Orca Update
         Latest update 11/20/04

On November 28, 1997 we found our main pack's alpha male, Orca paralyzed from the waist back. There was no indication of how the injury occurred. We are certain it was not a fight - he had no wounds and all the other wolves were still submissive in his presence. He was "masking" his injury by lying in a sprawled sphinx rest, looking alert and composed, especially from a slight distance. Our regular vet was sick so we called another vet, who found a displaced lumbar vertebra (L4) and manipulated it back (she is also a licensed as an animal chiropractor). Orca was sedated, removed from the pack and put on steroids to reduce the inflammation. He was also given antibiotics to keep infections, likely to start as secondary health problems, at bay. At that point he had no response at all in his rear end, not even spinal reflexes, and he was incontinent.

On December 1^st we saw one right hind toe twitch and from then on the spinal reflexes began to gradually return. Small improvements are seen every few days. By now (mid January) he seems to be more continent. He also licks himself clean pretty well. We have not had to help him much with his personal hygiene for some time. He has started to show a little voluntary movement in his hind legs and he seems to be regaining some feeling in his hindquarters.

Orca is enjoying human visitors and is quite accepting of physical therapy; we have him roll onto his side for a treat and then we gently flex and extend each hind leg repeatedly. We cannot predict whether he will improve enough to have a reasonable life, and though his vitality is in his favor, his size may be a drawback. Due to his strength and good attitude we are giving Orca time to see if he recovers.

January 26^th 1998 Update:
Today Orca has presented us with a couple new improvements. Earlier in the day when Jill and Pat went in to visit, Orca actually wagged his tail a little for Jill. Later in the afternoon Monty and Pat went in to replace one of the foot wraps that had fallen off and he was being a pill, but he eventually rolled over for a tummy rub (and foot wrap) and Monty was able to stimulate a scratch reflex in his hind legs.

January 27^th to 29^th 1998 Update:
Over the past three days, Monty has picked Orca up by the waist to see how well he could hold himself up. Once his hind legs were under him Orca was nearly able to hold himself up for about half a second. Last week he was only able to exert minor resistance. Now he can nearly hold up his entire weight! Monty guesses about 90%. He cannot do this for very long, less than a second, he tires easily, does not make any "walking" movements and he still a long way to go, but it is a very nice improvement. However, he still drags his hind legs such that he gets sores on his feet if he is not wearing booties (which he loses from time to time), but he is definitely getting better than he was before.

Orca has a long way to go, is not out of the woods and needs as much support as he can get.

February 3^rd to 5^th 1998 Update:
On the 3^rd, for the first time, when Monty picked up Orca's rear, Orca was able to stand a few seconds on his own. He was very wobbly and quickly needed support, but this is the first time that he has been able to support his full weight.

On the 4^th & 5^th Orca made attempts to stand on his own, would get more than half way up off the ground before he tired, and he even make intention movements to take a step.

February 8^th 1998 Update:
Today Orca had a visit from Carrie L. Craddock, and Equine Performance Therapist from Ohio who also works on dogs. Orca was her first wolf. After they greeted for a few minutes and while Monty scritched his head and neck, she got to work on his back. He melted. Before long it was just Carrie and Orca, Orca blissed out in what looked like an endorphine haze while she worked on him. She must have worked on and off for an hour or more. At times Orca was just laying on his side, eyes shut enjoying all the sensations of a good massage. Carrie taught Pat and Monty several techniques so we can continue the work until she returns. Carrie hopes to make a return visit in a few weeks to see how well he has progressed -- and to make sure we are doing the massage correctly. :-)

February 14^th to 15^th 1998 Update:
Carrie returns for another visit and two days worth of massage work on Orca. She finds that he has made noticeable improvement since her last visit only a week before. He was also willing to allow a more intense and long-lasting massage session. For photos of Carrie at work click here.

March 2^nd 1998 Update:
Orca continues to improve and gain strength. Monty can now boost Orca up and keep him standing for nearly 10 minutes at a time. Orca is wobbly when up and periodically needs assistance to stay up, but his duration is certainly increasing. He has also occassionally tried to walk, but so far his ability to simply keep himself up is exceeding his ability to use his legs to actually walk.

Today when Pat boosted him up, Orca gave a bow stretch which is another good sign. He also allows us to stimulate his toes and massage sore neck and shoulder muscles which a couple weeks ago, he was more sensitive about.

March 14^th 1998 Update:
      "When Baby Steps are Great Strides"
Orca began to walk the first week in March. On the eighth he stood almost all the way up and took a normal step, placing his paws pads down, with each hind leg.

On the eleventh he walked a little more interspersing normal steps with proprioception, that is, enough awareness and coordination to place his feet pads down, with stumbling and steps taken on his knuckles. Pat Goodmann assisted him with his balance a little bit and also boosted him back to his feet a couple of times when it was obvious he wanted to try again but was getting tired. Two of the normal steps were taken without her help at all.

Friday the Thirteenth, Orca got up on his own and walked a little more. He crossed his hind legs, tripped, fell down and with Pat's assistance, stood for a minute and then walked around his pen for several steps, again interspersed with some knuckling over.

Orca has impressed us all with his great heart and willingness to keep trying. He still has a long road ahead but he is now striding down it.

March 24^th 1998 Update:
On Sunday, March 22^nd we went in to visit Orca. We found he had been hunting! The remains of a hapless, partly eaten garter snake lay at one of his favorite resting places. That morning, Kirsten, one of our interns reported seeing him stand up, using primarily his left leg. Yesterday, the 23^rd he stood most of the way up and took a step to greet one of the interns (Taryn?), but stepped on his knuckles. He also stood for a few minutes, supporting his own weight after Monty boosted him to his feet. This morning when Pat let him out, he stood up about three quarters of the way up and in that somewhat crouched posture, took four steps with his paws placed normally, pads down. After the rains last week, he seems very perky with the fair weather.

April 2^nd 1998 Update:
     Orca on the roof; Orca on the hoof
We tried to assist Orca's therapy with a towel sling during the winter. Orca took a very dim view of this and typically shore thru the towels with his carnassials. Monty and Pat decided to try it some more now that Orca is actually walking a teeny bit.

On April Fools Day we tried the towel sling thing again. Monty brought lots of towels for him to kill and wrapped him up in all of them. Orca got into the spirit of this. Then we used one for a sling and Orca stood, using the sling for support, but not nearly all the time, for 9 min and 25-40 seconds. He probably supported his own weight without assistance for well over five of the minutes.

At one point he went over to his hut, letting Monty and Pat carry his rump in the sling and making no attempt to walk. He began hopping up and down trying to climb on his roof. Monty boosted him up on top of the hut and climbed up with him. Orca got very excited and Monty wheel barrowed him when he wanted to climb on top of the deck. Pat got worried Orca might jump or fall or the deck or roof might give way under the combined weights of Monty and Orca. Monty picked him up and handed him off the roof to Pat. Orca did not like that and growled a lot. He tried to climb up again, using his forelegs and couldn't make it. It may have been this barrier frustration that made him try harder - he stood up and walked 9 - 12 normal steps. He was waving his tail - probably more for balance than wagging.

We all cheered for him and after that he engaged Monty in tug-o'-war and shook a couple of towels to death.

April 2nd, when Pat let him out of his "stall" Orca made a great effort and stood up. He walked twenty feet, placing his paws pads down and even did a couple of very wobbly trot steps - his very first since the accident. He also stood normally to pee.

