So, as part of my birthday, last_bastion made arrangements for us to do something that I'd been wanting to do for a long time. Visit the wolf sanctuary past Lakewood (I think I have the right city...) in the mountains. We went with mentalgremlin (who was kind enough to drive) and his wife.

And I had such a good time.

I'd known about this place for a few years. last_bastion had found it while randomly searching around about our interests and left a brochure for them sitting on my desk in Texas. I'd been all over the website, and I had had ever intention of helping to support them with donations.

The group, you see, focuses on educating the public about wolves, about clearing up the misinformation about them, and helping people to understand that _owning_ wolves as pets is a _bad plan_. While there are certainly any number of charities I could support, this one is very near and dear to my heart. *smiles* There are days I think I should have gone into conservation rather than where I am now...

... who knows. *smiles* My life is far from over. Maybe I'll get there some day.

Anyway... we got up into the mountains, where the temperature dropped a lovely 20 degrees from the 80 that it had been in the lower lands of Colorado Springs. I saw aspens changing colors from green to gold, had someone explain how aspens grow in groves, took pictures of the mountains with dark clouds hanging over them, and then we made our way to the actual refuge. From the top of the hill, we could see a number of wolves in enclosers and last_bastion started taking pictures. Another tour was on its way through the area, and we were in time to hear them coax the wolves in a chorus of social howling.

Let me tell you, there is no substituting standing near wolves when they howl.

Our tour was fun, and I definitely learned a few things that I didn't know. Most of it related to industry problems regarding animals (the refuge also has a couple of coyotes and a two different breeds of fox); fur industry, film industry, breeding industry, photography industry. Some stories made you want to cry, but, all the same, all of the animals there had happy endings. None of them are going into the wild, but they all have a safe, comfortable place to live out the rest of their days. And that is a comforting thought, at least.

Now, I mentioned above getting to hear the previous tour coax a social howl out of the wolves. The tour ends with the refuge worker leading the tour group in a round of howling in order to convince the animals to answer. So... if standing on the _edge_ of the refuge and hearing them howl was something else, standing in the _middle_ of all of their enclosures and hearing them do so was amazing. Everything from low, mournful wolf howls to the high pitched yipping of coyotes.

Evidently, they're more vocal during the winter. last_bastion and I are considering going just to hear that. Getting up the mountain with all of the snow could be entertaining, though. So we'll see. *smiles*

As an odd note, they have a wolf there that reminds me very strongly of the picture that I use on a regular basis when I'm feeling 'packish'. *smiles* I think I've seen pics of her before and thought she was the wolf in the picture. When I got home and had a look, though, I reaffirmed again that it wasn't.

After the main tour, we got the bigger treat. last_bastion had arranged for the better tour option that allowed us to go into the encloser with the wolves, to touch them, and get licked on by them. We have pictures... at some point, he or I will post a number of them.

The enclosure we were allowed into had one particularly older wolf, and several younger wolves. The older wolf alpha stood at the gate as they opened the door and inspected each of us as we came in. He sniffed our legs, and our shoes, and licked our hands. We found a sunny place in the enclosure, and then the 'welcome to my pack' licking began.

Wolves... have big tongues. They say hello in party by 'tasting' your breath. My face got covered in wolf kisses, and I am now very well aware what wolf tongue tastes like. *smiles* Not at all horrid or like 'dog breath' as we are aware of it.

There was a great deal of petting, and coaxing with treats for good pictures. These were taken by the woman who owns and runs the sanctuary... I also got my hair tugged on by one of the wolves. *smiles* That in and of itself is a cute story, as the owner was starting to snap off pictures and caught that one at the first tug. 'Course, in the next second, she was on her feet with a loud 'No!', and I was pulling my braid back over my shoulder to protect it from further investigatory teeth.

Last but not least, we got to meet the refuge's 'swift fox' population. There were four or five of them... I'm not sure the exact number. They were busy running... very quickly... about their encloser. They were about the size of large rabbits, and I got my hands a little bloody feeding them stew meat. I even think, in that encloser, I got some good pictures of last_bastion smiling.

*smiles* There's something very soothing about walking among animals like that. I'm looking forward to doing so again at some point.

So, yeah... I came away from that glowing. And with a number of souvenirs.

Last but not least, we drove back into Colorado Springs and tied up the evening by having dinner with mentalgremlin and his family. *smiles* It was a lot of fun... and we ate too much. But such is life.

My birthday has been good even though its not until tomorrow.

One last thing before I go... if you're interested in the refuge I've been talking about...

http://www.wolfeducation.org/

*smiles* Go, explore, feel connected, learn, and remember that wolves aren't pets.

Raen.

*beams a smile*

Back from the wolf sanctuary.

I had _so_ much fun.

More to come...

Raen.