Day 140 - Walking with the Wolves

Marc and I gave each other a very special Christmas present this year... we got to go on a private walk in the woods with WOLVES!!!

After waking up in the dark at 6 am and driving 3 hours to Golden in a blizzard, we finally made it to this wolf sanctuary called Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre.

We actually walked with two wolves, Wiley is a pure wolf (the bigger one of the two) and Aspen is a Wolf dog (50% wolf, 50% husky).  Wiley was very impressive in his size alone, but his colour, his eyes and his wolf demeanour was such a privilege to see in his natural habitat.

This is Aspen in the foreground, you can see how much smaller she is than Wiley.  They get along really well and always go on walk together.

Aspen actually has the top of one of her ears missing as she got in a fight with one of the other wolves.

Given this wolf was "imprinted" (meaning he is used to human contact and is not fearful of humans), it is easy to view him as a pet.... until you see his size and most of all his teeth!!!

The wolf is not being aggressive, he is just playing with his owner and displays his emotions differently to dogs.  He growls when he is getting a cuddle and snarls when playing.

As you can tell, I was having an awesome time...

The owner Shelley took a few photos of us with the wolves, which was really cool!!!

I even got to touch him a few times... until he growled at me... I didn't try touching him again after that.  His growl sounded more like a deep rumble of thunder... pretty intense.

He was pretty interested in Marc's camera at one point and tried to take off the cloth cover we had on the lens with his teeth.  Marc was surprised and how gentle he was trying to pull the cloth off... hehehe

We had the chance to get really close to these guys, it was GREAT!!!!

The big boy just caught a peace of meat in mid air, that is why my eyes are closed.... the noise of his jaw closing would rival that of a crocodile...

He came to check us out a few times, and we were told to cover our crutch with both our hands and say "NO" if he got too interested....  We never had to do it as he was more interested in his food....  It took so much restraint on my behalf not to cuddle him.... Such a beautiful coat.

Behaving like a puppy!!  Rolling around in the snow... 

 TOO CUTE!!!

Casey and Shelley were pretty awesome!  Gave us a day we will never forget!!

It was a great day being so close to a wolf.  The day was mixed with a bit of nostalgia as we got some bad news on Boxing Day, our 11 year old dog Sasha had passed away back home.  This was a very sad time for us and our family back in Australia.  We will miss our Sasha Bum so very much...  xxx

In memory of my baby girl 

SASHA 

July 2000 - December 2011

Day 137 - Merry Christmas Everyone !!!

Woke up this morning to an overcast day.  This is what we wish for in this part of the world, for snow!!!

So after opening our presents by the fire and having an awesome home cooked breakfast, we packed up and headed to Lake Louise!  The lake is completely frozen and they have groomed it for ice skating!  So we decided to give it a go. 

It was so strange walking on the lake as we were admiring the beautiful blue colours of the lake only 2 months ago....

The fairmont had also built an ice castle in the middle of the ice skating rink which was pretty awesome!

It took some getting used to skating without a side rail to hold on to or a wall to slam into when you want to stop....

They had an awesome fire going on the edge of the skating rink, which worried me as I thought it was going to melt through the ice and make a big hole....

They also had a horse and sled ride but we felt bad for the horsies so didn't go for a ride in protest...

This is Marc's Grinch smile...

After we finished skating we pretty much just mucked around in the snow. There were kids on bobsleds, snow ball fights and building of snow men. Although building a snowman was almost impossible as the snow was super crunchy and wouldn't stick together.

The snow was very deep...

See what I meant about building a snowman.

This is me smoking the air.... reminded me of the time Vicky and I built a snowman when she was little..

We had an amazing day even though we really missed our family and friends back home....

I hope you enjoyed the photos today and hope you had a very Merry Christmas too...

Sammy