April 3^rd to May 14^th 1998 Update:
On April 3rd we moved Orca from the Turtle Lake Pack's holding pen, where he had lived since November 28 to a holding pen at East Lake. The TLP's holding pen was never meant as long term living quarters and we were beginning to need it pretty urgently.

To move him, we put Orca on a leash, which excited him immensely - he knows that a leash means going out. Once out the gate he had to traverse a fairly steep slope up to where the truck was parked. Orca bipedalled up slope rapidly, impressing us with his upper body strength (Arnold Schwarzenegger, eat your heart out), then while he sniffed around, checking the smells, Monty picked him up and set him in the back of the truck. This was cool with Orca until we shut the tail gate and camper shell. Monty rode over in the back with him to keep him from damaging himself or the shell to much. Once at East Lake he bipedalled down a grass corridor, well over two hundred feet long. He did this very rapidly. Monty again carried him the last forty feet which were graveled. In the pen opposite was his old enemy and foster litter brother, Big Al recently removed from the pack. Being carried made Orca tall. He raised his hackles and thundered basso growls at AL who looked puzzled and was slightly submissive "just in case."

Orca liked some things about his new pen - he could look down slightly on the pack, who were surprised to see him over there. They had followed the truck down the corridor, which forms one side of their enclosure and several laid their ears back, make lick intentions and generally showed submissive greeting to their former pack leader. Orca lay tall and looked imposing.

Though moving Orca got him away from an area where large noisy school tours could look down on him (something many animals find alarming) and got him away from close proximity to construction of the new parking lot, it also meant he had to adjust to a new area and new patterns of maintenance, sometimes with people working on two or three sides of his pen at once which can be stressful. He bipedalled around frantically trying to under stand what was going on and how scared to be. All this physical activity meant he got hot areas in his muscles and knots. He was sore and crabby. He wanted lots of upper back rubs and did not want his hind quarters messed with at all - something he emphasized with loud growls punctuated by ringing snaps. Through most of April we kept giving Orca time to rest up and feel better. He habituated a little more to the activities at East Lake but he was less outgoing with his circle of friends, and was still very cranky about having his hind quarters manipulated.

The weather was still to changeable and chilly to try giving him swim therapy. He did not try to walk during most of April after his move. He did stand once or twice on his own and he still let us boost him up and encourage him to stand but he got cranky and was less willing to stand longer.

Then Carrie came the last Sunday in April. She confirmed that he had lost ground. This was disappointing and we had become rather discouraged. However, with spinal injuries there are no time tables. We were convinced that we had simply underestimated the amount of adjustment and habituation the new pen required of Orca. He let Carrie do a pretty extensive therapy session with him. She pointed out that he was carrying himself crooked which would also make him more uncomfortable. His left loin muscle had contracted. She gave us a massage technique, to be used every other day to help relax his loin muscles, especially the contracted left one. She urged us to push his envelope now, to get him to accept a bit more handling and massage than he really wanted on his sore spots. This worked well. We tried giving Orca several boost ups a day, more sessions which were shorter rather than concentrating on one longish session in the evening. Orca began building up more muscle in his legs again.

On May 1 Orca, after a boost up, took seven steps placing his paws pads down. A day or two later he stood up himself and took a one legged step with his left hind. Again he showed proprioception by placing his foot pads down, not knuckle walking. By this time he was accepting me working more on his back and hind legs even when Monty was not there as a distraction. I did the best I could by scratching his head, neck, giving ear rubs and chest scratches, while trying to copy what Carrie does with his rear end. This is much more challenging than rubbing your tummy while patting your head!

Our veterinarian, Dr. Dave Harper, came out on May 14 to assess Orca's condition. He was upbeat and hopeful, in spite or Orca not being quite as far along as he seemed in March. Dr. Harper still saw an overall trend of improvement. He said he couldn't give a timetable of recovery because with severe spinal injuries there are no time tables. Orca's attitude is good and he is accepting more work and therapy again. On his visit in April, Orca was still pretty spooky. He had always been glad to see Dr. Harper before but on that visit, he looked big-eyed and worried. He made a long neck and may have given Dr. Dave one quick lick and then avoided him. On this visit, we rolled Dr. Dave around* in the puppies we are handraising, covering him in their scent. Orca snuffled him excitedly and with some distraction from Monty allowed Dr. Dave to feel his hind legs this time.

May 10 is the last frost date the Old Farmer's almanac gives for our area. The week after that, it seemed as if we went from cool rainy April to August. Leaves on trees that had been small and light green suddenly went "boing" attaining full size and dark pigmentation over night. It was time to Orca's beach ensemble.

*exaggeration intended as humor

Stalking the Rubber Ducky
On May 15 the weather and the bison cooperated to make the channel leading into the pond available for swimming Orca. The bison went and put themselves in another pasture and the weather turned hot enough that we didn't have to worry about chilling ourselves or Orca if we got soaked.

Once again we took a leash to Orca's pen. Once again he got tremendously excited. He traversed the graveled corridor to Jill's truck by means of a towel sling so he would not further abrade his knuckles. The truck ride to the channel was very lumpy and bumpy. Monty and Orca jounced uncomfortably in the back of the truck and both subsequently made it plain that they did not want another ride back across the field.

When he saw the water Orca took a header off the tail gate - luckily we caught him and eased his descent. He was so excited. He scurried down to the water's edge and in. Jill and I were dressed to fall in. The bottom is oozy and gritty and the three of us spent a few minutes finding tree limbs, which Jill and I removed. Meanwhile Orca pulled on his leash and the bottom sucked on our shoes. It was like being the rope in tug-o-war. Orca swam out the length of his leash. Like his namesake he loves swimming. In the water he is not crippled! The channel was too murky to be sure how much he was using his hind legs, but his body certainly seemed to be normally buoyed up and I could see some hip movement. Where the water was too shallow for swimming, but still deep enough to buoy Orca somewhat, he walked! He swam three circles and stood in the shallows, much to the disgruntlement of the domestic white geese that hang around the channel. At this point, Orca's rubber ducky remains metaphorical. Knowing that he is not gentle with squeak toys, the rubber ducky may remain metaphorical. He was beginning to quiver, a sign that his muscles were tiring but he was still game. Not wanting him to overdo and suffer we helped up the slope.

Then, instead of taking him back in the truck, Monty put Vega on a leash and took her outside for a few minutes. She was thrilled, sure we were bringing her a handsome male! Orca was not eager to meet her. He scurried around to the other end of the truck, then using it for cover, hurried past her and over her threshold. Jill and I tried to help him with a towel sling, but he growled and snapped and continued to the other gate. Once safely in the corridor he consented to flop, and lay there, looking excited and a bit smug. We wanted to hose him off to remove the ooze. He was a little suspicious of the hose, but I filled Jill's hands with sun-warmed water and she washed Orca that way. Next time we will just take a jug of tepid water for a post-swim rinse. Orca consented to having his tail, still bushy with winter fur, rinsed and wrung out.

Next morning he was still buoyant in mood - when he saw me approaching to let him out of his "stall," he did his little hop-twirl display which he usually reserves for supper time.

May 27, 1998 - Orca's Third Swim - or Dr. K saves the day
Monty and I took Orca swimming. Dr. Klinghammer wanted to come down to the other side and watch and shoot some video tape of Orca's latest adventure. It turned out to be a shared adventure. Monty had bought Orca a 50 foot cable. We leashed Orca and took him to the channel - by taking him through Vega's pen. Vega had been moved over to the other enclosure while her new trees were still getting watered daily. Orca went into the water and began swimming strongly -- heading nearly straight across the channel. We could see that he was using his hind legs, though it was hard to see exactly how much range of motion he had.

