantely, but this wasn't always the case. We're hopeful that can change over the weeks to come as we are talking a few plans over with Dee. There are 2 males and 1 female. The female is 11 years old and is spayed. Her name is Ackycha. She has a lot of coat which she is trying to loose at the moment but apparently some matting is preventing it from coming off easily as these animals havn't had anyone to provide hands on care due to their behavior. The two males, Zorro and Trout, look to be around 4-7 years old. One is definitely neutered, but the other we are uncertain of as all of the medical records havn't been found yet. I will post more next post, including a short video showing each of these new animals. In the meantime, here is a quick photo showing 2 shots of each of them. From top to bottom, they are Zorro, Trout, and Ackycha. That's all for this post. More to come soon! Questions/comments are always welcome. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 13th, 2005
1:10 am	Completion of the Los Gatos Rescue That's right...the project is now officially complete! However, that doesn't mean the story is over. Far from it. I've gotten several emails from people already wondering how the final trip(s) to Oregon went. So, this post will cover the text of what all happened and the next will offer some pictures and videos to watch of both trips! The first weekend of september I left late on Friday for the roughly 500 mile drive up to Sandy's place. I was going to check everything out and finalize the plans for the move the following weekend. I had to sleep overnight in Ashland, but the next day (Saturday the 3rd) I spent the whole day taking videos of the enclosure, photos, and lastly working on fortifying the enclosure. The sheer size of the enclosure was amazing compared to what we had to offer for our temporary pen. Our pen was 50x50 feet (2500 square feet). That works out to a little less than 1/8 of an acre. This pen was 1/4 an acre and on nice developed flat land next to a river. It wasn't 2 acres as I originally thought, as that was the total sum of all of her 3 enclosures. This enclosure alone she said was easily a 1/4 acre (roughly 10,900 square feet) and I actually suspect it was more like 1/3 to 1/2. The river was next to the pen, not through it, but provided the continual water source to the enclosure. There was minor work we had to do for the pen before release, but it was necessary as a precautionary measure. Sandy was an amazingly hospitable host and after I left to return home that sunday I felt confident of the move next weekend. Sandy was overjoyed. The week sailed by as I started preparations. I was originally going to use a horse trailer to move the 3 up with me, but in the end decided that the following reasons were important enough to work on preparing the back camper shell portion of my truck instead: I wasn't familiar with driving with a horse trailer behind my truck on winding mountain roads The rising gas prices would be even tougher dragging something extra I wouldn't be able to easily look back and see how the animals were doing I wouldn't have any control over the temperature or elements should related issues arise So, work began on my camper shell area. I put a strongly reinforced metal grate in the sliding glass window area so the hybrids could sniff out the open, but now secured, window as well as have fresh air circulating. Jenny brought ratcheting straps to hold the other long side window closed. I already had remote controlled halogen lights installed to check on the condition of the trio during the dark hours. Cedar bedding was put in place for them in case they had to urinate, defecate, or vomit (typical car ride responses) during the trip. Lastly, non-spill water bowls were put in place near the grated window for them to drink from as well as be easily changed. By the time all of these things were completed, the final trip day had arrived. Friday the 9th around 5pm the darting process began. It was MUCH harder than expected and the telazol I had reconstituted from the last dartings was completely ineffective this time. It had expired and lost potency during the waiting period. Unfortunately we could not get any more and the Domitor had to hold up the slack. Jenny was present initially but unfortunately had to leave for a prior arrangement. Brandon and I thought this would be fine but once Warren was present we were very thankful as the effect of the drugs became apparent. It took 2 dartings each for Sasha and Rebel to go down. They were reweighed at 60 lbs and 74 lbs respectively then received their second DHLPP vaccinations, second heartworm preventative injections, and their frontline (flea/tick control). Thorne had also been darted twice at this point and it was now becoming dark. The initial plan was to leave at dusk in case of capture myelopathy and increased temperatures. That way the driving and circulating air would help maintain appropriate body temperature. Thorne threw a large snag into the plan. Flashlights had to be used for the third darting involving domitor and the last of the telazol. This worked, but not enough and sadly Thorne had to be darted a final time. Thankfully Dr. Stone had lent us some Xylazine as a last resort. This, combined with a little acepromazine, did the trick and Thorne was added with the other 2. We had a brief scare with Thorne as his stomach bloated with air and I had to decompress it twice. After that his xylazine was reversed with yohimbine and he was