Day 27,28,29, and 30

Sunday is ususally our day off, but this week was Open House for Wolf Park so we had a busy day. So us Interns and some volunteers met with Dana at 11:30(the open house started at 1:00 and ended at 4:00) and went over the days events. I started out helping in the Eduction Building where the kid activities were going on. There was a short video about dog safety(very funny) coloring book, etc. After spending an hour in the Ed building I went on a tour(I'll soon have to give tours myself) where I had to make sure people stayed as a group(didn't work). Erich was talking to people in the Observation building for the day, so that was a special thing for the people to do. For the last hour of the day I worked on crowd control which consists of making sure people don't wander around the park by themselves, making sure nobody runs(kids mostly),and other things like that. After the open house was closed I went out to dinner with Kayla and her Aunt and Uncle, then went back to their house and played Wizard(I got some sorbet for dessert).


    I didn't want to get up Monday since Sunday was such a busy, but I had to since we had to clean the cooler, and butcher and feed. Matt and I cleaned the cooler while Kayla and Josh butchered the deer, then while all the other fed I washed the knives and stuff from butchering and did dishes at Irv and took out the trash. By the time the rest if the interns came back it was time to take lunch. After lunch we went down to the Observation building and watched the wolves for awhile(although this was because we were waiting for the staff meeting to be over so we could start on our next task). I was very interesting because we watched them feed on the carcass that had been put in their enclosure earlier that day. Kalani(the Alpha Female ate before anyone else and growled at anyone got to near. Wolfgang(the Alpha Male) found 2 'Scooby Snacks'(unborn baby deer for anyone who's interested) ate one and the other one was stolen by Dharma(the puppy). Ruedi of course would eat last being the Omega(lowest ranking wolf) and Woton had already stolen a few pieces of meat. After the staff meeting was over we got to get started on things for the upcoming Easter event... We started stuffing candy into plastic eggs. While we did these we watched Shaun of the Dead(Awesome Movie!!!!!). We we'll be continuing art of putting candy in to the eggs when we get more candy.


Tuesday was my turn to do "meatballs" so I had to get up early... Went down stairs to work on Holly's list o schools while we watched Jurassic Park... The listing o school didn't last long because we has to start put the address' on cards looking for donations for the wolves b-day party(It will be on the last day I'm here so that will be an awesome way to end my stay here) which took more the whole movie to do(we watched the making of Jurassic Park after it ended, it was very interesting). We took a quick lunch after that and the helped get letters off to our wolves sponsors. This took until about 4:00pm to finish and then it was time to do evening "meatballs". We played a game of Wizard and then went to Walmart on a movie run. I found What's Eating Gilbert Grape!!!!!!

 Today was a very exciting day, after we had an educational interlude about Ethology we got to go in with main pack again, but this time they kept Wolfgang in there with us. Everything went well Wolfgang acutally came up and licked me a lot in the face. At one point Wotan was behind me while Wolfgang was licking me some it created a wolf sandwich with me in the middle of it(awesome, but a little bit scary for a second), Matt had already finished with the feeding for today so we didn't have to worry about that after we got to hang with the wolves. The Afternoon consisted of staining boards for the shelves for the giftshop.


This is Ember:

Wolfgang the Alpha Male Howling:

Monty Picked up Dharma:

Ruedi the Omega:

Wotan Wolfgang's brother and the Beta

Day 24,24, and 26

              Thursday started off with finding that it was freezing again!!!!!!!With the nice weather we had for the past days, it was an unpleasant  surprise. A school bus showed up for a tour(we didn't know about the private tour so it was a surprise when a school bus was coming up the road. At 10:00 we went out with Amanda to fix fences(Horrible day to have to touch metal with it being freezing). After 2 hours I left early because Amanda didn't need all of us and by that time my feet were pretty much frozen. After lunch we went to meet Amanda again to solve the problem with the bison gate. The Problem is the fence that is up now is exactly wolf proof. The wire hang so far above the ground when shut a wolf could possible get out. So it was off to the a farm type store. We had to find something that was flexable enough to fit the uneven ground, but heavy enough to keep the wolf from getting under it. Found nothing at the farm store so it was off to Lowes. We found some screening that it very strong(we took a screwdriver to it to see how strong it was, and decided we put the chain on the bottom of that(success hopefully...). We then got to meet some of Amanda 12 cats and then got back to IRV at almost 5(the day passes so quickly). We watched Lord of the Ring:The Two Tower which was on until about 12:30(It really is a long movie) and then it was off to bed.


