Have you ever had a bad thing turn out good? Well... for Christmas my Aunt Wendy was going to do something with me and my two sisters but the weather prevented us from doing so (that was the bad thing; special occasions with Aunt Wendy are so much fun!). Then a few weeks ago on May 10th we went to the Killman Zoo (just my Aunt and I), which was a mere 30-40 minutes away. The main reason I wanted to go there was their wolf.
I brought along with me my camera, pencil case with some newly purchased pencils, and two sketchbooks, ready to capture the wolf in any way possible. The zoo was rather small, but well designed. A path wound its way through the various enclosures and cages which allowed you to get very close to the animals.
We each had a can of peanuts that we used to feed some of the animals. There were signs up that told us which animals would eat the peanuts, and seeing them do so didn't make me feel bad about throwing peanuts at them. The monkeys were very cute, and fought over the peanuts. We also saw bobcats, mountain lions, and a very lazy jaguar.
The foxes were next to the mountain lions, owl, pigs, and a very cute black bear named Jeana. She would reach through the bars and take peanuts and just crunch them. The pigs and foxes ate peanuts as well, but the male fox was too busy running around excitedly to pay much attention to us.
Then the time came: I got to meet , their 2-year old tundra/timber wolf. He was very lazily sleeping (as were most of the animals) in his enclosure, along with his friend the pedigree German Shepherd, which I though was weird. A wolf with a German Shepherd?
Anyway... we decided to see the rest of the animals and hoped that would be up and around when we came back. After seeing a leopard that looked like a fuzzy house cat, a pair of deuling peacocks, and two black leopards who weren't getting along, we returned to the "wolf's den". HE WAS STILL SLEEPING!!
Then the lady who ran the zoo was walking by and I asked her about the wolf. She told me how he had been abandoned and she had bottle-fed him when he was a puppy; and she still called him that. She tried to get him to come over so we could see him up close. "Come here puppy," she called out. But he just lay there.
She thought that by walking to the back of the enclosure she might "lure" them to the fence. It worked like a charm! First Roxanne (the Shepherd) ran to the back fence, followed closely by . She returned to us and was followed by both canines. I took a few close-up shots with my camera and then squatted so I could sketch him. If only he felt like co-operating with me.
He got up and walked back and forth along the fence; I couldn't tell whether he liked me or whether he was stalking me. Anyway... I sat there for the better part of an hour (according to my Aunt) sketching him and talking to him, which may seem silly to you but it was very special to me!
Then the small flow of people slowed down and he felt like sleeping again. I decided to follow my Aunt, who had returned to her car a few minutes earlier. After browsing the gift shop and buying a pewter wolf pin and a Killman Zoo refridgerator magnet with a holographic wolf on it I went to the car, promising myself to visit again. I knew that I had made a very special friend that day!
THE END
This is the enclosure where and Roxanne lived at the zoo. Roxanne was looking at me from the doghouse on the left and 's was obviously the one on the right. is sleeping in an area at the very back of the enclosure beside the tree stump, between Roxanne's doghouse and the post in the center of the picture.
This is the picture I took as Flash ran to the back of the enclosure (running from left to right).
I was amazed at exactly how dog-like Flash was. Of course he's a canine and all dogs are related to wolves, but I never expected to see him scratching his ear like a dog! The itch seemed to bug him for at least 10-15 minutes.
One of the many close-up shots I took of as he walked past me. Now you can see exactly how close he was; less than three-feet away!
This is another close-up, with him coming from the other side and taken from another angle. Too bad the wire of the primary fence got in the way of the shot!
A very nice picture of Flash that I scanned out of the brochure from the zoo.