doing fine much to our relief. I had to enter the back area of my truck with all three now fully awake and undid the bindings for their legs and then remove the muzzles. This was a tense point as they were supposed to all be sedated until after the muzzles were removed but it went fine. With that, right at midnight, Warren and I said farewell to Brandon and I dropped Warren off at his house on the way out of Santa Cruz. A little over 9 non-stop driving hours later I arrived at Sandy's and it was time to release the trio. They had done incredible in the back of the truck and hadn't done any of the usual expected behavior involving the vomiting, urination, and defecation. In fact, Thorne and Sasha were licking the windows and watching things outside the truck. There is some video of this to be provided in the next post. Well, at the time of release the back of the truck was opened just inside the main opening to the pen and.... Nothing! They didn't budge! In fact upon opening the back they were so nervous they just huddled together. Sandy and I were nowhere near anything visible and no one would move. I got inside the back with them and eventually sat right beside them. No one moved. I was floored to say the least. They were nervous, but this was beyond my comprehension as an obvious LARGE exit was presented. So, we closed up the truck and Sandy had me drive in through the secondary opening the pen. This allowed my truck to go completely inside the pen and then secure the pen closed again. All windows to the rear of the truck were opened. 20-30 minutes later there was still no one even thinking of moving out of the truck. So, Sandy let Wampum and Beamer (the two girls to share the pen with the trio) loose to see if they would instill some curiosity for them to exit the back of the truck. Sandy's idea worked and finally, about five minutes after some nose sniffing (also a video in the next post), Sasha exited the truck like a bullet. 15 seconds later Thorne jumped out. Rebel, however, stayed in for another hour and a half at least. I had to scare him with hand movements next to the window to finally get him to exit the vehicle. In the end all three were very comfortably scanning the entire enclosure, playing in the water filled wading pool, and playing with both Wampum and Beamer. Not once did they ever show signs of testing the fence. They didn't even test the truck's defenses so this wasn't terribly surprising. The large amount of space made them completely comfortable as well as the additional canine company. I took some great video of them scouting out the pen as well as a few photos...although the photos unfortunately came out blurry for the most part due to filtered lighting. So, the trio was all set. Sandy put some whole semi-frozen deer legs out in the pen as well as some semi-frozen venison and bison organ meats. There was also some dry dog food available as well. Everyone took their time but tested a bit of everything. Since Sandy lives near a bison ranch and has meat markets near by she is fortunate enough to get such meats available for just $0.50 a pound. This easily allows her to feed her crew. I spent all of saturday there watching the trio and then sleeping to recover from the exhausting drive. On sunday the trio was still relaxed and enjoying the new space and now all the excess foliage. Things couldn't have been more perfect. So, after a bit of final video I hit the road again for the long drive home. Since my return I have received an email from Sandy and the trio is eating well. Not only that, but Thorne is actually coming within 15 feet of Sandy to sit/stand and watch her interactions with Wampum and Beamer. Sandy won't have any scary blow darts nearby so I'm sure the interactions will continue in a positive direction. I will of course post progress photos and information here as updates come in as well. For now though, the next post will be all media rich content. Photos of the enclosure, photos of Sandy's animals, and videos of interesting points over the past 2 trips to Oregon for the release. So, don't stop watching yet, some of the best is set to come in the next few days as I get it all prepared for online access! (giving a very content, relieved, proud and accomplished sigh) -Harry Current Mood: ecstatic (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005
4:28 am	Final inspections and an unexpected letter I'd like to say I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since my last post...but I can. I've been pulling a lot of extra work to pay the bills here at home so there hasn't been much time for posting and keeping in touch. I appologize and hope you all understand. Well, the rescues are doing well several weeks post surgery. Everyone has been running around and for the first time we're starting to hear some howling from the group! It's a bit more high pitched than the redwood pack, but still VERY cute and beautifully long! On top of the occasional howl, the 3 are tousseling and playing in thier enclosure now. Everyone seems a lot calmer and more firmly set into the daily routine. Rebel has been the first one down towards me every night I've fed and is steadily getting more confident of himself. Thorne appears to be getting a little bit of a pudge even though he's so active. He's quite funny regarding interactions as he comes somewhat near me and races past to test my reaction to his close proximity. I'm sure he still wonders if I'm going to pull a dart gun out from somewhere at times, but in