They live at WOLF TIMBERS in Bolivar, Ohio.

My two friends and I are sponsoring the female wolf, Keeley.
She was too afraid that day to come
near us so most of the pictures of
her had to be taken with a zoom lens.
We hope in time she will greet us the same way.

The general public are not allowed in with the wolves.
You can only see them if you make an appointment
ahead of time so they know you are coming
and you sponsor one of their wolves for a year.

It was well worth it to us to
have this rare opportunity to see how beautiful these animals
are close up and watch them interact with each other.
And we are also helping the facility and the wolves with this payment.

But even if you cannot afford to sponsor one,
it is still worth your time to come and
see them and become educated on what wolves are really like.

We managed to get a few pictures
that I would like to share with you.
Here is a picture of Keeley, the alpha female of the group.

And here are more of Keeley.

And I was the only one who she came close to that day.
She was taking a dog biscuit from my hand.
But then she quickly put some ground
between us and watched again.
She was very affectionate with the volunteers though.

Nira is the alpha male of the trio.
For two years he and Keeley lived alone
until this past August when Ingo joined their little group.
Here is a picture of Nira with me.
I appear to be a little stiff in this picture.
Remember, this is not a dog.
We were warned not to look him directly in the eyes,
which was very hard when he was right in my face.
But he was testing us and we passed the test
because he really seemed to like us.

Here is Nira and Ingo waiting for treats.
The gentleman with me is the Director of Wolf Timbers.

Ingo is the baby. He was born in April, 1999
and only came to Wolf Timbers in August.
Since Nira is alpha male and Keeley is alpha female,
Ingo gets picked on a lot but he seems
to take it all with a sense of humor.
His "bottle mom" from Wolf Park was with us
the day we visited and he remembered her.
Here he is with Peg. He believes she is the alpha.
He face greeted her and dropped down on the ground
for her in this picture.
It was really touching to see them together.

Here is another picture of Ingo.
He had played so hard he just wore himself out.

And one last picture of Ingo getting really close to me.
He was so much fun, it was hard to keep
from hugging him but I couldn't.
I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn't a dog
and we had to sign papers before we were allowed in with them.
When you are dealing with wild animals, anything can happen.

When we were first going to go in with the wolves
it was noted I had on shoes without socks.
They found me socks because skin on the ankles would be foreign to them
and they would have had to investigate thoroughly why I was different.
When anyone new came into the area from outside
we had to leave the compound because the wolves might be
too stressed by the number of people in the area.
It is really very interesting.

When Ingo first came both alpha wolves accepted him
immediately and regurgitated food for him.
As time went on Keeley continued to do this
and kept losing weight and
there was some concern about her health.
I just received an update and
she is starting to gain weight again and
is not regurgitating food for Ingo as much.
They also said that Ingo likes to play pranks and
has been severely reprimanded by both alpha wolves
from time to time.
Ingo still continues his pranks but
the alphas are not playing the game as often - poor Ingo.

An update for 2002, my newsletters I have been receiving
say that Ingo has taken over as alpha male.
I was a little distressed to hear it but
Nira doesn't seem to mind.
He and Keeley still have a special relationship
that just can't be taken away from them.

I cherish the memory of the day
I spent with these beautiful animals.
It was very special to me.
I hope I have a chance to go back again some time.
But just because you see pictures of me with wolves
does not mean that you should approach a real wolf
if you were ever to come upon one in the wild.
These wolves have been around humans all their lives
and although timid with strangers,
they seem to think of the staff and volunteers as part of their pack.
In the wild, it is doubtful to me
that a wolf would even allow you to approach them.
They would stay hidden from sight
or run away if you approached.
They are not the monsters that folk lore shows them to be.

Although I have some mixed feelings about captive wolves,
this is not a zoo and for educational purposes,
I think it shows wolves in a very positive light.
Of course, I would love to see them running free
but they have never known the wild and seemed very happy.
They really do consider the volunteers and small staff part of their pack
and occasionally join the volunteers in a good howl.

You can read about where these wolves all came from by going to WOLF PARK.

Even if you can't sponsor a wolf, or visit this park,
you can still help with a small donation to help the wolves.
Perhaps you even have such a facility near you.

You can also help by going HERE.
I hope you will take a moment and read more about the plight of the wolf.
There are many people against the wolf,
but fortunately there are also many people working to help
the wolf remain free without having to be caged.
Also please check out the webrings
on this page to find other wolf sites.

When I created this page I just wanted to show the
beautiful pictures we took for these special animals.
Perhaps they would touch one person
and change their mind on what they thought of wolves.
Perhaps this would be the person that could
help stop the senseless killing of wolves.
They just want to live their lives
in peace and away from man.
They are not the monsters
in the tale about Little Red Riding Hood.

To read more about the sad plight of the
gray wolf in Alaska, Click Here

If you would like to link to this page,
I have created the banner at someone's request.

Also, please take a moment to sign my guestbook. Thanks.