Shy Wolf Sanctuary - Naples, Florida

Shy Wolf Sanctuary is a rescue shelter for exotic animals who have been bred in captivity and whose owners have either given them up or abandoned them. The sanctuary did not start out as an animal shelter. It was, and still is, the home of Nancy and Kent Smith. It all began in 1993 with providing a home for one exotic animal, Moondance, a Black Asian Leopard.

 Black Asian Leopard

As the need to care for displaced exotic animals grew over the years, the facility also grew. Enclosures for the animals had to be added and volunteers recruited to help clean and maintain the facility as well as to help feed the animals. Today the sanctuary houses such animals as prairie dogs, wolves and wolf dogs, Fennec foxes, sugar gliders and gopher tortoises. It is still run exclusively by volunteers, and from what I saw, you may never find another group of volunteers as dedicated as these are. We were there on a Saturday, and while we were on the tour of the facility, the busywork never stopped. Volunteers were cleaning enclosures, Boy Scouts were hauling in plants for a garden, and other volunteers were leading tours.

The grounds have maze-like connections between the enclosures, maybe because, like Topsy, the shelter just grew. You can see that there has been an attempt to keep the grounds as natural as possible, and grape vines overhead on all the passages provide shade from the Florida sun.

In addition to caring for these exotic animals, the mission of the sanctuary is to educate the community about these animals and the need to protect and preserve them in the wild. To this end, the sanctuary works with local and state animal control officials, schools, and visitors to Shy Wolf Sanctuary. Sanctuary volunteers take animals to “Meet and Greet” sessions at local public events, such as ice cream socials, flea markets, grand openings, and shopping center promotions. I first encountered a “shy wolf” from the sanctuary at the official grand opening of Bay Oaks Recreation Center on Fort Myers Beach. Until that time, I never knew there WAS such an organization. I was incredulous that a wolf could be calmly lying there, seem as tame as the family pet, and even let me take his picture. From that time on, I wanted to visit the sanctuary.

The year 2001 saw the formation of Shy Wolf Sanctuary, Education and Experience Center, Inc. a Florida Nonprofit Incorporation. Shy Wolf is also recognized as a 501(c)(3) tax exempt corporation by the Internal Revenue Service. The sanctuary is maintained entirely through volunteer efforts and donor support. If you would like more information about the sanctuary, go to their web site: www.shywolfsanctuary.com

Carl is a volunteer who does outreach programs for the sanctuary. This photo was taken on the official grand opening day of the local recreation center in October, 2009. I'll give you one guess as to who our tour guide was when we visited the sanctuary.nearly two years later. You guessed it--it was Carl.

Carl and Promise, wolfdog from the sanctuary.

Promise couldn't have been calmer when I took her picture. I was fascinated that a typically wild and fierce animal could be lying there like a puppy dog. Promise had been a stray with severe skin problems when she came to the sanctuary. After her hair grew back, she became an excellent ambassador to go on  outreach programs. Nothing seems to rattle her.

Entrance to the Shy Wolf Sanctuary

This handsome wood carving stands in front of the fence that leads to the grounds. Go through that gate, and you are in the sanctuary.

Peggy and Cora are waiting to hear the introductory information about the sanctuary.

Judy and Ray are also part of the audience.

Nancy Smith, owner of the property where the sanctuary is located, gives a Saturday tour group information about the animals and their enclosures. Nancy is the driving force behind the sanctuary and a vigorous advocate for the care and protection of the animals.

Carl, our guide, is holding Peanuts, the prairie dog. Prairie dogs are small, burrowing rodents that live in the prairies and mountain plains of the western USA and Mexico

Visitors to the sanctuary are welcome to pet any animals that like to be petted.

 

Inoli is a Crab-eating Fox from Brazil. The Crab-eating Fox lives in the central part of South America. It searches for crabs on muddy floodplains during the wet season, giving this animal its common name.

 Dickens is an Arctic Fox that ended up in Florida because unscrupulous breeders will sell animals to anyone that has the cash, and that includes selling arctic foxes to people who live in Florida, an environment that couldn’t be further from the animal’s natural habitat. The buyer kept the fox on his lanai until he got bored with the animal, who could not be litter box-trained, and decided to “donate” him to Shy Wolf Sanctuary. He is the only animal at the sanctuary with his own air conditioning unit, and engineering students from Florida Gulf Coast University are working hard to plan an even better habitat that will provide him a cooler option at our new facility.