Though I tried to pay the cable out smoothly the pond weed did not help and when he reached the end of the cable, we saw that the long cable was around Orca's hind legs. I gave the cable some cautious experimental tugs. At one time Orca's hind paws came up and his head went under. After that I stopped pulling to turn him around for fear of pulling him under. He was only a few feet from the other shore so I let go of the cable and he bipedalled out of the water near Dr. K.

Unlike his first swim, Orca did not walk when he got to the shallows - but he had swum a lot more and may have been more tired. Also I think he wanted to get out of the water after getting dunked. As Orca climbed out of the water, Dr. K. picked up the cable as Orca climbed out and started scurrying to the peninsula where the pack was waiting and watching with interest. I was afraid of the bison coming over. I waded out farther, trying to find a feasible way across. There are disadvantages to being short - it probably is over my head in spots and I was getting mired down in ooze. Dr. K tried several times to throw the cable back to me by tying a stick in the handle. Meanwhile, Monty went upstream in search of a shallow place to cross. Finally, stripped to his undies, Dr. K waded across with the cable in hand. I called to Monty to take a picture but Dr. K threatened to throw him in if he tried it and Monty decided discretion was the better part of valor as he doesn't mind getting wet, especially in a good cause, but his camera might not survive.

Dr. K. waded across and handed me the cable. Orca was braced on the shore. Monty said he was using his hind feet really strongly to push against being pulled in. Monty pushed Orca off the bank and Dr. K and I pulled him forward. Once committed Orca swam strongly toward us. When he arrived on the east side of the channel, Orca climbed the bank and bi pedaled back towards the empty enclosure. I thanked Dr. K for saving the day. He had a big grin - he had been insisting throughout this that it was fun. "That's what alphas are for!" he said.

Orca had swum quite strongly and was obviously capable of swimming more, but for safety considerations we stopped for the day. Orca was acting irritated with the cable and by chewing it persistently had nearly shorn through it. Monty and I made plans for keeping the next swim safer and more trouble free: 1) post back up people on the other shore. 2) Use a shorter cable - don't let Orca swim out so far. 3) Walk along the bank so he'd swim parallel to the shore.

Life on a Plateau
In June we could see that Orca was still making some progress but not as dramatically as he did at the end of March. It was a frustrating time - he was definitely better than he was in April and even a bit better than in May. But it was such a little bit. Often it seemed as if Orca was on a plateau which had, at best only a slight upward incline. Would he improve substantially enough? Why wasn't he walking more. Just a few steps every few days would be so encouraging. Frequent thunderstorms, some of them quite severe, interfered with more than one planned swimming expedition. Moving the pups over to an outdoor nursery meant we had no empty pens and complicated taking Orca to the channel.

Our vet, Dr. Harper, who assessed Orca every 3-4 weeks was still upbeat. He saw that Orca had maintained some overall improvement since early March. He reminded us that spinal injuries can take a loooong time to heal. He also told us "I can't give you a time table because there are no time tables..." [for spinal injuries]. Meanwhile, Orca's secondary health problems were confined to abrasions from dragging his rear. He had sores on both hind feet and one knee from dragging, but the abrasions were not dangerously deep. I checked them at least once a day and, usually, twice, obsessing about flies, and well, maggots. Orca was doing a very good job of keeping himself clean. He licked his feet carefully, not making granulomas but keeping the sores free of debris and infection.

Another source of concern was that Orca, though he could support his weight was rarely choosing to do so. He seemed ominously content to bipedal, dragging his rump behind him. (One improvement here was that he did not seem as crooked as he did in April and at least the first part of May and he carried his knees higher, so his knee abrasion got smaller and smaller.) Both Dr. Harper and Carrie Craddock the massage therapist suggested we push Orca to his feet more and Dr. Harper suggested we reward Orca for walking. Ooops! Of course. Sometimes you need to be told the obvious.

We started boosting Orca to his feet more. When Terry Ryan came to give a combined behavior and training seminar at Wolf Park, she and I went out every morning at 5:30 and spent a few minutes shaping Orca to stand on cue. We were starting to work on stepping on cue by the end of the week. After she left, we continued to stand Orca up and encourage him to walk for food treats. This was "assisted walking": Orca was supposed to step forward and if he did he was rewarded. He was doing some every day and taking some one legged steps - moving one leg forward and placing it without any help. Most steps though, we gave the leg a little assist to make sure he kept his balance. This routine took us through the Fourth of July weekend.

Orca Strides Again
Starting July 7 the interns began reporting that Orca was standing when they went over to water. I found him standing and grinning at the gate when I brought him supper. Then the interns began to report that he was walking a few steps in addition to standing. I also noticed that except for one small area, his paws had healed. He had skin where there had been open flesh for so long! The few step quickly expanded to walking perhaps 60 - 70 feet a day, exhibiting proprioreception - placing his paws pads down or trying to, instead of knuckle walking. Monty was able to visit him one day while I was busy and said Orca walked most of the way around his pen. On Friday July 10, he got up and walked between 60 and seventy feet in one bout, after our typical massage and/or accupressure and social grooming time. That evening he tried to trot for a pig ear. In spite of some shuffling there was some recognizable trot in what he was doing. Unmistakably Orca was off the plateau and climbing his mountain.

Saturday and Sunday Carrie Craddock held a one and a half day massage seminar at Wolf Park. She was thrilled with Orca's progress. He shows muscle response down to his toes and has rebuilt a substantial amount of muscle. She got to see him stand and walk and was able to do quite a lot of work on him.

On the morning of the July 13 Monty took Orca for his first real walk outside so his pen could be thoroughly weed whacked. Before noon Orca had walked, trotted, and occasionally hopped, a bit over three hundred feet!

Orca Pulls off a Shenanigan
On August 3 Orca woke up and found that the humans had forgotten his social engagement calendar read "explore corridors at East Lake and visit puppies through the fence". To keep this appointment, he let himself out by lifting his gate off its lower hinge and pulling it in. With the gate at an angle, Orca was able to wriggle out through the resulting gap and go visiting. The interns discovered him when they went over to East Lake to water. They immediately jumped to the conclusion that Orca had no business being in the corridors on his own and so they went and tattled to Amanda and Gary. Amanda, Intern Becky Bartel, and Gary went back to catch Orca. When they caught up to him Orca, wearing an enormous grin, was schmoozing the puppies through the nursery gate.

Since then the bottom of his gate has been kept chained - even if he lifts the gate off its hinge again, he can't pull it in far enough to let himself out. He continues to go for walks.

At his most recent massage session with Carrie, she suggested he see the chiropractor again. We had been concerned that he seemed a little weaker that week. Carry said he had rebuilt enough of his atrophied muscle to benefit from an adjustment and she noted that his pelvis seemed canted off a little. Accordingly he had a back adjustment from Dr. Glabowicz on August 25. She adjusted his right hip and one vertebra just in front of his pelvis. To her surprise, his neck, upper back, and mid-back all felt fine. She thought he would need more adjustments higher up because of all the compensatory work his front end has been doing all these months. She remarked that he is tremendously strong and that it is like a miracle to see him up and walking around.

