When we say that dogs are too good for humans and we don’t deserve them, we are not lying. It’s because if we deserved these precious babies, we would never ever leave them at kill shelter to die. This sad story is about a wolfdog, named Yuki, that got dumped by its owner because it grew too big to handle.
Luckily, a sanctuary saved the life of this giant cutie, and now, he is living a happy life. “His DNA testing came back as 87.5 % Gray Wolf, 8.6 % Siberian Husky, and 3.9 % German Shepherd,” – a staff member of Shy Wolf Sanctuary Brittany Allen told us.
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“The face we make when people say Yuki’s picture is Photoshopped… It’s just his fat angle guys. We all have one”.
“We rescued him from a failed house pet situation. Someone purchased him from a breeder and realized he was too much to handle. They dumped him at a kill shelter at 8 months old. We stepped in and provided a home for him and he has been with us ever since,“ – said Brittany Allen.
“Yuki came to us in 2008. He was in reasonably good health compared to a lot of the animals that come to us and had a very outgoing personality initially. We even considered him for ambassadorship at one point. Shortly after arriving at Shy Wolf Sanctuary Yuki managed to catch a leg on a palmetto and opened up a wound on his right rear knee. The wound ended up taking a total of 5 surgeries to finally repair and in that time Yuki became cage aggressive.” – one of the directors at Shy Wolf Sanctuary added.
“Yuki is one of those animals that he lets you know if he wants you in his enclosure or not. He has a very small group of women that he allows in his enclosure called his ‘harem’,” – says Judy, a volunteer at Shy Wolf Sanctuary who’s gained Yuki’s trust.
“They definitely are creatures that demand respect. It would be a much different encounter in the wild than what I do with these guys. The animals I work with have never been in the wild and never will be, so they are more socialized. We show off their adorable moments in the hope of helping people identify with them at least and maybe change their fear response into a healthy respect through education. And also giving an animal a chance at a decent life when otherwise they would be euthanized.” – said Brittany.
“Wolfdogs are a bit more difficult in my opinion because you don’t exactly know how much wolf behavior vs. dog behavior they will have. Yuki isn’t necessarily more social vs. the pure wolves. We have pure wolves who will run away when they see new people because they are generally shy, curious animals. Yuki, however, will run straight to a new person and if he doesn’t like them will become aggressive towards them. With the pure wolves, once they know you and feel comfortable with you, they can be affectionate and loving but they will always be wolves you can’t get in the way of them and their food, and you must respect their boundaries. They are both social with people they accept in their space, but they are very selective as well. This also applies to another wolf/wolfdog companions. They are very selective but when they bond it is pretty unique.”
“Today, Yuki is one of the most interesting animals in the sanctuary. He is not an easy guy to get to know, but he does have a small number of volunteers he has bonded with. He has gained the nickname “Woowoo” because when he sees any of his chosen volunteers that is the noise he makes, beckoning that volunteer to come to spend time with him,” – said Jeremy Albrecht.
“He was diagnosed with cancer last year and unfortunately it is terminal. We have dealt with this particular cancer before. And ultimately you don’t really know how fast you caught it and how much time they have. Yuki has been fighting it for quite a while now and is persevering. So, it is business as usual while we enjoy our time with Yuki. When the day comes that he starts showing symptoms we will, as we always do, make the right decisions for Yuki’s quality of life,” Jeremy Albrecht said. – “Saying goodbye to one of our animals is always difficult for our staff and volunteers. And Yuki will be no different. But it’s important to remember that while many of these animals have rough beginnings, their stories always have happy endings once they get to Shy Wolf Sanctuary. When their time with us is over the last thing they do is make room for our next rescue and happy ending.”
