Pupdate #19… long overdue

A long but successful day is winding down and it ends with a Pupdate. If you recall in Pupdate #18, the pups are no longer pups and catching them is a whole new world. A couple of weeks ago when we went to catch them for their final Pup check, we couldn’t. Yes, failure, at least temporarily. We decided to call it a day and make new plans for a different day with more bodies.

Our wolf exhibit is excellent for the wolves but not-so-much for the Keepers that have to work in it. The cliff face provides an incredible challenge when we have to corral the wolves. So, for today’s pup catch we used more bodies and tarps to help make a wall and pinch the wolves to the side cages where we would then catch them and crate them.

Keepers in wolf yard with tarps — Our line of 10 people and multiple tarps extending from top to bottom. The Keepers did an amazing job navigating the trees, bushes, uneven footing, cliff scaling, communicating with each other to keep a solid line of tarps… It was impressive to watch them work so well together.

We discussed that it would possibly take us 60-90 minutes, and yet 24.5 minutes after we started all four pups were crated. While we let the pups settle, we had a quick debrief meeting to review how things went during our catch prior to beginning the next phase of work.

Aaron, led the review with the entire catch-team.

For the actual Pup Checks, we worked in the side cages as usual. Each pup would be getting their rabies shot, last (of four) vaccines, dewormer, microchip verification, flea comb, eye, ear and general health check. Of course, we weigh them too (no surprises, they have all gained weight, at the same percentage as usual. Pup #3 continues to be the largest and heaviest and pup #2 still weighs the least). We also sent a couple of fecal samples of for a research study.

Katy and Dr. Vanderford prep the medicines, while Janine, Sarah and I discuss how taking the wolves out of the crate will go. With our work area getting more crowded, Debbie May, our CFO and resident wolf-pup-check-note-taker, was set up right outside the work area.

Typically, once you have the pups in hand they go passive, and that was no different today. However, given the size of the pups, we experimented with muzzles, so you might notice a few pictures with either a basket muzzle or rawhide muzzle. It’s an extra layer of precaution.