Steve received a call from Pam from Friends of Forks Animals about a dog in La Push (on the Quileute reservation) that was hit by a car; he was asked if he could euthanize the dog humanely, rather than have a tribal police officer shoot the animal. Upon hearing that only the dog's leg was injured, he felt that euthanasia might be premature. He spoke to a contact on the reservation and learned that there were two dogs, three-year-old brothers, that had been put out two years ago, and since then, they had both been run over several times, often intentionally, and they had also been shot, stabbed, and attacked with various other weapons. Steve drove to the reservation, where the dogs were being contained inside of a youth center. The owner signed them over to the tribal police that night, and Steve was given the go ahead to take them.

The dogs appear to be pit bull/Rottweiler mixes, but they are most likely a mix of several breeds, and may have different fathers; street dogs rarely produce litters from a single father. "Spike" had been hit by the car, but upon closer inspection, the injury to his left hind leg was not life threatening if he received veterinary care. "Copper" had a large abscess on his right cheek and a smaller one on the top of his head. Both boys were very afraid of men, so Steve spent a few hours gaining their trust; Copper gave him a fairly serious bite on the hand for his trouble, but he was able to get the dogs into the truck and take them back to the Sanctuary. They both went into surgery the next day: Spike had a tendon repaired and a drain installed in his leg; Copper had a drain installed in his cheek and the mass removed from the top of his head. The mass looked at first like a sebaceous cyst, but it was discovered that it had a stalk beneath it and quite a bit of compacted hair inside it, so it was sent out for biopsy. It is not expected to be malignant.

Steve likes to give the dogs new names to go with their new lives at Olympic Animal Sanctuary; Toby seemed like a more suitable name than Spike for a dog with such a sweet face, and Cooper was just a typographical error on his rabies certificate, but it suits him. Both boys will recover from their surgery before they are neutered; they have slept a lot so far, no doubt relieved to be out of danger for the first time in their lives. The brothers are making good progress and coming out of their shells, but a long history of violence makes them non-adoptable, and separating them would only add to their trauma, so they will remain at the Sanctuary for life. Toby and Cooper have already become friends with little Lupe, Ginger, and Lily, and over the next few weeks they will be gradually integrated into pack life, culminating after they are neutered, when they can be accepted by the other males. (Even the dogs don't put up with un-neutered males around here.)

Battle-scarred and traumatized after so many years of abuse, Toby (blk/tan) and Cooper (brindle) thought the camera was a gun until Steve left it on the floor and stepped away for them to investigate. These boys have a long way to go, but they're already making great progress, and loving human attention for a change.

Steve got a call from the former owner of Clyde, who asked if the Sanctuary would take Charlie, a four month old Rottweiler mix. At such a young age, Charlie had already killed a chicken and a cat, and finally his owner decided she couldn't afford to take care of him anymore. Charlie had spent a great deal of time chained up in the yard, even being such a young puppy, and he was already exhibiting some very aggressive and defensive behaviors. Being placed into a stable pack environment has been the best possible thing for him, and he has lost most of his fear of people and all of his fear of other dogs. Charlie is a happy, noisy boy, and he loves playing with his best friends, Clyde and Lupe.

Charlie doesn't like to sit still; this is the only picture of him that turned out.

Micah is a Siberian husky/wolf hybrid that was given to his owners by their daughter after she obtained him from a breeder in western Washington. He grew up with two other dogs, but when he killed one of his owners' cats, they worried that he was too dangerous to be kept at their home. They did not want to have Micah euthanized, so they asked Olympic Animal Sanctuary to take him instead.

Micah is a quiet, sensitive two-year-old, but he is settling in well at the Sanctuary. He gets along with dogs, especially females, and enjoys running around the yard, sniffing and marking his new territory. Steve is spending a lot of time with him, helping him get comfortable with his new surroundings, and accustomed to new experiences, like riding in the truck, and interacting with pushy pit bulls.