After the massage and chiropractic treatment, Orca did seem stronger in his hind legs. On the week of September 14 - 20 we went in and trimmed some of the vegetation in Orca's pen. This included going up on the raised tree bed in his pen and removing several burr bushes with hard little football shaped burrs. Their spines are durable and quite painful. Removing them opened up some area on the raised bed and a couple of days later the interns discovered that Orca had climbed up there. It is two railroad ties high so it's quite a step and represents an improvement in Orca's hind quarter strength and control.

Orca Visits Erich's house
By December, Orca is well enough to go on numerous short walks. On December 13, Monty and Pat extended his walk a bit further. He was led into the bison field, where he rolled in some really stinky poop of some kind, and Monty let Orca go down into the brushy area right below the dam. There is a steep slope to the top of the dam and seeing if he could do it, Monty encouraged Orca to follow uphill. He really had to push with his hind legs, but he made it. We then walked down to the fox pen and got Basil to squeal and greet frantically. Orca did not seem tired at all so we led him down to Erich's house. This is considerably further than he has gone before. Orca socialized a bit with Erich and Peggy and then was allowed a peek into the window where the barking Chihuahua's live. Monty snapped a couple photos with his digital camera which you can see here.

December 20^th 1998
On the afternoon of December 20 Monty decided to take Orca for one more walk before a trip to Alaska. Monty was going to Alaska, not Orca ;-) It was overcast, damp, threatening to drizzle, but considering it was late December, it was quite mild. Orca needed a bit of a warm up, leg massages helped considerably, and Monty had to stop Orca several times on the walk down the corridor because Orca's front half seemed to be getting ahead of his back half, but he lack of abrasions on his toes indicated that this was not a serious problem, he just seemed excited to get out.

John, a Sierra sponsor was out to see his wolf. Not meet his wolf, she's shy of him and besides, Pat was away. Without the mandatory NK restraint, Sierra could only be viewed anyway... Perhaps he did not get to go in with Sierra, but Orca let John and his friend pet him, only briefly though -– Orca had things to do, places to go.

Orca has been great at meeting people of late. He even got to meet a Highschool group earlier in the week. Normally this is not done, but these kids had a great teacher, were very well behaved and generally seemed interested in the wolves so as a completely unofficial reward, Monty took Orca out and when it was obvious that he did not view them as "scary" he was quickly led past so a few of them could pet him. Doing things like this can really reach kids, sometimes making a few of them instant wolf fans.

Anyway, after a brief John visit, Monty walked Orca all the way over to the giftshop. Orca was not able to go down into the lower field below the wolf enclosure this time, for the bison were now grazing down there. They were eyeing him, seemingly aware of the fact that he was vulnerable.

For the past several months Monty has been leading Orca up to something scary. The giftshop. The giftshop is of course scary to many people, especially those with vulnerable credit cards... Orca actually enjoys walking over to the building, but no closer than about 10 feet. However, this time Orca was willing to check out the handicap ramp. Cautiously he put a foot out onto boards. Then another, suspiciously looking up at the building the entire time. With some minor coaxing and reassurances he then proceeded to amble up the ramp as though he had been doing this his entire life. At the glass doors he seemed quite curious (never having seen a glass door before, or maybe just checking out his reflection) he just stared and stared, not a bug-eyed, nervous scared stare, but a curious 'this looks interesting' stare.

Monty opened the door. Orca was a little reluctant about that. " Hm.. This is different. I've never been inside before!" Orca walked in.

He was fascinated. He first went along the shirts along the wall, sniffing every one of them. He went along all the walls, checking out everything (fortunately, Jill's deer hide dream-makers were out of his reach) He sniffed all the way around to the door again, but when Monty opened it to see if he wanted to go back out, he declined and wanted into the Seminar room instead. Monty opened the door and lead him in there, more smells to investigate, things to check out. A nice box to maybe put his teeth on. Actually Orca was great. He only tried, mildly, to put his mouth on this one small box on the table. Everything else just got a thorough sniffing.

Back into the giftshop once again, he walked behind the counter, then into the stock room where he shopped for treats and came out with a nice pigear. Wolf treats as well as people treats (giftshop items) are stocked back there. Orca was led outside though for pigears are greasy and Orca is a messy eater. He had a nice snack on the lawn and then walked Monty back to his Eastlake home. Orca had a fun day.

January 29^th 1999
Orca came through the 24 inches of snow we received in early January without any problems. In fact, the snow seemed to help his toes heal considerably. He was wearing down the toenails on his hind toes a bit, but they are now healed and the nails are growing back in nicely.

Today Monty and Mark walked Orca up to the giftshop for a pig ear and then for the first time to the visitor center. Breeding season watch has started so Interns are out diligently observing the pack's activities. The four pups were right below the observation window, wrestling and making considerable noise. We have a PA system installed and Orca seemed a bit confused at how the pups could be wrestling in front of him, but making loud noises over to his right. He also found the floor a bit slippery to his liking. But he was able to manage it well.

February and March 1999
There was not all that much going on for Orca in February. Well, outside his making friends briefly with his neighbor, Deneb. Deneb was donated to the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, NJ back in 1989 when she was about a year old. She left with her sister and two cousins, but had to come back a few years later when her sister drove her from the pack. Since that time Deneb has wanted NOTHING to do with other wolves except fence fight. However, this year she actually was acting friendly toward Orca. Unfortunately an actual meeting between the two was not to happen.

In Late February Orca had a bit of a relapse. He began dragging again. Dismayed, we immediately called the vet who prescribed restriction and prednisone. It worked, and within a few days he was up and walking again, but he was noticeably weaker. It might have been the cold damp weather we had, it may have been him overdoing things.

On March 23, Dr. Glabauitz, the chiropractic vet who first worked on Orca, came out to see Orca and adjust his back if necessary. Monty alternated between kissing and giving Orca treats while Dr. G. worked on his back. Orca was the perfect patient. He never winced, flinched or anything. Even things which she warned might be painful got no reaction from Orca. In fact, he seemed to enjoy the whole experience. She found subluxations of the L3 and L5 vertebrae which were readjusted (L4 was where the original injury occurred) and she also checked his upper back and shoulder area and was again amazed at the lack of any problems. He has to compensate with his front end and that should produce problems, but in Orca's case, he is not having any problems at all up there.

In the first couple days after Dr. G worked on Orca he did not show much improvement, but after 4 days he was noticeably better. Now, nearly a week later, he is actually doing well enough that a short walk seemed OK. Monty and Liz (a Scottish Intern) took a very happy Orca up along the fence to the bison viewing area on Sunday, March 28th. One young bison also came over to look at Orca and seemed to be sizing him up... hmmmm...

Now with the onset of warmer weather we hope that Orca will continue to improve. Who knows, perhaps sometime this year he and Deneb (if they still are being cordial) can actually meet one another and become friends :-)

March 23, to Aug 14, 1999
Just around Easter, Monty found that Orca loves purple bunnies (which are like Marshmallow cheeps only bunnies instead) as much as pig ears with the difference that the bunnies disappear instantly. The same weekend, while on leash, Orca met and kissed a seven year old boy. Basically his attitude was "yea, it's a kid, now lets get going on this walk"

Because he had regressed a bit at the end of February, Orca was restricted in a small pen (the stall) in a corner of his holding pen and only allowed out under supervision. By mid-April he had graduated to being out all day and only locked up at night. He was let out during the day after he ripped the gate off the restriction area and was fence fighting with the pack across the corridor when they were locked up on April 11 so their enclosure's skirting could be regraveled.

