Sometimes people just happen onto their lifetime calling. This is true of Jacque Evans, an artist who obtained a wolf dog to paint a picture of the animal. She moved to an abandoned ranch in Candy Mountain, New Mexico. She soon discovered that a wolf-dog does not behave like a dog. It does not want to please its human and, really, wants to be the boss of the environment in which it lives. This made it very unsatisfactory as a pet. Jacque ultimately met Barbara Berge, a wolf-dog rescuer and the result of their partnership is the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary. Here sixty-two wolves and wolf-dogs, who were kept as pets by people who really did not know what they were getting into and then rejected due to their non-doglike behavior, are cared for.
Our tour was led by Angel Bennett, Administrative and Educational Assistant, who introduced us to the wolves and dog-wolves, explaining both the general characteristics of wolves and the individual traits of the ones we viewed.
We learned that wolves are highly intelligent. In captivity they even learn by observation to open gates. Pairs mate for life and mourn the loss of their mate. Generally fearful of strangers, most of the wolves tolerate only the caretakers they know. They are not at all like Labs or other dogs who want only to please their owners although their reputation for attacking man is mostly mythical rather than factual.
Wolf-dogs who are not full blooded wolves but crosses between wolves and dogs generally have the traits of wolves and do not socialize with humans well. For this reason many are abandoned or given to shelters. The Sanctuary provides a safe haven for these animals who cannot be released to the wild but need to be as free as possible.
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