    Friday this week was my day to do the "meatballs" and it was yet again a chilly morning. After I got back we went off to clean enclosures. This consists of clean up all the bones, leftover parts, and feces out of the wolves pen. We did half the main enclosure(One side of the Lake) and then two pens that are empty right now. Matt did the feeding while we did this so that was already done. After the lunch break  we found some plastic Easter eggs for the up coming Easter event(John still going to buy a lot more eggs and we get to fill the all when he buys the candy). We then started cleaning for the Open House(the admission is free) which will go from 1-4 this Sunday.  Sweeping, vacuuming, window cleaning, garbage and setting chairs up were included in the task that had to be done. We also had to take a small vac to the swarm of the seemingly endless amount of the nasty Asian beetles that look like lady bugs(except they bite, give off an awful scent and are evil!!!). We didn't even put a dent in getting rid of them because there are just some many( in the education building). Did morning "meatballs" and had to give a Tramidol to Willow because she was limping. We went on a late trip to Walmart and then came back and watched Super Troopers.

Saturday got off to a slow start since we have most of the day off. Had breakfast and then watched The Lost Boys. After that hung around for a while and then went to see Suckerpunch. Suckerpunch was an 'eh' movie in my opinion not horrible like Riding Hood, but not really that good( Kayla loved it), Got Lunch at Wendy's(I let the boys use my Subway card I just didn't feel like Subway again and Wendy's was right there...) After that we got to rest a bit before Howl Night. It was cold again for this Howl Night(Unlike last week when it was pretty nice), but people showed up anyway...  After Howl Night ended we went to LBC's for a late dinner....

Day 22 and 23

Tuesday consisted mostly of working on the gift shop. We had to move a bunch of the tables and stuff around trying to make it look more like a gift shop. One of the new shelves that we helped worked on is done and we started putting shirts on it. Dharma came and 'helped' us out(she pulled some sweatshirts down and knocked over stuff mostly) After that we had lunch and spent the rest of the day working on stuff for Holly(We tried to watch Green Street Hooligans, but the DVD wouldn't work so we ended up watching Kickass because Matt had never watched it).

Today we watched a PowerPoint on Submission versus Fear and then we got to meet most of the main pack(We met Dharma, Wotan, and Ruedi. Kalani and Wolfgang got put up because they aren't good with new people). It was noon by the time we left the wolves so we took lunch(Subway) and watched a couple of episodes of South Park. The other went to feed and butcher and I stayed behind to wait for some people who were coming to help us out(they ended up not coming until after three so everyone was back then).  We worked on trimming the perimeter trail for a while and then took the volunteers on a tour of the park. Went to Blue Nile for ethnic night it was tasty!!!!!

Day 17,18,19,20,21

Sorry I haven't posted for a while I've been to busy, or too tired, to blog the past few days so I'll type what I remember...

So Thursday was St. Patrick's day I went on my first adventure of "meatballs" as a free person, course there ended up to be a lot of people there due to some communications, but it all went well anyways. After that we cleaned IRV which involved sweeping, mopping, and cleaning the bathrooms. After lunch we helped Amanda with fixing gates. Evening "Meatballs" ended the day of work and the boys went out on a St. Patty's day adventure, while us girls stayed at home and watched watched The Boondock Saints(again I know).

Friday started of a little slow with the day after St. Patty's day high. At 9:30 there was a Private tour and we tagged along. Dharma went with us on her leash and seemed very excited. We then took lunch and the boys worked on  butchering and feeding and I worked on finding the school in Illinois(I'm up to M now)

Saturday went by pretty slow because we didn't have that much we needed to do. We cleaned out the trucks and stuff. I don't really remember what we did for the rest of the day, but I feel like we rested for the most part. That night was the full moon Howl night and was also be the super moon. It was pretty much to cloudy to see it so that was a little disappointing. The wolves seemed ambed and ready to go though. I stayed and helped with the gift shop for the night. We had a great turnout(Super moon and nice weather was to thank!!!!!!) Went out to LBC's after Howl night.

Sunday was also a easy day because we don't have any daily duties that we had to complete. Went to see the new movie Paul. It's by the same people who did Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead(I've seen Shaun of the Dead and really like it). I was a lot better then Riding Hood so it wasn't a waste of seven dollars. We got lunch from Subway and headed back to Wolf Park where we got to see Renki tear up a stuffed animal that the researchers left(the rest went to Marian) We also got to go visit Kiri in his cage and that was pretty cool. We also went on a trip to Walmart and I found the movie A Hard Day's Night and also got a copy of The Boondock Saints.

Today began with Morning "meatballs" We got the new Wolf Park Sign up today. It's huge and has a picture of Wotan on it. I think they started the sign project like a year and a half ago so it's good that it's finally done. After that we took lunch break and went to butcher and feed. We then spent some time trimming back brambles and such from the trail that leads around the park. After we got back we discovered that and new bison calf had been born today(it took us awhile to spot it, but it is really cute. Another private tour today and then evening "meatballs" ended the day. 

Day 14, 15, 16

Monday-
Went on "meatball" rounds, but after that we had a pretty easy day. Butchering and feeding went pretty fast and then we worked on target school where we have to finds all k-12 school in Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. While we worked on that we put on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We also found a horrible song that is entitled Friday by Rebbecca Black, and though it like the worse song ever it's hilarious so you should look it up on youtube if you want to have a good laugh...

