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Trace and Timbre

 Monthly News & Events at the wolf sanctum

 

From the Director's Desk

August 2010

To those intrepid visitors that managed to make it up the washed out drive on Saturday, August 7th, we salute your bravery and driving skills!  And your 4-wheel drive vehicles.  Severe thunderstorms over a few weeks managed to put foot deep ruts in our gravel drive.  Finding someone to come smooth it out proved fruitless, so we bit the bullet and hired a grading contractor to re-do ditches and the entire drive.  We are crossing our fingers that Mother Nature does not send another downpour any time soon.

Tourism has been slow again this summer.  On the up-side, the tours we have given were to wolf-lovers.  Even with a slower tourist season, we have managed to keep quite busy as usual.

October is Leaf Viewing time ...we will continue our Saturday Open Houses through October 30th. 

 

BEER WITH A MISSION:  please look at the Wolf Beer insert at the bottom of the right hand column.  Wolf Beer is a grass roots company, with limited distribution at the moment...we hope to see it go nationwide!!  A dedicated wolf lover, the founder of the company is on a mission to help wildlife and wolves ...thumbs up for a company that is giving to the environment and animals.  So, beer drinkers everywhere, ask for Wolf!

JuliaGriffin www.nexttopauthor.com/profile.cfm?aid=159

Update:  250 were chosen out of 2500 to go to the next level. Then another voting round and Julia went on to the next level.   Julia, the wolves' beloved Animal Communicator for the past twenty years, is in the process of completing her book "When Wolves Speak."  

Go to the Special Edition button to view Julia's promo for her book.  Khamazi, the house woofer, was well behaved and well bribed during the shoot!  He is particularly fond of caramels.  As a gift to the fans of the Wolf Sanctum, Julia has offered a free class on Animal Communications...click on the links on the Special Edition page.

 I am extremely grateful for the summer intern, Deborah Anderson.  Deborah attends Unity College in Maine, studying to become a Wildlife Biologist.  If Deborah is an example of the student body, then I can assure you they are doing a tremendous job teaching, covering the entire spectrum of the environmental challenges the world is now facing.  I have become the "student" here.  

SATURDAY OPEN HOUSES...

   No appointment is necessary, just show up between noon and 6 p.m. and we will be happy to give you a tour of the facility.  If it's pouring down rain, sorry...no tours are given in inclement weather.  Please e-mail me if you'd like to arrange a tour for another time/day of the week other than during our Saturday Open House period. 

Many thanks to the frat boys of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (Appalachian State University) who came up this past Saturday April 24th) to help with projects...we should have up pictures soon.(see our volunteer section for pictures).  We had quite a good sized group with the students from Appalachian State and several from Lees McRae College.   We finished building a roof extension over the deck area.  Wolf house repairs are still on-going, with only three left to do.  This is the second time we've had the pleasure of SAE coming up to help, and hope it will continue. 

On May 1st, the students from Mountain Alliance in Boone came up for a volunteer weekend.   We'd like to extend our sincere appreciation for all their hard work on multiple projects!  See our volunteer section for pictures of this hard working group.

Khamazi, the house woofer, is taking all the activity like a real trooper!  While he often retreats to the privacy of the bedroom, he does venture out for treats every once in a while.  There is a strict rule however that no one gets near his "stuffies", as he is very possessive with these!

May 2nd, we lost Manitou.  He was 13 years old.  On that Friday, he didn't eat his chicken.  On Saturday, he laid down the entire day.  I thought his joints had given out.  Since Manitou was one of our unapproachable wolf-dogs, I was only able to get near him on Sunday to try to examine him.  Unfortunately, it turned out he had a bad wound, a bite from his pen-mate, Nala.  We called the vet out immediately, but discovered more bites which were infected badly.  Due to his age and unsocial nature, the vet recommended we euthanize Manitou. 

Taking the advise of Julia Griffin, the wolves' beloved Animal Communicator, we renamed Joker.  He will now be called Abatar.  Obviously he particularly liked the "Ab" sound, so it's a variation of Avatar he can live with.  Abatar particularly favors the young ladies, so he has been the recipient of quite a bit of affection with their return after the long winter made it virtually impossible to travel down from the Boone and Banner Elk area (where our interns attend either Appalachian State or Lees McRae College).

We moved Little Brother in with Alpine.  It had been more than a month since loosing Shamen, so we felt she may be ready to accept a companion.  The transfer amazingly went smoothly.  Other than a bit of arguing over food, things are going well. Both are elderly.  With Little Brother's transfer, we are opening up his enclosure to Abatar, Hobbit and Layla.   This will give them an additional 1300 square feet in room. And a lock out area as well.   Look to the pictures on the right and you'll see the completed "play station".  It has proved to be quite popular with the three-some.

 We'd again like to express our sincere appreciation to the Ware Foundation for their grant, allowing us to make these improvements to our enclosures.

WELCOME to Adam H. Milt on our Advisory Board.   Adam has a Bachelor of Science Forest Resources from the University of Georgia.  His major was Wildlife Management, and he is a State of Georgia Wildlife Biologist.  We know his expertise will greatly aid us in the care and happiness of our "wildlife" residents here at The Wolf Sanctum.

He and Julia Griffin came up to visit in March so Julia could "speak" to the wolves in person, and take some video for her website (please go to our Special Edition section here).  We should have some new stories soon up on the Special Edition page, and Julia is working on her book about The Wolf Myths.  The wolves are quite excited about it all!

