“Domestication is the system of control in the Dream of the Planet; it is the way we learn conditional love. Starting when we are very young, we are presented with either a reward or a punishment for adopting the beliefs and behaviors of others in the Dream. This system of reward and punishment, or domestication, is used to control our behavior. The result of domestication is that many of us give up who we really are in exchange for who we think we should be, and consequently we end up living a life that is not our own.”

– Don Miguel Ruiz Jr., The Mastery of Self

Wild Spirit rescues captive-bred wolves, wolf-dogs and other wild canines primarily from the exotic pet trade. Many of our rescues were surrendered to Wild Spirit by their former owners who tried to make them pets, but realized they could not continue down the path of exotic animal ownership. Others were rescued directly from breeders, and fewer still came from zoos and sanctuaries that closed. Our rescues cannot be pets, nor can they be returned to the wild because they were captive-bred. Though everyone at Wild Spirit wishes all wolves were able to live wild and free, and that Wild Spirit did not have to do the job that it does, we recognize that WSWS is providing an invaluable service to animals who would otherwise have nowhere to go. To that end, we do our best to provide each rescue with the best life possible.

Working with wolves and wolf-dogs directly every day, and especially those that are victims of the exotic pet trade, has allowed me to see first hand the aspects of the wolf that humanity glorifies, reveres, and simultaneously demonizes. I have concluded time and again that humanity fears and hates wolves because of how much they mirror us. We are the predator and fear the predator, the ugly side of existence - of the wolf - that we know, see and fear in ourselves. Humans admire the wolf’s raw, wild nature, their innate ability to adapt and survive, and at the same time loathe and fear those very same qualities.

I see the attempt to domesticate the wolf as a manifestation of humanity’s battle with its own domestication that is both imposed by cultures, societies and families, and self-imposed by individuals themselves. Many people who want to own a wolf or wolf-dog claim they love wolves, that they feel a connection to wolves, think they are beautiful, majestic, and the list goes on. I believe it is about the desire to possess and reclaim the wildness we see in the wolf that so many people have lost in today’s world that drives humans to obtain wolves and wolf-dogs, while the idea of "domesticating" a wolf points back to the domestication of humanity. But a wolf will not be domesticated; in fact, owning a wolf or wolf-dog is only denying that animal their natural right to their wildness.

Nikki and Maki are currently Wild Spirit’s oldest couple at ages 13 and 15, respectively. This month, they’ll have been together for a decade, over which they have developed a deep and beautiful bond. I have been lucky to care for them since I returned to Wild Spirit in January 2015 after being their caretaker as a volunteer years prior. Though it wasn’t all roses for this couple in the beginning, it has been a joy to watch their relationship blossom with time.

Maki came to Wild Spirit from the Richard E. Flauto Wildlife Foundation with her aunt, Kamia, in 2006, after the foundation closed due to its owner’s passing. The two were placed with a male wolf-dog, but were separated when he died of gastric distortion that summer, leaving Kamia and Maki with strong dynamic shifts that resulted in a severe argument. Maki sustained an eye injury during the fight that tore one of her eyelids, causing her right eye to weep periodically to this day. Only a few weeks after their fight, Kamia passed away from unrelated issues. This left Maki alone until Nikki arrived in October of the same year from Texas where he was living with a family in a private home.

Though Nikki’s family developed a bond with him, they realized he was, at best, not your average pet. For example, his primary caretaker, a woman who raised him from a few months old, would only enter his habitat if she wore the same clothing every time. If she did not, Nikki would rip the new clothing off of her. The owner’s oldest son, a 16-year old boy, was Nikki’s favorite playmate. Though they would play rough, Nikki never hurt him. When the family had to suddenly move, and didn’t have an appropriate place to keep Nikki they contacted Wild Spirit to find him a safe home.

One of the most common misconceptions about wolf-dogs is that they will be able to live a normal life in captivity because the wolf is mixed at some point in its lineage with a domestic dog. In reality, mixing a wolf with a dog creates very unpredictable offspring that often possess both wild and domestic instincts. Nikki exhibits many common wolf-dog traits that make these animals a very poor choice for a pet. He is possessive, territorial, fearful of change, destructive and strong-willed, while also being gregarious, naughty, assertive, and reactive.

After bringing Nikki to Wild Spirit, his family would visit from time to time. It was during one of those visits that Nikki bit our Executive Director when he entered the habitat to locate a toy for the family. Like many humans, wolves are territorial and possessive. In the wild, a wolf’s territory is the area in which they live, hunt, play, and raise their young. Being captive-bred does not remove the instincts from a wolf or wolf-dog, but forces them to live with their instincts in an unnatural way. As a tour guide at Wild Spirit, I often tell our guests that Nikki believes everything in his habitat belongs to him, that includes Maki, the water bucket, the fences, and so on. His unpredictable nature, however, could make him indifferent to his caretaker touching his water bucket every day, for instance, until the day he becomes sensitive about it. After the incident with our Executive Director, who left the habitat with serious bites to both legs and one of his hands, we now know that Nikki will bite with force, without warning, and that he will do so repeatedly.

Due to the severity of this event, Nikki has to be separated from anyone who goes inside the habitat so there is no chance he can bite someone again. This is done by placing food or a treat in his sub-enclosure, a 6’ x 6’ habitat within his larger habitat that he can enter through a guillotine gate opened by his caretaker. Nikki is comfortable with this routine, having done it almost every day for at least eight years, and is rewarded for going into the sub-enclosure with affection (when he desires it) and food.

