Rowdy

Rowdy Rowdy was a pure arctic wolf born at a roadside zoo in Colorado in 1986. This little white pup was sold to a zoo visitor as a pet for his 10-year-old son. They mad the long trip back home to Texas and settled in, treating little Rowdy like a dog. When Rowdy was just a puppy, he was a playful little ball of white fur. He and the boy played a game where Rowdy would grab the boy’s socks and shoes and try to tug them off. As the two got older, the play became rougher. One day the boy went into the backyard with Rowdy unsupervised. An excited Rowdy wanted to greet the boy with his foot game. By this time Rowdy was much larger and the play began the scare the boy, who screamed for his father. The father tried to pull the boy away, but Rowdy, not realizing that he was hurting the boy, wanted to keep playing and held on even harder to his friend. After being separated, the boy ended up with 72 stitches in his legs.

If a child can be grabbed by a wolf or wolf-dog with out getting excited or scared, the wolf will usually treat it gently. However, if the child or parents panic and the wolf-dog senses their fear, it can trigger a sudden predatory instinct. When the wolf-dog either becomes predatory or doesn’t realize that it is hurting the child, serious injuries are common.

Thankfully, the boy’s father realized the incident wasn’t Rowdy’s fault. In the end, they decided that Rowdy was not a “pet” and needed to find a new home. He was moved to a Texas oil field, where he lived for more than a year in a flat concrete 10 x 12 ft. enclosure. Eventually, the man had to remove him from the oil field, and in desperation, loaded Rowdy into a trailer to bring him to Mission:Wolf. En-route, Rowdy’s tranquilizer wore off and in terror he chewed his way through the wall of the trailer, almost getting out on the interstate.

When Rowdy arrived at Mission:Wolf, he did not know how to walk in hilly or rocky terrain. He fell and stumbled around his new enclosure, bruising and abrading his legs. By the time he came to the refuge, Rowdy was too old to bond with any new people. He was very shy and scared of everything around him. To help Rowdy get over his depression at being away from home, a female German shepherd dog, Luna, was put in with him. Even though Rowdy was one of the largest wolves anyone at the refuge had ever seen, Luna went right in, beat him up, and gave Rowdy his confidence back. Even though Rowdy survived his initial depression, he never adjusted to life at Mission:Wolf. The only person that could ever enter his enclosure was the boy’s father. Years and years later, when the father would come to visit, Rowdy would get so excited and happy he could hardly contain himself. However, when the father left again, Rowdy would slide into a deep depression from losing his family all over again.

After Luna passed away in 1998, Rowdy lived on his own. He still wouldn’t accept another human into his life and was too old to find a new canine companion. Although a little stiff and slow in the mornings, he spent his days sleeping in the sun, gobbling down lots of raw meat, and trying to terrorize anyone that came too close.

In the spring of 1999, Rowdy underwent major surgery to remove a tumor that was blocking his stomach, starving him. The vets gave him less than a two- percent chance of surviving the operation. His speedy recovery showed the incredible strength and resiliency of wolves. However, at 14 years old, Rowdy succumbed to old age in 2000.