general he's gotten quite used to me. Last, but not least, the female is doing very well. She has such a sweet face and really seems to want to interact but is unsure of herself. I'm positive given time and a large area she will turn around. Now, with the last post I mentioned giving the female a name. I've not heard from Smash and the only name I heard suggested from someone in the project was Harriet (as a joke off my name, but made female). So, given that she was still nameless I decided to just go with what I felt fitted her. For some reason while sitting up there watching her with the boys I felt she was a Sasha. Beautiful, calm and quiet, but also happy and inquisitive. The name Sasha seemed to fit all of that for me. So, the trio is Rebel, Sasha, and Thorne. Speaking of Sasha, no one has seen her pictures yet! I only have the ability to take low res pictures with my camcorder but it will have to do for now. Some of these shots came out great if not a bit blurry. Here they are: 6 shots of Sasha from various angles The group behind thier favorite 'hiding' tree up top and also a photo of Thorne's goofy smile Rebel looking a bit nervous but much more relaxed than he was...what a tongue! A pic of the trio, a pic of Sasha/Rebel, and a pic of Sasha/Thorne A comparison pic of Sasha with Thorne. Thier facial markings are practically identical. This coming weekend I will be headed up to peruse their new (most likely) home up in Oregon. Sandy, the woman that owns the property, has sent me a few pictures and the area sounds amazing. Here's a few views of the property I thought I'd share: It sounds like Sandy has quite the big heart and is already caring for 7 other hybrids. I'll spend a night up there this weekend and we'll talk over the plans for the move of our 3 and make sure everything's set to proceed the following weekend. I'm currently looking into getting some form of horse trailer to pull behind my truck for the hybrids. This will make things a LOT nicer for them as far as the long distance travel is concerned. If you are near the area and can help please let me know via email. If you have ideas or suggestions, they are also welcome as this is a much longer transport than before. I have a slight concern for capture myelopathy with the animals considering the distance, but hopefully all will proceed smoothly. Last, but not least, I talked with Jenny a few weeks back and she mentioned Glenda had recieved an unexpected but greatly apprieciated letter in the mail. If you don't recall, Glenda is the person who started the whole search for people to help these animals as they were present on the ranch she operates. She was the one primarily in contact with the rangers and put a lot on the line regarding outcry against the animals in the area. Jenny is a boarder there on the ranch and was my primary contact for getting involved with this whole project and helping it move forward. Jenny also helped us get in contact with Dr. Stone and his surgical team. I provided the methods and veterinary assistance as well as planning to get the things we needed to pull this project off. Not to mention of course the place to temporarily house these poor animals. So, Glenda suddenly got a letter in the mail out of the blue from the folks that put the most pressure on us during the whole project. The surprizing thing is that it's a quite glowing letter of thanks! I'm sure all involved in the project can apprieciate this and I wanted to share it with you. There's a few parts edited out just for possible legal or privacy concerns, but the message is still clear. This letter is written to Glenda but I hope everyone involved with the project who reads this recognizes how important a part they played. This letter congratulates all of us. Individually none of us could have pulled this off, but together we did. Here's the letter scanned and passed along to me from Jenny (thanks!): (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 4th, 2005
3:17 pm	The Medical Post This post is an important milestone in our project as it marks the last step before placement. The 3 rescues got surgery this last weekend and everyone went through with flying colors. The most important thing found during the process was that the recently captured female was in extremely early phases of pregnancy. She would have had -8- pups to care for in the wilds of Corralitos if she had not been captured/spayed. While I do not delight in that we stopped a pregnancy I am glad because this female would have surely had a hard time caring for these animals in this area. Eight more animals roaming the hills, breeding, scavaging/hunting for food and spreading fear of wild wolfdogs would not be a good thing. It's basically a proactive step towards what we did in rescuing the animals from Los Gatos. So, what all happened? Well, the spay and neuters took place last sunday in the living room of our old cabin here. The area was cleaned and prepared, a table brought in and when the surgical team arrived all the portable anesthesia equipment and monitoring devices were set in place. Dr. Ian Stone was the gracious vet to lend us the time and materials for this project and was the one to perform the spay. His pre-vet technicians, Valerie and David, performed the neuters under his close supervision. Everything was handled in excellent surgical fashion and in the end was a smashing success. The hardest part was darting the animals and then carrying them up and down the hillside. It's been 4 days and my arms/legs