about the universe forum commander Shop Now Commanders Circle
Product List FAQs home Links Contact Us

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

GHENGIS KHAN 1996-2010

Many of you know that Steve Cole adopted Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary's alpha wolf Ghengis Khan. On February 1, 2010 Steve wrote this memorial:

The wolf that I adopted at Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, the misspelled alpha wolf known as Ghengis Khan, passed away on 21 Jan 2010. Word reached me about this on 1 Feb due to the snow storms. Ghengis was nearly fourteen, old for a wolf, having been born at Wild Spirit as one of seven pups on Easter Sunday 1996. His parents had been captive wolves all their lives and the litter could not be released back into he wild. Ghengis outlived his three brothers and one of his sisters. He was the indisputable alpha wolf of the huge 50-wolf pack at the sanctuary, and never backed down from anything. He died suddenly, on a day he had been very active, presumably of a heart attack or stroke. He was known as the star of the sanctuary tour, clearly the biggest and most powerful wolf presence there. Never shy, he was always at the front of his enclosure to meet the guests (and size them up for dinner). Only the two most experienced handlers could enter his enclosure, only when they had to, and they had to do so with protective clothing and something to keep him at a distance. Ghengis knew he was the head wolf, and he acted like it. Other wolves (unable to instinctively understand the chain link fences), hid their food from his view. I was proud to have known Ghengis, and to have met him on four different occasions, each time bringing him a beef heart, the traditional portion of the kill reserved for the alpha wolf. It was very special that I could spend most of a day with him last October, and to have personally fed him over 20 pounds of meat (heart and liver) that I brought to the camp just for him. That was, the sanctuary staff told me, the greatest day of his entire life. Artemesia, his female companion for many years, is devastated and inconsolable, as am I.

==

To visit the website of Wild Spirit's Wolf Sanctuary, go here: http://www.wildspiritwolfsanctuary.org/