WOLF HAIR BRACELETS:

NEW:  I've been making up Bella Bracelets too!!  E-mail me for details!!

(Go to our Gift Shop to see pictures of the Wolf Hair Bracelets and the Wolf Hair Necklaces.  Also I've put pictures up of Prayers Feathers for use in smudging.  Please e-mail me if you'd like to purchase any of these items.  director@wolfsanctum.org

I spent months trying to figure out a way to make jewelry from the wolf hair!  While I managed to make some necklaces that have some wolf hair hanging, it was impossible to get this same effect on a bracelet that you wear on an ankle or a wrist.   So I took the wolf hair and rolled it into a polymer clay 'bead'....and whalaa...we hope you will find them as attractive as we do.  A trip to the Gem and Mineral Festival resulted in making some up with semi-precious gemstones.  I sell my artworks up here at wholesale prices, so the price range on the bracelets will range from $9.95 to $19.95.  Shipping charges for a bracelet are $4.50. 

We hope you can visit us....we have lovely things at our Gift Shop .  With the economy so tight, we hope you will consider sponsoring one of our resident animals this year, or renewing your past sponsorship. 

 

TEE SHIRTS with Cheyenne's print are now available in children's sizes at our Gift Shop.  These are beautiful, and those children who have had the opportunity to pet our wonderful Cheyenne will be thrilled!  Thanks to Sandi Baker's artistic talents, we now have this beautiful rendition.  Go to Wolf Song Studio at www.wolfsongstudio.com to see more of the Wolf Sanctum's wolves in art form!

 

A rooster wandered onto the compound and captured the interest of many of the residents!  He liked to stay more down towards the lower pens, and the picture shows Timbre keeping a close eye on a fresh dinner of chicken!  Miraculously, the rooster actually lasted several weeks...but it was not Timbre who got the prize.  That went to Layla.  While there were feathers all over her enclosure, I think eventually she got frustrated with all the work, as after all, they get chicken from Wally World delivered every other day.  While her intentions may have been to save it for a snack, the heat prompted me to remove it quickly! 

 

 

 

NOTICE:  the only valid e-mail address of our organization at this time is director@wolfsanctum.org

LOGO TEE SHIRTS have arrived!

More beautiful art prints, from Wolf Song Studio, are also in and available at our Gift Shop. 

We've added numerous items at our Gift Shop this year!  Sandi and JW Baker are creating lovely wolf art (go to their web site at www.wolfsongstudio.com) featuring the wolves at the Wolf Sanctum. 

  www.wolfsongstudio.com   

Internationally known for his amazing airbrush art, J.W. Baker put his talents to work to create the above "painting" on my jacket!   They have donated this art for our new logo.  Sponsorships now include a decal (pictured below) for your car window.

Please contact director@wolfsanctum.org with any questions you may have.

  HUGE THANKS!!

Thanks to an extremely generous donation by the

Ware Foundation of Coral Gables, Florida,

we will be able to make some wonderful improvements

to our facility... pictures of the progress, expansions,

improvements

We built a new deck off the Gift Shop...this seats the students while they watch an

educational video about wolves during the Wolf Trek programs.

The space between the Clinic and the Gift Shop was converted into a  Gallery. 

 New doors were installed.

We added on and enclosed the end of the food prep area to house

 an addition refrigeration unit.

The Wolf Compound building was painted!!

and we just kept painting everything...the isolation pen across..

Jamie Hawbaker, one of our student volunteers, was DRAFTED

 

 

....as was Brooks Bowden, of Lees McCrae College (internship program)

and we ended up drafting most of our Lees McCrae interns too!  Our interns

also learned construction skills in remodeling Cheyenne's house as well as ex-

panding the tool room. 

And we were able to add on / expand two enclosures!!

Many thanks to Andrew Edwards and Dylan Lang ...their skills

were put to use in building a Play Station in April 2010 for Abatar,

Hobbit and Layla.  The play station is located in the Lock out

portion of their enclosure, which is smaller than their main area,

but these three have ended up spending  most of their time on top!

We've been replacing and improving roofs and

decking areas on the "wolf houses" this past year and it's an on-

going project right now. 

SAE Frat guys building a roof over the deck off the Gift Shop.

 

 

 

 A company that is making a difference ....one beer at a time!

If your organization is hosting a fund raiser, Wolf Beer will help if

they can.   Please contact them for details.  

 

We would like to extend our sincere appreciate to Peter Plantec for his permission to use his artwork "Wolves" as our "background" on our site.   Copyright June 2004.

See Peter's art at:

www.ordinarymagic.com

 

Thanks to a generous donation from the Ware Foundation of Coral Gables, Florida, we are able to do some additions, expansions and other improvements to our facility.

 SPECIAL INTEREST....

Congratulations to Jason Johnson for his successful completion of the Alabama State Trooper Academy...Jason has been a regular volunteer at The Wolf Sanctum for several years whenever he manages to get a break and come up for a 'wolf fix.'  He worked at Yellowstone one summer and didn't get to see one wolf!!  He's a particular favorite of Lokee up here.

 

  Want great wolf gifts?  go to http://howlinwolfgifts.tripod.com

Two of our Board of Directors run Howlin' Wolf Creations.  Check their site for their upcoming Pow Wow schedule for 2009 to see if they will be in a location near you.  Or, you can order directly from their web site.  They carry lovely wolf related as well as Native American items!