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Wolf Paws   Yes, "paws," relax & enjoy the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Foundation's Sanctuary Newsletter

Released: 3rd Quarter 2009

Dear Pack Members:

The Pack at Rocky Mountain Wildlife Foundation (RMWF) on Goldhill Ranch in Guffey, CO would like to welcome you to our first ever newsletter Wolf Paws. Our thanks go out to Mary Sander for coming up with the name, we think it's perfect! Wolf Paws will be published quarterly to inform our human family of what’s been going on with RMWF and at the sanctuary.

This first newsletter will be long, because we need to catch up with you. Cheyenne's vision and goals, as well as Dad's are coming rapidly into view!

First, we want to inform you that sadly, in February, we lost our patriarch Apollo, who was 17. Apollo was Dad to Shone, and Grandpa to Spirit, Blessing, Merlin.and our four new pack members who we welcomed in May. He was a great comfort to a lot of our human visitors in the last few years of his life. He became a sort of secondary Ambassador Wolf to Cheyenne. For those "male humans" who Chey tended to not bond with, Apollo openly welcomed them to his home (or pen, as the humans call it). Both the canine and human pack members miss him and his gentle ways.

Speaking of pack members, ours sure has grown!!

Ladyhawke and Shone have been very busy producing future Wolf Ambassadors. In May, four wiggling 'mini-wolves' just appeared out of nowhere! The humans named the boys Lakota, Apache, and Navajo. The girl is called Cherokee. They had problems walking for a while, but they're much better now and have gotten a lot bigger.

Dad says that Ladyhawke is going to "get fixed" this Fall because we have plenty of Wolf Ambassadors for RMWF now. We don't know what he's talking about - she doesn't look broken to us!

Lakota, Apache and Cherokee have made personal appearances at the Cañon City Abbey for Heritage Days, City of Florence Farmers Market, Woodland Park Festival Days, Fort Carson's Welcome Home for the Troops, the Colorado Springs Community Center's event for children, Woodland Park's Dinosaur Museum, and the Fremont County Fair. They've been busy!

At these events, Dad talks to parents and children about our new "Wolf Ambassador" program especially for children. We have had a great response to this program from parents and children. A Wolf Ambassador explains to their classmates about the wolf and how important they are to the balance of wildlife, and ask their teacher if RMWF can visit their school. Once the school agrees and a date is set up, the child who is the Wolf Ambassador will be part of the presentation to the class about the importance of wolves.

This also helps the young wolves to train as "Ambassador Wolves". If the school allows them to attend the school program, they learn how to behave before large groups so they can show a lot more humans what we wolves are all about.

Hey, we need to finish introducing you to the 'newbies' who now live with us at the Sanctuary!

Some of you already know Zoya, who came to live with us last fall. She is 3-1/2 years old, part Siberian Husky and part wolf, has one blue eye and one brown eye, and she loves humans! She and Spirit live in the home that used to be Apollo's, and they play all the time.

Then in July of '09, Mara, Baby and Pia came to live here too. Their human was moving and couldn't take them with her, so Dad said they could come live with us. They like it here. We also have two other new pack members called Lakota and Dineh (din-ay'). They are a mama and her baby, and aren't really wolves, but we like them a lot and have accepted them as part of our pack anyway. Also Shadow needed a new home and joined us this month.

So our pack is now 15 strong, and things started happening so fast, that Dad took on some help! It was great timing for us that Alex from CA and Gwen from CO contacted Dad to see if they could help as volunteers this summer. Their stories and adventures while they helped Dad are on our website. We sure could use more help like theirs, so if you can come and stay a day or more, call Dad or email him.

Guess what? Dad found a human soul mate! Her name is Alexandra and they have an RV above our pens where they sit at the breakfast table and watch us play. They don't think we see them watching us, but we do! We have accepted Alexandra as part of the pack and she loves us as well! You can see a picture of Alexandra and Spirit kissing on our website. By the way, our website (www.rockymountainwildlife.com) is amazing, it's kinda like magic. and we want to thank 'Neighbor Jerry' for all his hard work!

Let's see, what else? Oh yeah - the Fundraiser in May! It was a big success. There were a lot of nice people there who ate good food, listened to Dakota Blonde's music, and bought art and t-shirts. The Pack wants to especially thank those nice people for being part of the Fundraiser, and the people who donated art and their time. Dad and Alex were able to expand one of our pens because of that, and every day something else gets improved! Dad also met a lot of new human friends at the Fundraiser who have come to visit us, and there are more coming.

A lot of firsts for us are happening because of the Fundraiser. We have had so many newspaper articles written about our wolf pack that we're practically celebrities! Dad has spoken on the radio about us and Michael Martin Murphy dedicated a song to RMWF at a concert in Cañon City that Uncle Bill and Aunt Vanessa attended. That was so cool.

Last weekend, Ryan, a boy scout from Colorado Springs who is working on his Eagle Scout Badge put together a group of 16 volunteers and came to help with fire breaking here at the Sanctuary. It is a good thing, too, because in July lightning started a fire on the land next to us. Boy, you should have seen Dad move into action - he was in Guffey at the Fire House in two minutes flat! The fire humans put it out with some help from Mother Nature. The winds blew it back on itself and the rain sure helped. Our neighbor now has a big black patch of land, but we are all safe.

Dad and the other humans are always looking for ways to raise funds so we can have bigger homes with our own water and stuff. They made up some T-shirts ($18.00) and hats ($20.00) for sale on the website. You can see them being modeled in the pictures of the Fundraiser. If you like them please order something for yourself or a loved one and help us out!

We sure could use some help with suggestions on fundraising. A couple of ideas we’ve heard are starting a jar with RMWF on it for your pocket change nightly or your son/daughter could work on a car wash with their friends. One friend of the pack had a birthday party and asked for donations to RMWF instead of gifts for himself! If you can think of any other ideas please let us know!

Another fun idea that will help with expenses is for you to adopt one of us; for a $5 or more monthly donation you would receive a certificate of appreciation, photo of your wolf and a tax credit as well. For a $25 monthly donation you would get all of the above plus a T-shirt after three months and a hat after six months to say thanks for your generosity. For a $50 monthly donation you would get all of the above plus after the fourth month you would receive an embroidered dress shirt with our logo. You can make donations with a credit card on our website or send us a check, whichever you prefer.

With such a big Pack now, our needs are many and appear to be never ending! Vet bills, fencing, food, gasoline, generator, computer monitor, and lumber keep adding up. We still need more solar, a water well, an ATV, Insurance, a backhoe to rent for a week and miscellaneous costs to help RMWF take care of all of us here now as well as those new pack members that will be needing a good home. So if you have any contacts in these areas that can help, let Dad know.

Now for the last update: we are planning another fundraiser on May 15, 2010. We will once again have rooms at the Abbey for you to stay and enjoy the day with other friends of the pack. In the meantime plan to come visit us at Gold Hill Ranch RMWF and spend a couple of hours playing with us.

Don't forget to visit our website at www.rockymountainwildlifefoundation.com and see pictures and stories of us all having fun here in Guffey, CO.

Warm hugs and grateful thanks from Ladyhawke, Shone, Merlin, Spirit, Zoya, Mara, Pia, Baby, Lakota 1 and 2, Dineh, Navajo, Apache, Cherokee and Shadow; the pack at RMWF.

Mark "Wolf" Johnson

Rocky Mountain Wildlife Foundation
(a 501-c-3 Corporation)
PO Box 215
Guffey, Colorado 80820
719-660-5480

© 2008 The Rocky Mountain Wildlife Foundation
Original design by Andreas Viklund