This Struggle Cannot Be Overcome By All

Last week, I found myself on the road to Ohio with our newest volunteer, Mary, to pick up two new residents. A few weeks ago, we received an email from Tiffany Poulton, the Executive Director of The Richard E Flauto Wildlife Foundation. After inheriting the Sanctuary with the sudden loss of her former fiance, Rich, Tiffany has been struggling to survive for the last five years and doing anything and everything in her power to keep the Sanctuary alive. Unfortunately, as the years have passed, Tiffany has found herself working 2-3 jobs and along with her father, holding the sole responsibility for the 24 animals in her care. After attempting fundraising and volunteer recruitment efforts to no avail, she has decided that she must dissolve the Sanctuary, and thus, find placement for all of her animals. While we were only able to make a dent, we have been able to rescue two of her girls to become companions to two of our boys.

When Rich was a young child, he once told his mother, "Mom, when I grow up, I'm going to have lions and wolves." Little did his mother know at the time, that even Rich was in for a surprise when he matured. It was actually due to the loss of a common house cat that Rich began his rescue efforts. Tiffany remembers the loss as one that practically destroyed Rich. A cosmetologist by trade, Tiffany happened to be working on a client one day who announced that she was a "wolf-hybrid breeder" and invited Tiffany to come feed one of the newly born pups. Thinking that going to visit may cheer Rich up, she made arrangements to take him to the breeders house two days later. In the meantime, however, Rich and Tiffany were surprised to see the breeder on the evening news, charged for several counts of animal cruelty. When Tiffany explained to Rich that this was to be his surprised, his response was, "We have to do something to help them." Many of the womans animals were placed with another breeder who was very overwhelmed by the new arrivals. Rich and Tiffany picked up three of the pups to ease his burden, and thus began their rescue efforts.

In the coming years, Rich began seeking out wolves suffering abuse. He was able to rescue several wolves from an illegal fur farm, a petting zoo, and several irreputalbe breeders. Many of the animals he rescued were saved early in life, and thus, Tiffany & Rich bottle fed many of the residents at the Sanctuary.

At the age of 31, Rich died of a sudden heart attack. At this point, since Tiffany and Rich were not married yet, and due to the unexpected circumstances there was no will, the Sanctuary property was foreclosed on and put up for auction. Realizing that if they property was purchased all of the animals would be destroyed, Tiffany began scrambling to raise enough money for the 10% downpayment. At the auction, she was forced to bid large quantities against other bidders, as when the subject of the wolves was brought up, the general concensus was "We'll just shoot them." She was able to win, though she still had to search for the funding.

At the time of Rich's death, Tiffany knew nothing about wolves, their care, or the upkeep of a Sanctuary. Left with nothing but hope, her family and a few select friend's of Rich began tireless efforts to learn everything they could. With time, Tiffany founded the foundation in honor of her belated fiance. New enclosures were built. Fundraisers were attempted. An educational outreach program went into effect. However, in the meantime, all of the scrambling to simply survive had left a few of the females unspayed, and soon, the arrival of 11 wolf puppies became all that could be worried about. After the pups were born, the females were immediately spayed, however, there was now a population of 24 animals, and things were not getting any easier.

Throughout the years, Tiffany lost much of the support she had had when Rich first died. He had been a good friend, and many people wanted to honor his memory by assisting at first. However, with time, life gets in the way of volunteer work all too often, and soon, Tiffany, with some help from her father, became the only care-giver. Fundraising efforts were a flop, and educational programs brought little interest let alone funding. Tiffany realized that she could not survive anymore, working two jobs, and living out the life that was someone else's dream. At this point, an email was sent out to several Sanctuaries, including ours.

Our isolation enclosures are now occupied by two beautiful females, Maki & Kamia. Maki is a 5 year old Arctic/Timber cross who will hopefully finally give companionship to our newest boy, Cheyenne. Kamia is a 6 year old British Columbian/Timber cross who has a very sweet, calm disposition. We are hoping that she can take Meea's place in Fenris's heart, as Fenris is getting older and less playful, and Meea is simply languishing in an environment that is not someone's backyard.

The car ride was very stressful to the new girls, however now they are beginning to settle in to life across the country, and soon, we are sure they will begin singing with the chorus as well.