Visa Application (Week Four)

November, 4th
We burnt one enclosure today (the one reserved for the 11-Pack in order to clean their current enclosure) in order to make space (a lot of dead trees and shrubs) and to kill all the ticks in it. The wolves are very sensitive when it comes to the local ticks. The ticks here don’t carry the FSME virus but something that the locals call “Tick-Fever”. The wolves die of tick fever because they stop drinking and eating.

Hungry, Hungry Cubs

November, 5th
I almost vomited today. I bet none of you has ever pulled a dead calf out of a dead cow.

November, 6th
I went to PE (Port Elizabeth, about 200 km away) today to extend or better renew my visa at the Apartment of Home Affairs. Unfortunately we didn’t bring the stamp of the Wolf Sanctuary, so we have to return there soon. At least they gave me the form. Going to PE was actually a nice change. Went shopping (bought a new camping chair and a ridiculous green shirt), saw other people, and got to see some of the very cities and bays along the way. When I came back I had to prepare the meat for my cubs. The two bowls I use were outside so I went to fetch them and I saw a bit of meat in one of the bowls. It looked like liver so I turned it around to see if it was still good. (It was dark and I had the head-lamp on my head) I looked at the piece of liver and saw that it had legs. The next second that bug (or scorpion or whatever) moved so quickly. It gave me such a freakin’ fright. I sometimes forget that I am in the middle of nowhere.

November, 12 th
A lot has happened the last few days. I’ll just give you the hard facts: Lost a cub to the tick fever. So I am down to 7. I named them all now. Portrait pictures follow. Had nice braais and I am getting to know the people on the farm. I try to sleep every second I can. I still have to feed the cubs every few hours, although I try to give them bones now, so they have something to chew and play with. Weather got bad. It’s raining constantly. Bought gum boots and a rain suit. I am currently on my way to PE to get the visa extension.

Blood and Death (Week Three)

I have left my old home in the big house and am currently sleeping in “The Office”. Well, in a room immediately adjacent to The Office.

The Office

The Office is the place were everybody meets in the morning to discuss the work that has to be during the day. So, I wake up, go outside and I am at work…

My bed(new room)

My little cubs (I learnt that wolf puppies are actually called cubs) moved with me after a rather long discussion with the volunteer who took care of them in the first place but is leaving in about a month. The 9 cubs are now living in the veterinary cages which are very close to The Office.

A cub sleeping on my lap

Little Barney

When I get up at night to feed my pack I have to pass an enclosure full of wolves that were raised only by women; they do not like men. So, at night I have to walk with a bowl full of meat by an enclosure with 11 men-hating wolves in it, who growl like mad every time I walk by. If they could, they’d kill me.

I have come to like some of the fences.

I have been very working very hard for the last couple of days. There is so much to be done:

There is the cubs, of course. Cleaning, feeding, stimulating (playing, disciplining etc. so that the food can digest) Then we have to build a chicken pen, so the chickens in one enclosure can be chased out to make temporary space for the wolves so we can clean the enclosures. Every second day, we have to pump water from the river (1 km walk downhill with a 25 kg pump).

Road next to the Sanctuary

Chopping  firewood is also almost a daily task: there is actually no warm water here, so we have to warm it up.  And of course there is slaughtering almost every day now. I cannot wash all the blood from my hands. It’s stuck in the skin. It doesn’t matter how hard I scrub them, the blood, shit and dirt won’t come off. Well these are just the every day tasks, there is more to be done in the nearer future like building a lookout point, gardening (so when the main season starts, the bus loads of people are not disappointed)

October, 31.

One of my cubs died today. I feel really like shit. She had been very weak for a couple of days, but she started eating again, so I thought she’d recover. Well, that just didn’t happen. The others are evolving quickly and starting to discipline each other and fighting for ranks.

Food!

So in order to keep my Alpha-Status I have to discipline them myself. Biting them, holding them down, taking the food away…stuff like that. I try to watch the other Alpha couples of the different packs so I can learn from them. It is amazing how they keep everything under their command. They also are always the most beautiful, because they don’t get bitched around like the Omegas for example. The other wolves of the pack brawl for the attention of the Alphas.

11-Pack Alpha

Slaughter (Week Two)

I finally arrived at the Wolf Sanctuary, after a ten hour bus ride. You can surely imagine how I felt. I  was picked up by Nadine and Stuart, who also live at the Sanctuary. They used to be regular customers and now they are integrated in the staff somehow. I live together with them and Tania, another Volunteer, in this house:

The Big House

My room in the Big House

Looks quite rustic doesn’t it. Well, it mainly is one thing: Arschkalt! Especially at night when the temperatures drop rapidly. Stuart took me on a little tour around the premises all across the different dens. The smallest pack contains of two and the largest of eleven wolves. On the whole, there are about 60 wolves here. 13 of them are puppies, which I got to feed right after the tour. The get a diet of meat (enhanced with vitamins and bone meal) and milk (at least in the first weeks).

Feeding Frenzy

Feeding Frenzy 2

Most of them don’t even have names yet. But I made sure that one of them is now named Barney. The puppies have to be fed every 4 hours, thus I don’t get much sleep.
Anyway, the Wolf Sanctuary is not only about feeding the puppies; the big packs are also very… very hungry. Their diet is meat, meat, and meat. You cannot feed about 45 wolves with the stuff you get from the supermarket. The meat comes usually in cow-form and is donated by the local farmers if the cow is sick or died under suspicious circumstances (they actually don’t like pork so much) and has to be slaughtered on the premises. Let’s cut to the chase: I slaughtered (not killed) a calf.
1.Take a sharp half-moon shaped blade.
2.Cut a hole in the two rear legs.
3.Hang the cow upside down (you actually hang her the other way around, but for the beginning it was easier for me)
4.Cut around the ankles and skin the whole thing.
5.Cut off the tail.
6.Open it between the ribs.
7.Take the intestines out. (The wolves love ‘em, because in a calf there is only milk in from the mother cow. So its quite healthy. too)
8. Take out a Butcher’s Cleaver (AAAAAH.. FRESH MEAT)….
9.and start chopping apart the limbs, ribs, head… basically everything.
10.Put all in a big bag and either feed it directly or cut off the meat for the puppies.

Cow Autopsy

So, on my second day I slaughtered a calf. One tip: you must not look into its eyes and just ignore the blood running out of its nose and the disgusting smell, when the stomach is opened… and you will be fine. Actually, the only thing I was worried about was touching the shit that was still in the calf’s ass. Weird, ey?

I am sorry that I cannot show you one of the most beautiful sounds in the world: a wolf’s howling. In the Sanctuary, it always starts at the bottom, the farthest away from the houses, where the wildest wolves live. And it builds up until every wolf is howling. It is an amazing feeling to fall asleep to that sound… Pity, that I have to get up in 3 hours to feed the pups.

Internet

Hello everybody,

I have no internet access. I am working on that. I have a GPRS modem for my SIM card which I just cannot get to work properly. Anyway, I have prepared two nice weekly reports for you and I have taken a lot of nice pictures which I can`t upload right now because it would take forever. As far as contact is concerned…send me SMS. I have got an South African phone number: +27 730688926. So feel free to phone or text me.

As soon as I find an internet cafe within 10 km range I will upload all of it. Until then.. I will write. I will take pictures, but I won`t upload them. (GPRS in the middle of nowhere… no thank you.) Actually, that is the only thing I miss. The freedom of the internet. BROADBAND!!!!!!

Cheers,

Heiko