What big ears you have, Joey! Joey is a Fennec Fox, a small nocturnal fox  found in the Sahara Desert of North Africa. Its most distinctive feature is unusually large ears. The Fennec’s coat, ears and kidney functions have adapted to a high-temperature, low-water, desert environment. In addition, its hearing is sensitive enough to hear prey moving underground, the better to catch his prey with.

Next we visit the wolf and wofdogs' enclosures.

Carl and visitors are inside the wolf's enclosure.

This guy loves the attention he's getting.

Julie reaches down to pet her new best friend.

This guy is shy.

The names of the four wolves in this enclosure.

The enclosures for the animals have been built in and around trees, offering natural shade. Chocawa is on the right. He came to the shelter as a three-week-old pup with serious health issues. He is as white as chalk (hence his name), but he has the nickname “Pigpen” because he likes to roll in the mud.

As a pup, Julie, in the middle of the photo, appeared in an episode of “King of the Jungle” on Animal Planet. Subsequently, her owner wanted to get rid of her. Somewhere along the line, she must have been badly mistreated by a man because she was so terrified of men that when a male volunteer at the sanctuary entered her enclosure, she jumped to the top of a ten- foot fence.

Chatima came to the shelter as a three-week-old pup. She is cooling off in the water tub at the left. After treatment for serious health problems, Chatima is cautious, which is a typical wolf trait, but also friendly even with strangers, so she is a good ambassador at events.

Maraya is the fourth member of this group, and she was one of three pups left at the shelter. She is curious, friendly, and loves posing for pictures.

The names of the four wolves in this enclosure

Viggo was a stray befriended by a vet. He is the “alpha” male in this pack of four. He is adoptable, but the pack of three other wolf dogs benefit from his presence, so he won't be adopted out.

Elan had health problems so serious that when volunteers from the sanctuary took him to the vet, he was given only a 50-50 chance of survival. Once Elan got to the shelter, he wouldn’t eat until he was served a cheeseburger on a china plate. This wolf has good taste, doesn’t he? He is still wary of people but trusts and even loves some of the volunteers.

After Bella and her brother had been purchased from a breeder, both animals were shy and terrified and escaped the owner’s house several times. They were surrendered to a shelter, adopted out, and again managed to escape. The sanctuary took Bella in and paired her up with Yuki. The match went well, and little Bella rules the roost. The whereabouts of her brother are unknown.

Yuki loves to be the center of attention, as you can see him interacting with Carl. He can be a bit temperamental, so he is a Level 4 animal, requiring more experience from volunteers. They need to be able to read his body language and react quickly because he may become aggressive without warning. He has, however, met his match in little Bella, as she can and does take food right out of his mouth, something our volunteers would never get away with trying!

Pawnee and Chief live here.

Pawnee lived in a county in North Carolina which decided to ban wolf dogs, so his owner had to give him up. His next owner believed him to be “an aggressive and dangerous animal,” but Peggy and Cora would probably disagree with that estimation. He’s shown no aggression towards other animals and is currently residing with Promise and Chief.

 Chief is a beautiful wolfdog that originally came from a high-kill shelter in Alabama. He had been escaping and picked up several times by shelter staff. The previous owner finally got tired of bailing him out and signed Chief over to the shelter. The staff at the shelter saw this diamond in the “ruff” and kept him alive much longer than they normally would have, given he had the label "wolf" in a state that has banned wolves and wolfdogs.

Though shy at first, Chief eventually warms up to people. I liked Chief right away, even though he was not attention-seeking. There must be something special about this bad boy because his appeal kept him alive through a very dangerous time in his life.

The sanctuary keeps memorial plaques for those animals who have crossed “over the Rainbow Bridge” to live a pleasant life until some time in the future when they will be reunited with their owners.

Memorial plaques for departed animals

On this Saturday morning, Boy Scouts from Troop 2000 in North Naples were busy carrying in and planting plants in the garden that they designed.

The garden

They watered the garden, too.

After visiting the Shy Wolf Sanctuary, our group, Irma, Cora, Peggy, Julie, Ray and Judy had lunch at Zorba's Greek Restaurant. 

All in all, it was a very nice and informative day, and I left with an admiration for Nancy, Carl and the other dedicated people who carry on, day in and day out, with the care for these beautiful animals.  I think that for all of the volunteers, it is a labor of love, and seeing healthy, happy animals is their greatest reward.