Tuesday-
Started out a little differently. I did go out for morning "meatballs", but I went out alone with Pat and got cleared to to it without the supervision of the of the 'senior' intern Matt... After "meatball" clearance went back to IRV to change because I was soaked. We we're originally supposed to stain the shelves, but it wasn't ready so that went on the wayside. Instead we worked on the target school while watching Mystery Men and the Fellowship of the Ring . Also a book that was written by a thirteen and twelve year old is going to be soon sold in the gift shop. It's a really cute story about wolves and is kind of like the Warriors series about cats. So didn't have to go on evening "meatballs" because Kayla was getting cleared. At six we went on our weekly visit to see Erich which was interesting even though he did tell us some of the same stories. He has has a very interesting life growing up in Germany, while WWII was going on, he was also saved by his German Shepard once, he also talked about his days as a teacher. After talking to Erich for a while we went out to eat at Subway and didn't spened any money because of the gift card Grandma gave me(YAY!!!!!!).

Wednesday-
Today I didn't have to get up to do "meatballs" and was glad to be able to sleep in for once. The Educational interlude today was about reason why a wolf might be taken out of the main pack. There's a whole range of reasons for retirement from the main pack. One of the most strong ones was from Tristan. Tristan used to be the Alpha Male of a pack that at the his removale included Wolfgang, Wotan, Kalani, and Ruedi who are all still part of the main pack with Dharma. Renki was also still in  the main pack at the time. Wolfgang and Wotan had begun to already start to summit less to Tristan at this point and the staff had started to talk about removing Tristan from the pack, but none of them saw any immediate danger of keeping him in the main pack. On July 3, 2009 a Howl night packed with people, Wolfgang and Wotan started to pick a fight with Tristan. The fight escalated and although Tristan was giving it his all and Rudei and Renki were putting in some cheap shots to help Tristan it wasn't really a fair fight. Tristan was able to escape by swimming over to the other side of the lake and was of course immediately removed from the pack. After that all the wolves started to get moved around to different enclosures. This was because they were reintroducing Ayla to Tristan and Renki.  They got moved in to the main enclosure for the day(neutral territory) while the main pack took over Miska and Marian's pen. Miska and Marian moved into Kiri's old pen which Kiri had been taken out of after the gate broke(it's fixed now) Erin and Chetan are now in Tristan and Renki's pen and Kiri was moved back in to a smaller enclosure. Eclipse was the only wolf(The coyotes stayed where they were too) who pen stayed the same(and Ayla later tonight when they put her Tristan and Renki in her old enclosure. The reason Ayla had been removed for a few months was because when breeding season came around a strange love triangle developed. Renki wanted to mate with Ayla, but Ayla was trying to court Tristan who didn't want anything to do with her. After playing musical enclosures we butchered and fed and by that time it was already four.

Wolves Howling video

This is a video of the wolves howling, I tried to upload it before, but it was taking to long so I gave up.... it's takes a very long time to upload stuff like this it's a very annoying wait. You might notice a bell in the background of the video, it's something that we have to wear while giving out "meatballs" it's so the wolves learn to come up to the fence, so we can give them medicine if they ever need it...

Day 11, 12, and 13

 Friday-
  Morning "meatballs" and butchering in the morning. Took a break after that, then it was time for lunch worked on finding all the elementary school in Illinois, while watching Jurassic Park. I had forgot what a good movie Jurassic Park is.  Helped with the research about wolves with Clive's students. Dharma was more interested in what was inside the can(which was rocks) then acutally doing the experiment to see if wolves will g to where you point(they will) After that evening "meatballs" and going out to eat at TC's.

Saturday-
"meatballs" in the morning, then a day spent at Clive's seminar. Very interesting experiments with dogs and wolves. Lunch and a hour or so break from Clive's seminar gave us some down time and then for seminary stuff where we learned about all the stray dogs of Moscow and about the Siberian foxes. evening "meatballs" and then Howl Night. After that watched a weird Anime called Akira.

Sunday-
  Was a very lazy kind of day. Morning "meatballs" and then all tasks were done until evening. We took advantage of this and watched 300. After that we watched Boondock Saints. By then it was four and we went to see the new Red Riding Hood movie which was terrible. After evening "meatballs" we went to Taco Bell and got some dinner.


Also the researchers moved out of our house today so now we have the house to ourselves again. we can now spread out and all have our own rooms!!!!!!I also finished Jurassic Park the book(I liked it, but I liked the ending in the movie better because it was happier). I am now reading a book the is named The Black Dahlia Avenger which is about, the 1947 murder case of the "Black Dahlia" and so far it's just explaining what happened. I think it will later gone on to tell about solving the crime some 45 years later.