All of these wolves or wolf-dogs were captive-bred or originally pets of people who thought they could handle a wild animal in their home. It's such a common theme at many of the sanctuaries that we visit - people think it would be really cool to have an exotic pet, but then realize when the animal reaches maturity that it has a mind of its own and can't be domesticated.
All of the wolves are part of the grey-wolf family. Most of the ones we saw were either timber wolves (yellow/brown color) or artic wolves (more white). The wolf-dogs were half-breeds with domestic dogs, but retained more "wolf" and couldn't be handled when they reached two years of age.
Periodically they would start howling. A haunting sound, but we started laughing when this guy was too lazy to get up from his nap - he just raised his head and joined in.
This couple was cute and fun to watch. The dark male is the sanctuary's primary educational animal. Since he is twelve years old, they are now trying to train some puppies to replace him.
Since we didn't know how many miles or how long it would take to reach the sanctuary, we ended up arriving early for the tour. We entertained ourselves out back watching the hummingbirds. Lots of feeders hung from the trees and the territorial-battle was on. I enjoy the sounds these little torpedoes make when they dart about.
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