Cheyenne the Movie Star Part I

Last Wednesday afternoon, I received a phone call from Bill Swartz, a locations manager for movies. Bill was frantically trying to get ahold of us to see if we had any wolves that would be able to play a part in a movie. It seems as though while filming for "The Flock," (starring Richard Gere and Claire Danes), the group of movie-trained Canadian wolves scheduled to shoot, had backed out of their last end of the deal. Catching wind of our Sanctuary from locals i Albuquerque, Bill had called to see if we were interested.

Due to previous filming, only a certain color of wolf would do. The only of our animals that fit the part and is leashable, was little miss Cheyenne. Cheyenne, our youngest resident, is an energy-filled little girl who loves people... almost too much! While we have constantly toiled with the idea of making her an ambassador animal, Cheyenne has always seemed just a little too high-strung. She loves to pounce people, play-bite, and generally, destroy any items brough near her. However, after sending the pictures of her to Bill and receiving enormous amounts of encouragement, we decided to try out miss Cheyenne.

The next day, at 4:30 in the morning, there we were, Leyton, myself, and Gary, waking the compound and sneaking into Cheyenne and Raven's enclosure to get a harness on Cheyenne. With all the excitement, Cheyenne took Gary for quite a run to the van, and with some coaxing, we had Cheyenne loaded up, and Leyton, myself, and our soon-to-be movie wolf hit the road to Albuquerque.

Within moments, Cheyenne had begun destroying the van. Within the first half hour of the trip, the air-conditioning had been ruined. But, when you're transporting a wolf, this is something to be expected... While we attempted to discourage such destruction, Cheyenne was too busy having the time of her life with her new "chew-toy" to be dissuaded.

Upon arrival and after breakfast, Cheyenne made her grand entrance in the base camp. Here, we were warmly greeted by Tony, the stunt coordinator, Bill, the director (Andrew Lowe--I believe), one of the producers, and many of the other actors/crew members. She was definitely the center of attention.

She did fantastic, right from the start. It seems that while still interested in people, the large groups and busyness of the city were intimidating enough that Cheyenne was slightly sedated and not nearly as rambunctious as expected.

While we were unable to film the first day, she did the whole meet and greet, destroyed the make-shift enclosure they had built her, and enjoyed being the center of attention.

Jan, one of our board members, also came along to assist, and throughout the day, the three of us took shifts in the enclosure with Cheyenne. Although she was missing her companion animal, she got three to make up for it!

That night, although the movie had paid for hotel rooms for Leyton and myself, Leyton was so nervous about leaving Cheyenne alone, he ended up returning to stay with her for most of the night.

While Cheyenne ended up making it through her first day/night of being a movie star just fine, her human companions ended up all lacking sleep, exhausted, and still semi-nervous about their little girl.