Hello,

This is my first of many posts (I hope) here. I like this website and was referred by Wraith on WolfWeb. I live at WMS, and am acting security, as well as part time caretaker. I have been coming up here for 4 years total (I lived in ND for a year..). I drove up here, 240 miles round trip every weekend for those years.

Anyway, that should tell you, it's a very special place to visit. It's the only sanctuary in thew US where first time visitors get to interact with the wolves. Tonya, the owner, has a very spiritual relationship with the wolves, which is why people can go in with them. She has raised them carefully and with lots of interaction, so she can let people in with them.

My experiences there interacting with every wolf but one (An aggressive male wolf who generally is intolerant of men) have been nothing short of magical. I have developed a relationship with Mishomi that actually is one of the most rewarding relationships I have ever had with an animal, let alone a person. He is my spirit brother, as Tonya says.

Here are some of my long texts related to my experiences with the wolves and Mishomi:

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The thing is, you have to be kind of abnormal to have a relationship with a wolf like I do. He likes to show me that I am not superior to him when we are wrestling by nipping me, tearing my clothes, and throwing me around like I'm practically weightless. Yet, in all the commotion, he won't hurt me. When I am laying with him and he is sleeping, due to the fact that he is in a hospital pen, I am usually laying in some sort of pee or meat substances.

I just don't care, he is so special and wonderful, I put up with a lot. He's a wolf, he's not a dog and won't ever act like a dog. His love is true and pure, and he doesn't owe me any friendship, but he teaches me so much about wolves. I really want to get a blog going on my daily interactions with him, as well as a video camera to record the goings on (Webcam? Not yet-we only have dialup). He does some amazing things sometimes and it would be great to have a camera there.


Anyway, sorry for the long writeup, but I feel it's necessary to show people how wolves really are.

Here are some pictures:

Here's Mishomi sticking his head out of a window, heavily sedated, after he had his tail removed due to a tumor.

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Here he is kicking it inside of a 110 gallon bucket!

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Mishomi with his beautiful wolf smile. He is smiling because he is being scratched!

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Here is another smile. I said-no joke-, "Mishomi, smile!" and snapped a shot on my camera phone.

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This one is of him crying. He soaked a small towel with his tears when we had him under during the tumor removal. I truly hope that he wasn't conscious.

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OK so this one is of Dakota. And the background is totally fake.

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And here's one of Istas. I have long hair now, no glasses, and a goatee so I look nothing like that. And yes, if he had an opposable paw, he would have taken my wallet.

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I'm glad you can find your way here. And welcome to Canidae Central.

I thinks it's great that you werre willing to make such large trips to go to the sanctuary and back when you needed to. It shows such great passion and love for the wolves I guess now you live closer so you don't have to take as much time out of your day to drive to WMS.

I'm still unfortunate enough to visit the place myself. But it sure does sound like a special and magical place to visit for those who are passionate enough about wolves to spend the money to have first-hand experience with them.

Mishomi sounds like a great wolf there, and I don't think I've heard anyone else say that they learned so much about wolves, from a wolf, yet. I think just from WMS staff members is what everyone else say they learned the most from. I'm sure Mishomi misses you while your gone if you really do spend all that time with him.

Getting or bringing a camera would be a great idea but I'm sure that most of the vistors bring their own cameras. WMS could even buy some and rent them out to vistors who don't have cameras and just send them the tapes. Just a thought. Anyways, I'd like to read any blog you got and watch all the wolf videos that you film, 'cause they are such a great creature and a blessing to have them on this earth with us.

I also like the pictures; a tragedty about the tumor though. But still a cool experience to be able to see the wolves of WMS again.

I like your pictures and you're lucky to be able to work directly with wolves.

Great pictures, love 'em! Cool that you can basically tell what the wolf is thinking. A strong enough relation between two beings, no words haveth be said.

I had a really good time at WMS it was amazing, i felt that i had a strong connection with the wolves, Tonya said i was spirit brothers with the wolves. I mainly felt a strong connection with Istas Pejut. I hope i can come back to visit soon.

But for someone like me, $20 dollars is a bit expensive. I don't know too much about WMS but here's another thought, educating public elementry schools (gotta educate young) about the true nature of wolves. Since, it was all the way until fifth grade that I believed all the myths about wolves (werewolves, Little Red Riding Hood, and other stories like those).

hmm....Opferte is right, I think....$20 is a small price to pay to get to interact with these wonderful animals. But remember, you also have to factor in the price of the road-trip down there, as well, and with the price of gas as high as it is, that probably aint cheap.

....I live in BC, so it isn't -too- far to go for me - my familyhas gone to CA a few times for vacation; I've been to Disneyland and Seaworld a few months ago, in January before winter break ended (makes a great way to get away from the cold winter up here!), I think next time we go down there, I'll see if I can convince them to drive the extra bit down to WMS, it sounds like an awesome place to visit

Also got to convince your family to go unless you go with friends or alone. Something like that would be kinda difficults since most other sibilings wouldn't be interested in wolves as much.

cool!

I remember going down to WMS back in January, I have to say that it was, or one of the, best days of my life. I really want to go back there sometime, but at this current time I doubt I can.

But that's really neat that you work there! I'd really love to work there as well, but I'm still too young to drive, haha.