Hot Dogs and Love Bites

Well my friends, today marked a turning point, or at least a major landmark in my life. For the first time since my existance started 19 years ago, I have been granted the ability to do something I've always wanted to do. I got to touch and hug a wolf.

The Shy Wolf Sanctuary welcomed me with open arms and seemed to be very impressed with the fact that I came all the way down from the Sanford/Orlando Area and rented a hotel room for a week just to volunteer with them.

I was immediatly introduced to Charlene, who took me around and showed me the animals there. the first two I met were wolfdogs, and they were Shy and Shadow.


Shadow in the foreground, Shy in the background.


Me hugging Shy, who is anything but.

As we walked, she explained to me the history of the animals that had come to be there. The majority of the animals there have been taken in from homes that no longer want them, and over half of those came from abusive homes.

But I enjoyed getting to meet some of these wonderful animals. They were really something else.
Everyone was fairly hot and they immensly enjoyed hotdog treats. Oh, and I thought I should mention, these lucky critter get chicken, and all I have to do is cut the fat off. Much easier than rats and scissors. XD

Here are a few last pictures of the wolves:







After meeting our canine companions, I was introduced to a carnivore of slightly larger standing. The cougars. Now, for technicality, the only cougar known as a panther is the Florida panther, otherwise the name panther refers to leopards. Out west, cougars as known as pumas, but they are still the same species.

I got a few pictures, but not really any good ones, so here's a video of our introduction. The first cougar shown is a male, the only one at the sanctuary, the other two later in the film are both female, and though they are referred to as sisters, they are not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VThCPI7Kxls

And that was really it for the cougars. One of them did pinch me, and it hurt a bit, but we stopped her before she did anything else. When they pinch you, they come up to you and kinda bite/nibble you. One of the cougars also considered pouncing on me from a rather high perch, so its quite obvious they thought I'd be tasty.

And last but not least, I got to meet the smallest residents of Shy Wolf Sanctuary. The foxes. There was Dickens, an arctic fox. He's black because it's summer. In the winter he'll be white again. The others were two small fennic foxes, who were cute, but annoyed at having to be away during the day.

Fennic Fox (Ricochet or Joey, can't tell), sorry its blurry.

Dickens the arctic fox trying to steal a beer.



And once again, the oh so cute Dickens.

And now, at last, I leave you with one final video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0VeXAhmVww

And yes, they do this everytime they here sirens.