are still a bit sore! Here's the list of what each animal recieved: An injection of Penicillin G, an antibiotic, to aid in healing/recovery An injection of Rimadyl, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, to decrease swelling and aid in healing/pain management An injection of Buprenex, a pain medication, to aid in healing/pain management An injection of Diphenhydramine (aka Benadryl), an anti-histamine, to prevent potential vaccine reactions A dose of frontline medication to help prevent fleas and ticks A dose of ivomec heartworm medication to help prevent heartworms and/or kill potential microfilaria in development Thier DHLPP vaccination to protect against Distemper/Hepatitis/Leptospirosa/Parvo/Parainfluenza Scanning with a universal microchip scanner to ensure there was no microchip potentially present We also reweighed Rebel and the female. Rebel is now 72# and the female 55#. So, they've both lost a little weight. Thorne didn't get reweighed as he was the middle surgery and got missed during switching out between him and the female (the final surgery). I'm sure the hillside and thier activity levels are helping to trim them out a bit. They usually have a small amount of extra food left over each night. In the female's case some of her weight loss can potentially be attributed to fetal development. In any case, it's been 4 days since the surgeries and everyone is doing great. This is a huge relief off my mind and now the final steps of placement are in motion with Sandy in southern Oregon. So, that's about it! The last thing to mention is that the female is set to have a name soon from Brian/Smash who provided a $500 donation for this project! However, if the name is not given in the next 2 weeks or so then I'm open for suggestions. We'd like to have a name for our girl before her big trip. So, if you've been watching and thinking about names then feel free to suggest one! I'll make a list in the next entry here regardless. -Harry (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 28th, 2005
3:40 pm	The capture of a female It's been awhile since my last update here. I was away on vacation in florida for a little over half a month. However, immediately upon my return (sunday the 17th) change was in the air. I had received phone calls from a certain area not to far from here for quite a few weeks about a female hybrid that was most likely our escaped female Skye. The timing just hadn't worked out though since every time someone called about her being present I was at work. However, tuesday the 19th (just after I got back) luck was on our side. I got the phonecall shortly after waking up and went over to find a female hybrid. Unfortunately it wasn't Skye! It was the same female that I had seen in my last post on Saturday June 18th! Again, no limp/broken paw, no diamond on the forehead, and a little lighter looking (smaller) than Skye. Interestingly enough this female weighed 60#. She had been sighted for months and noone had called about the posters so I took the opportunity and caught her. This time I was all by myself but the results were very smooth. She went down easy and was transported back to the capture pen with Rebel and Thorne easily. She had no visible fleas or ticks and seemed in great health. So far she's working out great with the other 2. Apparently this female had been hanging around the area because she was in heat and there was in tact males. When captured it appeared she was coming out of heat but noone was certain if she was bred or not. Well, that won't matter for long thanks to Dr. Stone scheduling the spay and neuters this coming sunday! I really don't want to have to dart everyone again as Thorne and the new female in particular are getting quite close and more relaxed with us now. However, this is a necessary step and a solid sign we are close to the end of this project. Unfortunately we havn't heard any recent word on Skye but I've kept good phone contacts with all those in the surrounding area who reported possible sightings. I have two new areas I'm focusing the search on at the moment. Regardless, we are all proud of the accomplishments so far with the other three and how well everything else is going. So, what else is left? The final placement. There has been quite a few emails from folks letting me know the various status of rescues and possible placements. However, thanks to Kim Kahl (aka - Wolflady) several very promising long term options have been offered to us. The first, which I am most interested in, is located with a rescue individual up in southwestern Oregon. She currently already has the necessary licensing for owning her pure Mackenzie River wolf and has routine inspections. She has enclosures that are about 1/4 acre each, with stumps and logs for playground, a wading pool to cool off, and a water tight shelter. Our three will most likely join another social group of 3 if there are no dominance issues (always a distinct possibility). After the spay/neuters are performed I will work out plans to drive our rescues up to Oregon and if all works well, they will have a new home. If that possibility doesn't work out for whatever reason we have a backup resource in the Wildlife Waystation located in southern California in the Angeles National Forest. They handle a LARGE volume of native wildlife as well as rescues. They already have several hybrids they work with and given that hybrids do not require permits (since they are not pure) our rescues would have a safe permanent home there. So, those are our options at the time. I'll definitely have a post after this sunday to cover how our surgeries went. Just in the off chance any of these animals have microchips they will also be scanned. I plan to dose everyone with flea/tick medication, do nail trims if necessary, give everyone a few vaccines, and also provide heartworm treatment. Sorry for the delay on all of this information, but life is a blur at the moment. Again, thanks to everyone for your support and assistance with this project. (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 18th, 2005