Nikki in his sub-enclosure. (L: 2015, R: 2016)

I have seen many times how Nikki’s possessive behavior borders on obsessive. Anything new that's placed in the habitat belongs to him immediately, and he can be very assertive about claiming that item right away. He often tries to pull things through the fence if given the opportunity. I’ve had him try to take my camera, grab the sleeve of my jacket when I was walking by, and seen him pull almost an entire hose through the fence when a volunteer was filling up his splash tub. Even more troubling, he once grabbed a volunteer’s arm when she was petting him and Maki through a gap between the fence and the gate (which she was allowed to do), and even bit a neighboring animal’s tail through the chain link causing her to have it amputated.

Resource guarding is a canine behavior in which an animal is guarding something such as food, a toy, a favorite spot, even a companion or person by growling, snapping and asserting themselves so as to claim ownership of their resource. Nikki often displays this behavior with new objects, such as his summer time splash tub, a metal tub weighing approximately 40 lbs. In the days after it is delivered he has been seen trying to drag it into the back of the enclosure to claim it as his own if it is not weighed down with water.

In these moments one can sense that "fight or flight" has taken over him, and that his loving, sweet, and patient sides have gone away. It’s easy to see how this can occur, because it happens in people, too, like in an argument where one side, or both, are so desperate to prove that their perspective is correct they will ignore all reason and examples that would prove them otherwise. Resource guarding, wanting and possession all boil down to control, a manifestation of fear.

As exemplified by his reaction to his former owner’s clothing, Nikki also doesn’t like change, and his resistance to change has continued in his life at the sanctuary. When I think about Nikki’s dark side I see the same dark and fear based tendencies that plague humanity. So many of us fear and loathe change, so much so that we will refuse to change ourselves even when we know the change is in our best interest, or in the best interest of our loved ones. And like Nikki, one of humanity’s greatest pitfalls is our obsession with possession. We have destroyed the environment for centuries in the name of commerce, and our obsession with possessing land and resources has been the cause of countless wars spanning the ages. These obsessions create classes, divide nations, families and communities, and cause countless human personality complexes and disorders, all stemming from our fear of being without.

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I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine. 2011

Aside from Nikki’s many quirks, another of his undeniable traits is how much he cares for Maki. Though Nikki and Maki are both high-content wolf-dogs, meaning they more resemble wolves than dogs physically and behaviorally, what makes them such a great couple is their differences. Maki, who is said to be mixed with British Columbian Timber Wolf, very much embodies the wolf personality, which is not only disinterested in having anything to do with people, and completely unmotivated to please people, but also innately fearful of humans, as wolves are instinctively aware that humans are their only predator. Whereas dogs look to humans to be their pack leaders, wolves have no drive or instinct to follow human instruction or commands. Unlike Nikki, who is curious, social, and largely unafraid of people, Maki generally keeps a distance from anyone inside the enclosure, though she occasionally likes to be pet through the fence. Being high-content wolf-dogs makes these two a good match, but it is their complimentary personalities that make them a great couple. Even still, building their relationship took time.

Nikki and Maki had already been together for three years when I met them in 2009. Though Nikki has always been the dominant partner, at that point in their relationship Maki was meek, and appeared afraid of Nikki at times, who can be brutish. Though the transition period of getting to know each other was awkward at first, over the years the two have found their groove, and their love for one another is now strong and obvious. Nikki still has his moments when he’s not the most polite gentleman, but by and large he has softened and even developed a sense of patience for Maki that he didn’t have before. In this last year, I’ve seen him wait his turn to play with a toy because he could see Maki was enjoying it, instead of charging over to take it for himself, as he would have done in the past. For her part, Maki has learned to stand up for herself, and from my view has grown much stronger as an individual. Though she always tried to stand her ground when Nikki bullied her, she also knew when to choose her battles. With food, for example, she would never win. Over time, however, Nikki seems to have grown respect for Maki’s wishes, while she’s learned to assert herself.

L: Maki, 2009, with mud on her muzzle, and R, in 2015, scent rolling on her pumpkin enrichment.

When it comes to play the two couldn’t be a better match. Both love instigating quarrels with their neighbors through the fence. Fence fights usually consist of loud throaty grumbles, growls, bared teeth and snaps while running up and down the fence line staring each other down. Although they enjoy arguing with their neighbors, the way they interact with me through the fence is often very sweet. For instance, this past year the two have made a game of saying good morning. As I approach their habitat they'll routinely trot up to the fence to greet me with eager, happy smiles, or walk toward me side by side with their mouths and cheeks pressed against each other, playfully mouthing one another.

And I could not write about Maki without mentioning how much she loves to splash and cover herself with mud. She is frequently spotted standing in her water bucket. Even when fervently pacing the fence line while waiting for her breakfast she will take the time to dip her feet in, or hop in and out of her splash tub while she paces.

What I love and admire about Maki is how she has remained fierce and scrappy into her golden years. I will never forget the time we were experimenting with her food and I started feeding her a thawed meal out of a bowl inside the habitat. That quickly ended when one day I struggled to take the bowl back once she finished, and when I finally did retrieve it, she noticed and chased me out of the habitat. After I made it out without incident, and we all had a good laugh about her chasing me down for an empty bowl, we decided to come up with a new feeding strategy. (I now feed her a special thawed meal through the fence, which works great, and is better for her aging organs than the raw meat she used to eat.) Even her howl, though quieter than it once was, still has a deep and resonant tone that many of our older rescues lose at her age. Seeing her feisty and enduring spirit continue to shine alongside her sweet and gentle disposition is incredibly endearing.

Like all of the Sanctuary’s rescues, Nikki and Maki are wild animals and unique individuals who belong in nature. Watching these two overcome the adversity they’ve faced by simply living their lives as captive bred wild animals – a traumatic experience in itself – and transcend parts of their own personalities to become the strong individuals and couple they are today is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.

Everything changes. In this case, where there was once fear and uncertainty there is now love and stability. When love is unconditional it knows no bounds.