"Temerity's World"

What's Been Going on in Temerity's World?

Our Ms. "T" has nothing but GOOD things to report this month about BILL'S progress. The chemotherapy and radiation treatments are FINALLY OVER!!! Although Bill has a ways to go to get back to his energetic normal self, he is feeling a little better each day. He has been able to begin eating normally again a little at a time, so we think the feeding tube is on its way out of the picture for good. His skin was burned from the radiation and it is beginning to be replaced by new healthy skin. His hair is growing back and he's back to being "Bill".

Once again, thanks to you all for all of your well wishes and support.

NEKO
1999 – June 28, 2011

I've heard it rumored that tragedies always happen in "threes" and although I'm not a very superstitious person, I am beginning to believe it.

There was nothing but shock and disbelief on the morning of June 28th when Bill found our wonderful friend NEKO laying in his kennel. He had died sometime during the night in the company of his companion Nacoma. This boy was so vibrant and full of life that we rarely gave any thought to the fact that he was aging, as are the other members of our pack.

We get very attached to these animals living and working with them on a daily basis for years, but sometimes there are things about them that set them apart and makes one of them just a little more extra special than the others. That was the case with our silly NEKO.

NEKO was almost always the first one to begin the "howl" whether it was during the middle of the day or night, or just because he saw you coming to visit. He was always the first one to greet you and would want to come out to run and play around you with Nacoma. Because of their gentle, friendly personalities he and Nacoma were always the first animals that we allowed new volunteers or visitors to meet up close.

Nacoma seems to be adjusting to being alone in her kennel just fine. After we watch her for awhile we will give some thought to perhaps pairing her up with someone new… we will see.

NEKO is being missed very much and will be missed for a very, very, long time.

Pack Member of the Month
"NALA"

On a much more positive note, our young NALA has blossomed into a beautiful young lady. She has gone from being the "baby" of the group to a beautiful mature female wolf-dog.

After watching Nala for quite sometime we decided to try a little experiment. She seemed to be loosing her shyness of people and becoming more confident so we introduced her to Shadow (who is also a high content wolf-dog and exhibits extreme shyness around people). The results of our little experiment are delightful. It seems that we have created a match made in heaven and these two animals are totally different than they have ever been. They are BOTH more confident, playful and enjoy each others company. Shadow follows Nala all over the main compound chasing and playing with her… something we have NEVER seen him do.

Love is definitely in the air!!!

PetFolio Magazines Art Paws Event

The PetFolio Art Paws event was attended by HUNDREDS of people accompanied by their canine buddies. The U.S. Wolf Refuge volunteers and staff set up our two canopies; one for information and our ambassador animals Kasa & Aries, and then a second booth which is our "Gift Shop" filled with fundraising items. We had custom embroidered hats and tote bags, donated fundraising items such as Judy Fulgham's beautiful wolf lap quilts, as well as handcrafted items made by some of our other volunteers. Lately volunteer/staff person Chris Mikulice's framed photos of some of our pack members, as well as handmade greeting cards with their pictures on the front, have been our most popular items. All of the proceeds from the sale of these items go towards helping our pack.

Sales and donations this year were down quite a bit from last year (as were all of the other vendors at this event) most likely due to the state of our economy, but we were able to raise a little money from sales and donations. Volunteers Lorna, Jennifer, Erin, Corey, Katie & Ryan (with future wolf-pup volunteer Lucas) helped the U.S. Wolf Refuge staff with the animals and in our gift shop. A big thanks to them for coming out to help!

We dressed Kasa up in a Little Red Riding Hood cape for the costume contest but the closer we got to the contest area, the more people and dogs we struggled to walk thru, and the more Kasa made it very clear that she wanted NOTHING to do with that. She finally just put on the brakes completely and sat down and refused to move as we got closer to the live band. We had to turn around and take her back to our booth and then dress up Aries. He's not as high strung as Kasa and pushed his way thru the crowd like a pro.

We did not win or even place in the costume contest this year. Although I thought I was being creative (our sign said "You can't believe the Fairy Tales, or other stories you hear" since the wolf supposedly ate grandma, not little Red, etc…) I'll have to give next year's costume a lot more thought. Last year Aries won 1st Place dressed as a "wolf in sheep's clothing" which everyone LOVED! (If you have an idea email to shellie@uswolfrefuge.org )

We are so thankful to PetFolio Magazine for making us part of their team and for all of the hard work they put into organizing this charity event. We are also thankful to ALL OF YOU for voting for us in the Reader's Choice Contest. We are the 2nd Place Winners which means we will be receiving a badly needed check from the magazine. We are looking forward to the next PetFolio Art Paws event in July 2012.

ONE WHITE GERMAN SHEPHERD AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION "PAX"

Our friend "PAX" is back. If you recall, we rescued PAX from the animal shelter in Reno so that we could help save his life. There was some suspicions that PAX might be a wolf-dog…HE IS NOT. He is a white German Shepherd ~ a very large one at that!

Tammy Boatwright worked with German Shepherd Rescue to get PAX moved from the refuge (since he is NOT a wolf-dog) and into a new home. This task was accomplished however the person who adopted PAX apparently was not the "German Shepherd" experienced person that he claimed to be and was not able to handle the energetic juvenile, so Pax has been returned to us.

Although we are glad to help this big boy, we'd much rather help him into a new suitable forever home. This enables us to do what we do best…rescue wolves & wolf-dogs.

If you are interested in adopting PAX, please contact Bill Chamberlain at 775-475-0510 or Tammy Boatwright at 775-425-2675.

The 2011 Raffle - "Wolf Song" Quilt

If all of the raffle tickets for the Wolf Song Quilt are sold in August as we suspect they will be, (we only have a little over 30 left) we will hold the ticket drawing in Reno over the Labor Day weekend this September. The exact date, time and place will be announced in the September newsletter. Visit the Raffle page to see our progress.

Upcoming Events

SEPTEMBER 03 THRU 05 - U.S. Wolf Refuge 4th Annual Labor Day Camp Out & Work Weekend at the refuge. Any questions contact Shellie@uswolfrefuge.org – RSVP's are a MUST.

OCTOBER 01 – U.S. Wolf Refuge at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo, Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco CA.
Keynote Speaker will be Dr. Jane Goodall. Visit www.janegoodall.org for more information about Dr. Goodall, or www.wildnet.org for more information about the Wildlife Conservation Network.

For more information about the U.S. Wolf Refuge,
contact us at:
(775) 475-0510

WOOOOOOF… see you next month ...
Temerity