In mid May Orca got to meet a well known author. Board member Phil DePoy brought out Father Andrew Greeley to see the park. We showed him Orca, and he got to see Orca meet pups for the first time. This was not an outstanding success. The pups bumbled toward Orca in approved puppy fashion and Orca appeared alarmed as they bumbled under his feet. Hastily trying to back up, Orca sat down abruptly and, as they do, occasionally his hind legs spontaneously extended fully and he could not flex them for a minute. This meant his only recourse was too scoot backwards on his bottom as fast as possible while growling at the pups. After the pups were tidied away and Orca was in command of his rear end again, we offered to let Father Greeley pet the now mollified Orca. Father Greeley, who had been observing Orca growl at pups, said he would prefer not to pet an "animal whose leash is a logging chain." He did cuddle puppies however.

Though the puppies got off on the wrong foot with Uncle Orca he decided later in the summer that he wanted to visit them in their nursery even though by then they were much larger. Orca fed them lunch during his visits and pottered around the nursery exploring. On one occasion he summarily ordered an intern and a videographer out of the nursery. He knew both of these men and had enjoyed greeting them but may have decided he did not quite trust them around his nephew and nieces. After both humans had been ushered out Orca stood foursquare, grinning hugely "I'm a force to be reckoned with and what I say goes." was the attitude he conveyed.

Orca also made several walks, as far as Director Dr. Klinghammer's house and beyond. He declined to swim (or fish) in Dr. Klinghammer's goldfish pond however. Then in early August he had a meeting with Karin, his sister. She had been deposed and driven out of the pack with some serious wounds and was recuperating at East Lake. Orca was tremendously exited to be allowed to greet her - they were both on leashes. Karin was effusively submissive and it affected Orca, who had also been greeting the puppies, with an irresistible urge to regurgitate for the pups. He towed me to the nursery, trying frantically to hold lunch down until he reached the pups. He almost succeeded but erped a small quantity on the grass outside. He and Karin were allowed time with the very excited puppies and we had a quintet of excited happy wolves. Orca reached his limit in under twenty minutes. He walked to the door of the nursery's double gate, looked up at the latch and over at me then back at the latch. If you ever wondered where Lassie got that patient waiting for the humans to understand charades look, it must have come from wolves originally.

We have continued to let Orca act as an ambassador wolf but are being careful not to over do it.

Fall 1999 - March 3, 2000
Orca had another adjustment from chiropractor Dr. Noreen. She was pleased with him. He was cheerful and didn't mind the adjustment at all. Of course, we had Monty present acting as a "face magnet" for Orca. Orca and Dr. Noreen both enjoy this arrangement.

Orca had a good time going out walking this fall. He gave every indication that he enjoyed threatening Apollo who greeted him nicely: ears pricked, grinning and relaxed tail wags. Orca, looking for trouble, had better luck with Ursa. He managed to startle her; she ran away and he puffed up and strutted. He snapped at DB when we moved her. At this point we were trying to build Orca up gradually which meant he got several short walks for every long one. Even though he often got to threaten other wolves, he got rather crabby on "short walk" days and began tweaking other peoples' clothing if they entered his pen at the end of a short walk. To counter this, Pat started reinforcing him for going away from the gate with food treats which stopped that, but since Orca seemed to be just generally feeling his testosterone too, she stopped having the most temptingly tweakable enter the holding pen Orc at the end of walks.

Orca liked to vary his routine a bit even on long walks. On one, he might show no interest in entering either the gift shop or the observation building, preferring instead to scope out the fox pen. On one such occasion he found a lost green glove in the garden, and took time to smell the flowers, while standing in them. He wanted to go down to the Turtle Lake Enclosure holding pen where he spent so many weeks recuperating after his injury. He sniffed around there, going down and then up the steep slope. Seneca and Miska were greeting him.

In late October, Carrie Craddock came out for a visit and checked Orca over. She pointed out that Orca stands with his croup very flat, indicating to her that he needs his back muscles built up if his gaits are to improve substantially. She said if he were a horse, she would recommend the "Man from Snow River" school of therapy: take him down steep slopes. This would make him use his belly muscles as he goes down slope and that should help his back. Like humans, the key to a strong lower back is often good abs.

We walked Orca and Trill each day for the first five days in November in response to Carrie's suggestion of hill work. Though we don't have a lot of steep slopes, we have the dam and the berm. But instead of starting out with those challenges, Orca and his entourage made for Testosterone Alley, the new public access corridor down the north side of the pens usually occupied by Kiri and Socrates, NK, Chani and Sierra, and Apollo, Alyeska, and Karin. This includes all the males at East Lake except Orca himself and Wild Bill the coyote. Each day Pat was sore while Orca was prancy. Finally she consulted Holly, the editor of Wolf! who also teaches dance at Purdue. Holly recommended some exercises, which helped but the embarrassing truth was that Orca could still out walk, out shuffle and out hop Pat any day in the week. She didn't give him a chance to do it twice on Sundays; she pushed Monty into the breach. He took Orca for longer walks when Pat was pooped out from the shorter daily warm up work.

Orca weathered winter well. We had some snow and while he did scuff the hair on his rear knuckles and "file" a couple of hind toenails down to the quick, he still entered March in better shape than last year. He was able to have free access to his entire pen all winter instead of being in a "stall," part of the time to stop him from over doing.

We had to cut back on his walks as breeding season drew near and arrived. We were concerned about provoking aggression among the wolves living on Testosterone Alley during those weeks. Now that it is March and the wolves are more mellow Orca and Trillian have just restarted hill work. Pat reports that Orca can still out walk her and she has started using an excercycle to improve her stamina so she can keep up with him. Speaking of Trill, Orca has noticed that our oldest Grande Dame has just come in estrous and she leaves scented billets doux down the corridor which Orca inspects with much snuffling and tooth chattering. He still threatens the wolves on Testosterone Alley with his big hackles and basso growls. The other male wolves don't seem too impressed with Orca's threats, but Wild Bill the Coyote can be counted on to try to bite Orca as he goes past.

April 18, 2000
In Mid and late March, Orca was acting a bit ouchy and somewhat lame in his right hind leg. It was nothing serious, but we made an appointment with Noreen, the Chiropractic vet, to check on him.

It had been awhile since Noreen was out to see Orca, but Orca remembered her quite well and was a very good patient while she worked on adjusting his back. Unlike past visits though, the vet was not able to find anything wrong. His back is in great shape, he had of course stopped being ouchy with the warmer weather, and she gave him a glowing report. Basically, Noreen was very impressed with his condition and gave the go-ahead to allow Orca some more freedom. Soon Orca should be able to have some time in one of the larger pens!

May 3, 2000
As part of the May Wolf Behavior Seminar, the participants went in to visit with Orca. Orca, like all the wolves, is shedding his winter coat and is a bit itchy. While Orca was sitting, Monty was scratching Orca's chest, which he found quite enjoyable. He then lifted his hind leg and tried to scratch a bit. To our knowledge, this is the first time such a scratch reflex has been exhibited by Orca. Pat then tried the same and Monty got this photo :-)

Summer 2000
Orca had a visit from his favorite chiropractor, Dr. Noreen. While Monty acted as a face magnet for Orca so Dr. N. could work uninterrupted, she checked and manipulated his spine. She said he had had a bit less control over his hindquarters than on her last visit which we attributed to him overdoing in June when a fiber optics company was trenching and boring across park land, including boring under the wolf enclosures and trenching across the bison pastures. The first round of boring seemed upset Orca so much that we moved him to the pack's holding pen for a day when they had to redo it a second time. After that we noticed that Orca went through a period where he dragged his hind legs again and they seemed to tire more easily when he was up. The dragging never got bad enough to abrade the skin on his rear knuckles, and when we showed him a leash, he'd stand up on all fours. I noticed one day in early August that he was careering madly around his enclosure chasing a big horsefly. This was one of the black or dark brown ones which is over an inch and doesn't just bite'; this type excises veritable divots! Orca, who is intolerant of biting insects, was doing his best to take this one out for good and his rear end was fishtailing wildly trying to keep up with the rest of him...