12:42 am	A call for aid and a little update First I'll give the update. On the 16th (this last thursday) on my way home from work I saw a hybrid trotting down our road.  This wasn't terribly surprizing because I had heard a report from someone not to far from where I saw this animal that it may be Skye. At first I thought it was going to be Skye..but NO!  This was another animal...a female as well but definitely not Skye! She was smaller (probably around 55# or less) and looked younger. I tried calling her and she of course wouldn't come to me. She didn't have Skye's little diamond in the middle of her forehead and definitely no limp on the front right paw. She wasn't terribly afraid of me but definitely didn't want to just walk up to me like the last guy.  Wait a sec...last guy? Well I hadn't posted about that. About a month or so ago, shortly after Skye had gotten loose, there was a call that sounded like Skye playing with a german shepherd in a field a few miles from where we live. I went to investigate with the capture kit and all and instead found an intact male hybrid that was totally friendly. The german shepherd with him was quite spooked and he kept a distance watching me and the hybrid. This animal was very friendly with gorgeous yellow eyes and a beautiful coat. I havn't seen him since but he was obviously taken care of enough to be owned locally. Deciding he was obviously owned I went ahead and let him trot off after his shepherd friend. I kick myself now for not keeping him temporarily. I should have had him checked at my work for a microchip or something of the sort. He had no collar, was unneutered, and had some ticks. Well, we've got enough on our hands at the moment anyways I guess, but...geeze. I didn't realize there was so many hybrids around this area.  I have heard from various folks here that all sorts of people own them up here in the mountains, but this is just getting rediculous.  How will I know where Skye is when there's all these others running about? Ok, that's it for the update, now for the aid requests. Aid Request #1: The first is of course related to our rescue effort. It's now time to start seriously approaching places for placement. We have the 2 boys and have plans to have them neutered soon. I've had tons of contacts from folks over time offering help and now is the perfect time. What we need is somewhere for these guys to go. Currently these animals have temporary sanctuary here with us in a fortified enclosure we built on our property separate from our own hybrids. The enclosure for these rescues currently is 2500 square feet and definitely not a permanent option. We would preferably like to place these animals somewhere all 3 could be placed together, but that is NOT a necessity. We just want them to lead happy lives with other animals if not each other. These animals will need someone experienced with containment and working with non-domesticated animals. Their temperment is timid, but wild. They may never be social with people, but they have shown signs that if worked with this may change. If you know folks to contact please either point them to this journal or copy the following text for an email: ( Click here for the email information to copy ) Aid Request #2: Never Cry Wolf Rescue & Adoptions in northern California is facing a rough time right now due to county legislation. I honestly don't know all the facts on this one even after talking with Sam Blake who owns the place and a reporter from the TV station in the area that covered the problem recently. Here's what I do know. Supervisor Roger Dickenson (a local representative) is not hybrid friendly and is saying that the rescue is in violation of the amount of animals. I know they were recently over thier alloted limit, but this was fixed quickly and with the time of the TV report they were legal. Now, it gets more cloudy to me due to everyone pointing the finger at everyone else. Someone has made the statement of withholding the wolf permit for the rescue this year through animal control. Sam Blake says Roger Dickenson blames it on code enforcment of the number of animals you can have on your property. This leads you to animal control who has given the rescue the permit the past 9 years without a hitch. They say they don't have an issue and it's Roger Dickenson who has the issue. I don't know where the real issue lies and finding out the facts soon is major important as the current permit runs out on June 30th in a couple weeks! I'm way to busy with what's already on my plate and would love it if someone here wanted to find out more of the story from animal control itself in Sacremento county. Maybe the office of the representative can clarify exactly what the violations are and if there is a middle ground for resolution. All the numbers and emails for the folks that can be contacted are listed on the NCWRA website which will be listed near the end of this post. I'm