Nashoba the Wolf

Corra is still a dorky corgi, don't let the title fool you. I wasn't much feeling like working and we needed to move our cars "somewhere" this morning so the plows could clean up the parking lots. I decided to take Corra to the dog park since she has been cooped up for too long. And when she gets cooped up, everyone pays the price. While we were there, there was this man who talked somewhat like Robert DeNiro (I couldn't stop thinking about this ...) He got to telling me stories about dogs and his involvement with them throughout his life (he was 60, he told me). Sounds like he has had an amazing life and is an equally amazing person. He is an artist by trade and was living out in New Mexico. He was head of a Humane Society out there and apparently people bringing in their pet wolves for veterinary work now and again wasn't completely uncommon. There was a 5 month old puppy that he identified as a wolf immediately. He tried to help the owners by giving them information on what to do with a wolf, since they are not the same as raising a dog. By the time the wolf pup was 11 months old, he was afraid of people and too difficult for his family to handle. The wolf escaped and was running at large in a ranching community. The man I met helped capture him again using a giant havahart type trap and the help of some Animal Control officers. But the damage had been done. Ranchers threatened to shoot the wolf, even though he was being held on the man's property safely. The vet the man worked with told him he was going to euthanize him. The man refused to give up on the wolf. He claimed to be a very peaceful man, but he was afraid for himself and the wolf, so he bought a gun. Ranchers continually came to his house demanding to be let in so that they could shoot the wolf. He refused, and showed them his gun and told them if they shot the wolf, they would be next.

Finally, the man found a wolf sanctuary who agreed to take in the wolf (named Issun at the time). Issun was renamed to Nashoba and is still living at the sanctuary. I found him here: http://www.wolfsanctuary.net/animals.html (click on the "Nashoba" tab over on the right). The man told me that the day Issun was supposed to be transported to the sanctuary, he got up at 2am to take him out of his pen, so he'd be ready for transport without the locals watching. The moon was full, and the man asked Issun if he was doing the right thing. Issun stood up on his hind legs, placing his front paws on the man's shoulder, and gave him a huge slurp up the side of his face. Issun got back down on the ground and started to howl. The vet that worked with the man was pulling up at that moment and said it was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. The vet had been very concerned about how they were going to get Issun into the crate for transportation. But the relationship the man had developed with Issun made it a simple matter of asking him to get in the crate. Which he did, after giving the man who saved his life one more slurp. The vet was impressed by everything the man had done, but told him, unfortunately, he had to let him go after everything that had happened. So the man returned to New Hampshire and is trying to acclimate to life out here. The man told me he still has Issun's tags on his key ring.