Dr. Noreen found that Orca had thrown his back out higher up his spine. It had nothing to do with his paralyzing injury. She fixed it, remarking that it was the most likely reason for the increased ataxia he showed, and she told us to keep on with his exercises.

October 2000
Had a special education tour of handicapped students on October 18. Two were in wheelchairs. All had some disability. One child had Cerebral Palsy and he was an Orca sponsor. Orca is very popular with handicapped people. Since you really can't see Orca well from where he lives, Monty took him out on a leash and with Pat Goodmann's help, walked Orca slowly up to the child in the wheelchair (wheelchairs are scary). Pat helped him pet Orca (he did not have enough muscle control in his arm to pet Orca himself). Orca then gently licked the child on the hand. That was fun.

Monty and Pat have been trying to take Orca out for a walk daily. When things get busy, like during Wolf Behavior Seminars, and there is not enough time to walk Orca, there is a noticeable decline in his hind legs so we are making an extra effort to take him out as much as possible. Such walks are usually up to the giftshop and back. Orca loves to go out for his walk and he starts every one by marking the corridor and all along the main pack's enclosure. Of course Orca can't raise his leg, but he marks all the same. Orca piratically trots over to the giftshop, however on the way back it is a looong walk. Not that he has run out of energy, he just does not want to go home.

November 18, 2000
A few weeks ago a number of wolves got moved around at Eastlake. We often do this because the wolves seem to enjoy having a new pen where another wolf, or wolves, had just resided. They go around marking over all the other wolves marks, dig up all their caches and if nothing else, get a nice change of scenery for awhile.

Deneb had been in the holding pen right behind Wild Bill the Coyote. Her back had been giving her trouble so she was in a smaller pen where she would have less running room. Dr. Noreen had been working on her and Deneb seems fine now. So, Deneb got a much larger enclosure, much appreciated. The next day when Orca was taken out for his walk, he tried to rush through the open gate to Deneb's pen. Monty told Orca he would be glad to let Orca live there, but AFTER his walk. So, on the way home, Orca got a new place to live. He has never had a front pen before and he seems to like it a lot. It is also nice to have him more visible for those visitors who have read this web page.

Orca immediatly settled into his new home, the only problem was a three tiered platform which Orca might have tried to climb. This is a rather heavy piece of equipment and so it took awhile to get people together to take it apart and move it out. So, on November 18 Monty took Orca out for a much longer than usual walk while the rest of the staff both cleaned Eastlake pens and removed this platform.

Normally this would have been an uneventful walk. Orca has been walking up to the giftshop about three times a week now for much of the summer, but that is about it. He walks up to the giftshop, sometimes down to the holding pens, maybe a look a the foxes (and eliciting a lot of submission and fox screams from Basil) but he has not been brave enough to go into a building, or even up to one all year. Today was different.

Maybe it was because he could tell everybody else was over at Eastlake, or maybe it was heightened hormone levels (much of the walk over was hackles and growls to the pack), who knows, but Orca was not afraid to go right up to the observation building and sniff around. He walked right up the ramp, looked down from the deck at Seneca and growled a bit (Seneca just wagged his tail) then Orca acted like he wanted to go inside. Monty wanted to make absolutely sure there were no dogs in there (a black lab and Dr. Klinghammers' pocket wolf sometimes reside in there) so a quick circumnavigation of the building was in order. Orca then went to the back steps, and climbed the steps!

It is only four steps, but for Orca that is pretty good. He then was sniffing at the door so Monty opened it and in went Orca. This is a back area leading to the puppy room (used for storage much of the year) and was filled with all kinds of goodies. Orca sniffed and got his legs a bit tangled in some huge elk antlers, but that did not startle Orca. Orca then tried to take an entire bag of dog treats and bit the corner of a box of 100 pig ears. He was good about being lead away from such things (he's on a died you see), and then he went into Pat's office. Pat has all kinds of fun things in there too, but Orca was good, he only sniffed at the myriad of cables, notebook computer stuff and boxes of training treats....

Then it was into the main observation room. That room has been decorated with a lot of Pat's house plants. Orca only sniffed, then looked down at the pack looking up at him. This time Orca only made little squeaky noises. He then walked over toward the middle of the room and marked. Just enough pee to make the room quite stinky. Fortunately we have odoban and willing interns who nicely cleaned up while Monty continued with Orca's walk.

Orca then was willing to go into the giftshop. The last time he went in was more than a year ago. He remembered though. Pigears are stored in the small back room behind the counter. Unfortunately, they have long since been moved into the other building. Orca seemed a little disappointed, but he chose one of the stuffed wolves instead. Fortunately he dropped it before doing anything more than getting it wet with wolf spit.

The other side of the building is now set up as an education room for kids. Not that any of this was particularly interesting to a wolf, but there is a CD player with Monty's Howls and Growls CD. Orca has never heard a CD before so Monty plied him track one of Seneca howling. Orca cocked his head almost 90 degrees first one way and then another while sniffing the speakers. Monty then advanced to track #21 of NK growling. Orca just walked away. He was not impressed.

Getting back home Orca plied his "I'm tired, my legs hurt, I can't walk anymore" game. It took five minutes to talk over to the giftshop, it took about 30 to get home. All the while Orca was quite willing to trot back toward the giftshop of course. He was just having too much fun today to go back to his pen. Finally, when he made home, Pat gave him a HUGE rawhide, one of many that a sponsor brought for him and the other wolves. Orca was happy to go home now and lied down devouring his rather large, but low fat, treat. :-)

January 1, 2001
December proved to be one of the more 'normal' snowy winters around here, around much of the US actually. Quite cold and snow on the ground for nearly three weeks now. Orca is doing well with the cold. His walks have been curtailed for awhile, but he is expending so much energy keeping warm, as are all the wolves, that he is off his diet and that is keeping him quite happy.

On December 31, Monty took a photograph of Orca. Another was taken the next day, thus providing a special image -- Orca Spanning the Millennium!

February 20, 2001
Orca has more than survived the winter well. Although it was not really possible to take him out much (too much snow in December, and so much aggression in the pack in January and early February -- We did not want to start any fights by walking the Grumpy Pugs (yes, the winter grumps is back) along their fence. However, now that the temperatures are rising, and aggression levels are falling a bit, Monty has resumed his walks. Today he was extra grumpy growling at wolves who were not even close to the fence as he went along the main enclosure. However, the pack totally ignored him, but he certainly did not ignore them!

When he got up to the observation building, Orca must have been feeling good because he was in an unusually exploratory mode. He went in the main room, explored the observation room, looked for treats in Pat's office and really did not want to leave. But since it looked like he was thinking of getting into trouble (biting boxes of treats in Pat's office) he was lead back outside.

Gail was busy in the education room in the other building and Orca is usually reluctant about even going up to that building, but he was anything but reluctant today. He even went up the short flight of stairs! Well, he needed some coaxing for that, but he made it.