most interested in hearing specifically from those involved...meaning the office of Roger Dickenson, Sacremento County Animal Control, and lastly Sam Blake. Anything contradicting between these sources is something to be ironed out/investigated. This will definitely affect rescues in california. I don't know how Sam runs his operation but I've heard about his many rescues/placements and demos for quite some time. Many respect him in the local area as well as in/out of state from what I've heard. If he's shut down all the other rescues around will have that much more pressure and have to turn away that many more animals. Any help would be greatly apprieciated on this one but PLEASE, if you talk with anyone make sure you are informed and calm. Escalating the situation won't help. We need to know the following - What are the specific codes violated? How long have they been violated for? How many animals does Sam have currently? Is it legal now to withhold a license since this operation has been granted one the past 9 years in a row? Want to know more? Go to the NCRWA website here: http://www.nevercrywolfrescue.com/help.asp Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 12th, 2005
3:35 pm	Rebel's Legacy - The Path to capture and the final success! In case you have been directed to this journal and don't know the current wolf hybrid rescue topic please click here to see the original post back on February 25th of this year: http://www.livejournal.com/users/theredwoodpack/2688.html If you want to know more about The Redwood Pack and what we are trying to achieve click here: http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=theredwoodpack Yes, it's two posts in one day. But what more could you expect given yesterday's events? Rebel was finally captured after 3 hard fought battles. Yesterday was nothing like the first 3 attempts...it wasn't a battle at all. It was a cakewalk in comparison. The points in between were both happy and sad though. Here's a few bits of email from the people involved as I was informed of Rebel from afar: April 1 (Jenny - shortly after the capture of the other 2) Rebel continues to be depressed, shy and nonengaging with me.  The last time he saw Scout (Jenny's dog), I think it was Monday or Tuesday evening, he didn't follow us or seem that interested in either of us.   His behavior made me feel sad about him.  I'm glad you have time tomorrow evening to come here. I sense not much is keeping him here except food and soon that may not be enough. I must confess that there is no comparison between the Rebel with his pack and the Rebel I see today, alone.  He was so joyful and now it's quite heartbreaking to see him.  Without knowing his life with his pack, it's quite easy to imagine that he has always been this way, timid and nonengaging. April 21 (Glenda and Erfert) Glenda - I had a fun time feeding/watching Rebel last night. He is such a kick.  I thought you might enjoy this video clip - sorry to anyone who uses dial-up (6.5MB download)! Anyway, I was down there for a couple of hours and he still would not put his nose in the trap to get the meat bone that Erfert bought for him.  I kept moving it closer and closer to the edge.  I finally left it hanging out a tiny bit and after another 10 minutes or so of circling it he got it.  Don't have that on video as it was now 8p.m. and getting dark. Erfert - Shortly after you (Glenda) and Paul left this evening (and after I had seen Rebel trotting up the hill in the main pasture), I heard quite a lot of barking and howling coming from down by the dressage arena. I dropped everything and ran down there, thinking that Reb had maybe gotten hurt, or that somehow the trap had closed on him. When I got down there, Rebel was standing right in front of the trap, barking his head off at the steak bone, which I had placed about an inch inside the trap. He seemed so distressed by the whole thing that I relented (softie that I am) and got the bone out for him.  He picked up the bone, moseyed over to the grassy area, lay down, and proceeded to gnaw on it, calm as you please. I guess he knows how to yank my chain!" Glenda - Needless to say, I doubt the trap will work unless we have like a whole year to get him used to it!!! June 6 (Glenda) Second, I thought I'd pass on a smile from Rebel.  He is just too cute.  One of the barn cats has found a new source of food - Rebel's.  The cat eats his share first and chases Rebel off when he tries to come and get some!!!  When the cat has eaten to it's heart's content, he allows Rebel to come and eat!!!  Erfert got video footage of this yesterday.  She is going to try to figure out how to put it on a CD - but in the mean time may make a regular VHS for me.  Can't wait to share it with you!! I've added a couple new panels to the old enclosure.  The opening (only one) is about 10 feet wide at the moment and he is going in and eating.  I have some ideas for trapping him just like we did Sky and Thorne,  but I'm not sure if it will work.  I think we are all willing to give another go at darting him in the open with this new drug that will knock him out.  We have always found him, the problem was him walking off...  Can you give me your thoughts on whether or not you'd be willing to try this again?  In the meantime, I'm continuing to work with the enclosure to keep our options available.  I'll start to close it in a bit each day.  If I can get him to go into a 6 foot opening then we can use an entire panel as a gate and it may work.  I've also bee