Wolves and wolf-dog hybrids are extremely popular in the United States; it is estimated that up to 100,000 of them are born in captivity in the US every year. Despite their popularity, they are not well suited to lives as pets. In the case of wolf hybrids, breeders have no control over which wolf traits and which dog traits the offspring will inherit, and there are no guarantees as to the resulting animals' temperaments or how well they will cope with domestic life. In most cases, wolf-dogs maintain a strong hunting instinct, and they eventually learn to kill smaller animals if given the opportunity. They also tend to be great escape artists, either by digging under, jumping over, or simply chewing through fences. This makes them a poor choice for a pet, and a major liability, in areas where there are cats, small dogs, livestock, or children.

At Olympic Animal Sanctuary, our fence is eight feet tall with 45-degree top arms to prevent animals from jumping or climbing over the top. To prevent digging under, we placed an 'apron' of buried fencing mesh around the perimeter of the yard. And in case of chewing, we use a special high tensile fencing mesh with a higher breaking strength than the heaviest chain link, and even if an animal does manage to bite through a wire, the fence won't unravel like chain link, so the dog (or wolf-dog) would have to chew through several wires to escape, not to mention the cedar boards on the other side of that. Frequent perimeter inspections are conducted to check that no damage has been done to the fence, and strategic plantings ensure that as time goes by, the yard will become increasingly escape-proof, as trees and bamboo prevent access to the fenceline, and their roots make digging out virtually impossible.

Are you prepared to spend thousands of dollars on fencing and landscaping, endless hours on behavioral conditioning, and provide an appropriate, safe, pack framework for a wolf hybrid, not to mention complying with zoning, building codes, and animal welfare laws, and dealing with concerned neighbors? Few people have the time or resources for that responsibility unless they're willing to make it a full-time job. If you think you can handle it, we suggest spending some time volunteering at an animal sanctuary before you take the plunge and find you're in over your head. If you still think you can provide an appropriate home for wolf hybrids after that, maybe you should start a sanctuary of your own -- there is no shortage of wolf hybrids in need of rescue, and instead of buying them from a breeder and perpetuating the animal welfare crisis, you can save them from euthanasia, or worse. But unless you're willing to make it a full time job for the rest of your life, or at least until retirement, please, please find another way to have animals in your life; these animals need your total commitment.

Micah relaxing indoors

A local Forks resident was giving away a litter of pit bull/boxer puppies, without screening the new owners; she admitted knowing that the people taking the dogs would not properly care for them, but was not willing to do anything differently. Olympic Animal Sanctuary was able to obtain only one puppy.

Clyde was only six weeks old at the time of his rescue -- too young to be away from his mother, but there was no other option. He was reasonably healthy, with the exception of a tapeworm infestation so severe that the worms were actually crawling out of his anus and up onto his back. He was treated for the worms, and is now doing well.

Clyde's litter mates are a perfect example of the problem with "free to a good home;" it may not seem like marketing, but it is, and it markets to people's impulses. People take home puppies and kittens without thinking it through, where an adoption fee might have deterred them long enough for their better judgment to kick in. The other problem with "free to a good home" is that the term "good home" tends to be highly subjective, and in most cases the quality of the animal's destination is never verified. Some owners are not financially or psychologically capable of caring for a pet; some are not allowed by their landlords to have pets; some are simply looking for animals to abuse. Dog fighters routinely use "free to a good home" animals as 'blood bait', or in the case of pit bull puppies, they may be trained to fight. While the person giving away the puppies or kittens may have the best of intentions, the reality of the situation is that few people are equipped to find good homes for an entire litter, and the animals' fate is left to chance. The best option for placing puppies or kittens into good homes is to turn them over to an animal rescue organization or a humane society; these organizations can screen potential adopters, require that the animals are spayed or neutered before adoption, and follow up on the animals to ensure they are being cared for properly.

Thinking about letting your dogs or cats have a litter? Please don't do it! It is our stance that as long as we are euthanizing millions of unwanted pets every year in the United States alone, the worst thing people can do is keep breeding more of them. Even if you can find wonderful homes for all of your puppies or kittens, think of the shelter animals that could have been adopted instead. For every puppy or kitten you sell or give away, there's one in a shelter somewhere that didn't get adopted, and was killed by lethal injection. It is true that puppies and kittens are a joy, but that joy comes with too high a price. We urge all of you to spay and neuter your pets; you'll help combat pet overpopulation, and your pets will also live longer, healthier lives.