Inside he said HI to Pat, Gail and one of the Interns and then headed right to the storeroom where he used to get treats. Now the treats are all stored up in Pat's office in the other building, but he had to check this out for himself. He then investigated Gail's beautifully painted life sized cutouts of various canids, including a very large wolf, but his reaction was more like "Eh, just some painted wood."

Orca did get tired on the way back, so perhaps future walks need to be kept a little bit shorter.

July 4 , 2001
Orca spent a busy late winter and early spring once the breeding season was over and we could take him out again for glees and frivolities interspersed with serious exercise. In the early spring he seemed to have a knot in his back and when Dr. Noreen came out to adjust him, he told her "NO" with a quite conclusive growl. We let him have his way.

He has not been dragging his knuckles to speak of but his toe nails are still worn very short. At this point we are happy he has no open scrapes on his toes anywhere. His spirits are very good and he has been meeting and greeting people enthusiastically since mid-spring - provided there are not too many of them at once. We have padded his favorite paths this winter but he seems to need it less right now.

This spring we got a new visitor center (the old one now being used entirely for education) It has new access ramps and Orca was the first wolf to try them out as well as to go inside the new and more spacious gift shop. First, he found out that decks can be slippery if one pees on them. Second, I think he was disappointed to find that the new shop's stock did not include wolf trees (even the bottled water for the soda machines is stored in the old building still. He did not see or smell anything hie wanted to "buy" at that time.

Even though he refused chiropractic adjustment, he has been brimful of energy and after a while, good paw placement. We took him in the seventeen acre bison pasture (without bison present) and turned him loose. He explored from one end to the other, sniffing, finding every stinky thing he could to roll in, and going down and staring at the bison through the fence. The herd has a young calf and several of the adults and juvenile bison snorted at Orca and hurried over to the fence. Orca stood his ground. I think he understands the function of the fence. Maybe he recalls the day a young bull tried to sniff noses with hm and he was able to pinch its nose. I was a bit afraid he might be sore and have muscle knots the next day so we only let him stay out thirty or forty minutes. He was fine the next day. I noticed instead of doing a fast, disunited pace, his hindquarters were better able to keep up than I have seen in a long time. Part of it may have been that he was doing a lot of sniffing which slows him a bit and as he puts nose close to ground he shifts his weight further forward where it seems to be easier for his bulked up forequarters to do the work and his hind legs have to do a little less weight bearing. Or he simply may have made it off one plateau and onto another slightly higher up. We certainly hope so.

On July 4th, Monty took Orca out for a walk and to greet and kiss the various Interns and volunteers. He practically ran all the way to the giftshop, well, a brisk walk anyway. Orca in lead, went right up the ramp and inside the new giftshop and walked about sniffing this and that. We have a wall of plushy animals and of all the various wolves and bison, Orca picked a bison. He carried it out, looking quite proud of himself. Several of the Interns took photos of him holding his bison, so hopefully those can be added to this page soon. We managed to get the bison back before Orca made an actual 'kill' so perhaps we should auction it off ;-)

July 5, 2001
Today we just had to add a little something for Orca left his mark for all to see! We are currently in the process of creating cement stepping stones so visitors can figure out which way to go when they first arrive. First were blue steps for tours. Second came red steps to the bleachers (which Marion left some footprints in when the cement was still wet). Not to be outdone, when today's steps toward the education building were being poured, Monty got Orca out and walked him over so he could leave his big footprints in the cement. So, if you are ever out this way, you will have to keep an eye out for big wolf paw prints!

November 15, 2001
Orca came through the summer quite well and had lots of walks by Monty and even some by Jessica. His favorite thing is to seek and roll in rancid cat poop kindly left by the neighbors cats... Orca also got a chance to meet John's kids on their first kid's seminar in Early November. Recently Orca has become brave enough to get into Monty's car to explore what might be found inside.

March 28, 2002
Winter was pretty much uneventful for Orca. He did get a bit grumpy though which is usually a sign that he is feeling a bit better actually, for he was not being grumpy about being handled or massaged, just a little bit of the old dominant 'Pugsly' surfaced. However following the breeding season and weeks of fence fighting with the pack, we had our old cuddly, kissy Orca back once again. The mild weather we have had has done all the older wolves well. Orca's right hind leg did give him a bit of a problem on those very wet, rainy, damp days, but otherwise he is in great condition. It is hard to imagine that he will be 8 years old on April 24th!

May 8, 2002
Orca got through another winter. I did see him "bipedal" briefly a couple of times He had some ouchy days and Monty massaged a couple of knots from his neck. We padded his fences in case he started dragging his knuckles enough to abrade them. The hair on his hind knuckles remained without the signs of wear that precede abrasion indicating that the bipedaling and knuckle dragging we did see him do were just brief regressions.

He had a visit from Carrie Craddock, his massage therapist in February. Health problems of her own had curtailed her activities for a couple of years but she was feeling better and glad to visit. Orca certainly seemed to remember her. He was very glad to see her and quite ready to kiss - but he did not request massage. Carrie thinks he has reached a plateau in his progress, and feels comfortable with his degree of recovery.

On Members Weekend Orca let himself out of his enclosure in the night and had a "hose party" in the corridor outside the enclosures where the visiting arctic wolves, Chance and Jacona, were staying. Orca was still contained inside the East Lake fencing and his presence in the corridor was a great surprise to OJ Volkman, the arctics' owner, and Tim Unsworth, who helps handle them. Luckily Monty was with them so Orca could be returned to an enclosure with the least amount of delay. Orca is now living in a larger enclosure and seems to like it - that is, he hasn't tried to let himself out without proper authorization.

The Loop Trail was officially opened during our 30th Anniversary Members' Weekend. Orca, and Chani and Sierra, were frightened at first when they saw the big crowd of people coming over the bridge, but they have gotten used to it. On May 7th, Orca became the first wolf to walk the park's new Loop Trail (we also call it the Loup Trail for punfun). When we got to the new bridge he hardly hesitated and walked right on. Monty handed him over to Gale so he could get a few photos.

Orca did the loup in about sixteen minutes and was going at a very fast "drunken" walk. Monty thought that Orca, who was in "fast forward mode" the whole time was surprised to suddenly find himself back where he started out. The Loop or Loup Trail is nice for walking wolves in that they can always be going somewhere they haven't sniffed in the last fifteen to thirty minutes.

October 2, 2002

After weeks of being off his diet, calories caught up with Orca and he is back on his diet. A local person has been supplying us with domestic bunnies (already dead) so Orca can have a small complete carcass. The hide, bones and muscle meat counter the tendency of the organ meat to induce diarrhea, something we particularly want Orca to avoid if possible. At clean up I have only found little scraps of bunny fur among the left overs Even though he is dieting once again,Orca must not be as hungry as he often seemed in the spring because I find leftover scraps of hide and deer shank bones that have not been cracked for their marrow. In fact, flies have been able to find food in Orca's pen this summer. One thing is still the same though, big horse flies run the risk of becoming food if they go in Orca's pen. Or even if they were minding their own business in the field south of the dam. This field has the water course that drains the excess rainwater runoff out of the pond. It has a lot of trees and is a wonderful area for the wolves to explore until it gets too grown over. Even when he wasn't in sight we could actually hear his paws pounding as he marauded up and down the stream bed, his progress punctuated by ringing snaps of his teeth as he tried to catch one of those huge "B52 Bomber" flies.

