Never Cry Wolf Rescue

An Amazing ISP:

So, I have to do 80 ISP (Independent Service Project) hours to graduate from this program; 100 if I want to get the "Presidential Award."  Today marked the last of my 100 hours!  And let me tell you, today was fascinating!

There's this place about 10 minutes from base called, "Never Cry Wolf Rescue."  The reason why it took us a full hour to find is because it is in someone's backyard.  Right.  You would expect a place with wolves to be out in the country somewhere.  No.  This place, home to 8 wolves, is located in a residential neighborhood...in a cul-de-sac, actually.  The wolf-dog hybrids are here because people who kept them as pets didn't realize what they were getting themselves into.  These animals don't do well in an apartment.  The retired sheriff who runs the place actually did a rescue before we got there this morning, and technically has 9 animals there for the next few days.  The latest addition is actually a dog, not a wolf.  It was tied up in a junk yard.  The owner thought he had a wolf on his hands, but it was in fact just a large husky.  Next to the actual wolves, though, this dog was tiny!  The guy who runs the place doesn't mind whether it's technically a wolf or a dog, he just wants to save its life.  You see, any animal that's classified as a wolf, whether it actually is or not, is euthanized once taken to a pound. 

Beyond saving the lives of these animals and trying to find them a new home, there are two or three wolves (the ones that he lets roam around his house...yes, actually inside his living room and kitchen) that actually go into schools and nursing homes to serve therapeutic/educational purposes. 

His way of handling these animals is to "ask" them to do things, but never to force them.  There's a policy of respect that wolves follow, and so he'll never make them do something they don't want to do.  If he brings them to a school, but they don't want to come out of their kennels, then they simply don't leave their kennels. 

One cool story that he told us was about how he finds them a new home.  He used to take the animals to downtown Sacramento on the weekends, to a park where there would be street performers and such...just an all around festival, I guess.  He had two or three of the wolf hybrids in the trailer, and a man showed up looking for a pet.  One of the wolves that had been at the sanctuary for about 5 years got super excited all of the sudden.  He tail and ears perked up and he got so excited that he started to rock the trailer back and forth.  The men where super impressed, but he was afraid that maybe it was a "false read."  He asked the man to come back the next day, to see if it would happen again.  Sure enough, when the man showed up, the wolf got super excited again.  These animals are extremely intuitive and read body language like none other, so with this sort of a reaction, he knew that this was a perfect match for that wolf. 

I have to admit, I was super nervous when we first showed up.  Literally, the second we walked up to the fence area, one of the wolves straight up jumped over one of the fences into another enclosed area like it was nothing.  Um...  Yikes.  They howled a bit at us, and paced back and forth.  Within minutes the guy had opened the gate and walked us in.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  These are powerful animals.  And I had just witnessed how little the fences did to separate us from them.  It straight up jumped over the barbed wire fence without even needing a running start.  And yet, here we were, actually walking into the fenced area with them.  By the end of the day, however, I felt so peaceful, and a bit sad to leave.  They were actually pretty darn social and cuddly, especially little Eddie. 

Our role there today was to help fill in some of the holes these animals dug...but quite honestly, that only took about a half hour.  The most important thing that he wanted us to do was to help "socialize" them.  That meant cuddling with them and petting them, and more or less, having an amazing day.  What an experience!  The random stuff like this is part of why I joined Americorps...three days ago I had no idea that I'd be

nuzzled by a 200 lb wolf. 

Valentine's Day

Nothing Gold Can Stay:
This is my last week with my students.  We'll be doing custodial work at the school next week while the students are on vacation.  That means that this Friday will be our last day with them.  I sat up last night making construction paper valentines for each of my students, and it started to hit me.  Sometimes you forget how much love you have inside of you until a bunch of squirrelly, germy, adorable children pull it out of you.  Without a doubt, there will be students that I think about 20 years from now, and wonder where they're at.  I'll wonder if they ever became the veterinarian or artist they wanted to be, if they moved out of The Compound, or if they remember me...  The end of this week is going to be hard. 

I still am not sure what I want to do for my students in terms of a going away celebration.  Nothing seems good enough for them.  But then again, I think they'd appreciate almost anything.  My simple little valentines elicited about 100 hugs today from my third graders.

Also, some of my students were so excited that it was my birthday today, that they told their brothers and sisters, and thus word got around to the whole school...and I was serenaded with the Happy Birthday song about 10 times today.  So cute.  Until the students guessed that I was either 16 or 80.  Huh. 

A Valentine From a Second Grader:
One little girl in my second grade class sheepishly gave me a Valentine.  She walked over to me and handed me a folded up piece of loose leaf paper.  It had a J on the front.

I opened it up and saw that it was decorated in crayon with a heart, my name in bubble letters, and a rainbow.  Then in pencil, there was a picture of us playing together, and then a note:

You are the best helper ever.  I don't want you to go.  I hope you can come again.  Because I had a dream about you and it was about... you came to my house and we had so much fun together.  But now your going I don't think that I'm still going to have dreams.  But I will still remember you.  I will miss you.  Happy Valentine's Day!  Please don't go!

Oh my gosh.  Heartbreaking. 

To break up the sappiness just a little bit though, one of my third grade boys ripped up my valentine right away and said that he just didn't want it.  Haha, oh boys...

Some Other Updates:
Did I mention yet that my team is back down to 9 people?  We apparently can't hold onto the guys on our team.  Kristopher, our newest member was only with us for about a week.  I swear we don't bite that hard!  Apparently his paperwork wasn't going through quickly enough to work at the school with us, and Americorps didn't want him just sitting around waiting, so they switched him to another team doing environmental work.

Also, this last Saturday was the first time in my life that I have ever gotten up at 4:30am for a job.  On the weekend.  Well, ever, technically.  We had an independent service project, working a run that was happening in town.  Besides getting up freakishly early, and being freezing until the sun rose, I had the joy of watching a bunch of people jogging with their dogs.  Now I kind of want a boxer.  Kind of a lot. 

Also, also, my guitar is in the process of being fixed!  :)  I talked to the guitar shop today and they said that things are going smoothly, but that the wood bending and gluing process takes a while, so it won't be ready til Wednesday.  Unfortunately, given my work schedule, I probably won't be able to pick it up until next Monday.  Either way, it's being fixed!!!

Thanks:
Thanks so much to all of my family and friends for the sweet birthday wishes...and to Madre y Padre and Grandma and Nat and family for the birthday cards/packages.  Perfect timing...that made my day! :) 

Nat and Mom, you might like a song I've been listening to lately: There's Hope, by India Arie.  It's a good one.  Possibly the next one to learn on my guitar, once it's back in my hands.