He got another outing there in late July. He was in fast forward most of the time and went from end to end and side to side of the field. Periodically he rested in the culvert and we also heard him chasing horseflies near the overflow. Sounds of pounding paws and occasional rustles of underbrush being brushed were punctuated by clashing cymbal-like snaps indicating Orca's attempts to bite the noxious insects in pieces. He also found something gloriously stinky to scent roll in. We were finally able to call him back and lure him into amiably walking on leash back to his pen with a pig ear.

Orca got in romp in the field south of the dam on August 6th. We didn't mean for it to last so long but we sort of lost track of Orca. The field had grown up hugely in the two weeks since his previous run there and the ragweed and goldenrod were blooming. Eyes streaming and noses running we searched and searched for Orca. We were sure that a fair amount of his time was taken up lying in the shade and listening to us hunt. Many kleenexes later, we established that he was emphatically not in the long, skinny "handle" part of the field. I went up on the dam and from that vantage point had a hope of seeing Orca moving. Or at least seeing the golden rod and ragweed moving. Gale went and searched the shady parts of the field that are along the water course and finally I spotted him strolling through an area with little underbrush and a nice, shady canopy. I called his location to Gale and then catching up with Orca and reuniting our little threesome became literally a game of "Marco Polo." Jessica joined us for a while and took the "picture of the day" for the website, of Orca, resting in his shady bower. Eventually we once again persuaded him to get up and go back to his enclosure for a pig ear. We agreed not to take him back there until the vegetation (or at least the darn ragweed and golden rod) die back a bit.

One of the current signs of approaching fall is the rather cute "dust ruffle" Orca displays along his belly. Though his wooly undercoat has a long way to go, his winter guard hairs are arriving fast.

November 1, 2002

Orca is having a very good fall this year (no pun intended). Just the other week the Photo Seminar participants requested a photo session with him. However, he did not do his best posing. He was too busy going to face to face kissing. With a few treats he posed well enough.

Orca is even more famous! He has been featured in the November 2002 issue of National Geographic Kids Magazine as an AWSOME ANIMAL! Go Orca!

January 23, 2003

As Orca's winter coat approached peak thickness, like most wolves he put on some weight as well as fur and had to stay on a diet for several weeks. His diet was banished for the Pumpkin Party. This year Monty made some French toast for the pumpkin party using buttermilk, bacon, and a small continent of butter. Orca loved his pumpkin. Of course, Orca loves all food; his favorite is what is nearest his mouth at any time. But the pumpkin was filled with things most wolves would term "delicious" including a small plump pullet.

For a while Orca lived up in one of the front pens at East Lake where he could be seen very closely by the public. Eventually he got moved back to the pen in the center of the complex. It does not afford the public as good a look at him but the pen is on a slight slope, which gives him a bit more exercise than does a dead level pen, and he likes the culvert in the pen as a shelter better than the wooden hut. With the advent of cold weather we put straw in his hut and straw in the culvert - he uses that rather than the hut so far and in his preferred bedroom we find his equivalent of stinky dead socks accumulating in corners and under the bed - scats in the straw - which we clean up for him (he is lucky to have housekeepers).

By November we had some seriously cold weather and Orca burned more calories just keeping warm. He could have snacks again! Often these were partly chewed deer or calf legs that some other wolf had not completely finished by clean up. If the meat still looked good, we'd let Orca have a leg or a spine, or a partly gnawed pelvis. On a couple of occasions we tried him with a dead domestic rabbit. A local breeder brings us his culls on a regular basis. On one such occasion I watched in awe as Orca swallowed the whole rabbit. He reminded me a boa constrictor engulfing prey than anything else. Unlike Gollum in The Two Towers (the movie) Orca did not start in the middle or bother with tearing the bunny open; he started swallowing the head and in less than two minutes the hind feet were disappearing down his gullet.

The field south of the dam finally got mowed (not for hay, but to remove burr bushes and, as a fringe benefit for us hay fever sufferers, the golden rod) which made it easier for him. Neither Orca (who tries gamely) nor the elderly lady wolves (who have been known to give up in disgust in less than ten minutes of being turned loose there) like to walk in the field when the grass is extremely high. (Orca, after trying gamely, is likely to find a comfy spot and flop down.). We tried to take them into that field as often as possible once it was mowed, before the bison would have access to it in December. They like that field so much we would have fewer opportunities to take them there - and sometimes it's unwise to put wolves, or our dogs, in that field when the breeding season is underway. We might accidentally trigger redirected aggression in the form of fights or mobbing of low ranking wolves in the main pack if they started running the fence and threatening an East Lake wolf in the field south of the dam.

On one such afternoon Monty and Gale took Orca to the field. I joined them once I realized it was not going to be just a fast walk around the "loup loop." In Monty's words: "Today I thought it would be fun to take Orca out for a romp in the lower field. It's been too long since he has had a walk and it was a beautiful and warm day. It nearly reached 50 degrees today and we even had some sun. It's been awhile since we have had a sunny day here.

Orca had quite a lot of fun, exploring all around the permimiter and then heading down into the riparian forest following a now dry stream bed and finding all kinds of really, really stinky things to roll in. You could smell him coming. Orca reeked...

Anyway, as Orca came back up toward the pack, Marion, Miska, Tristan and Seneca were all on the other side of the road in their enclosure staring at Orca who hackled up and stared back. That was a good opportunity to get the leash back on him and I managed it without actually touching Mr. Stinky. He then got a nice quick paced walk all the way along the main pack's enclosure, with the four wolves following and Orca growling. We continued around the foxes and we were serenaded with Basil screams as we passed. Then it was over the bridge and back home. Orca was good, he never touched anybody to share his wonderful new perfume and we got him back in his pen without incident -- becoming stinky ourselves that is... "

Whether it was the more challenging exercise or just another small improvement in his nerves, Orca did some true, diagonal trot this fall. Usually he paces, picking up the speed but moving lateral sets of legs and then if he wants more speed than a pace can produce he does something that looks like running in front and hopping behind. So when Amanda and I took a sponsor in with Orca I was excited to see that when Orca got excited about the arrival of the meatball wagon, and paced the fence, he didn't pace in regard to his actual gait, but switched to a diagonal trot for several steps. Amanda, who was sitting in his path, with her back against the fence and legs stretched out in front of her, got a view of Orca's side as the trotted right over her legs like a horse being exercised over ground poles.

Oh, and here are some recent photos of Orca taken in December, 2002 :-)

July 10, 2003

Orca had a long cool spring. So did everyone else but for Orca cool weather means he can eat a little more. We continue to monitor his weight so he doesn't have a lot of extra to lug around.

He finally started shedding and is rather like the "baa-baa black sheep, have you any wool" in that the answer is "yes sir, yes, sir, three bags full." He also provided us with a lot of loose tickly guard hairs.

Sandy Prantl, a cranio-sacral therapist, attended one of our Howl Night Programs and was intrigued by Orca's story. She offered to work on Orca as she has had good results treating spinal injuries. Monty put something up on photo of the day when she worked on him. Orca enjoyed it. He also enjoyed being in the largest enclosure at East Lake and kept breaking off to go explore. Sandy said Orca was awesome in how he allowed her to go right to the area of the problem and work on it and that he has in general a very strong and awesome spirit.

Because of the trenching project this spring Orca and the other singletons had to spend more time in holding pens and had fewer walks so they have been happy when we can put them in larger enclosures. Orca once yanked a holding pen gate off its lower hinge but we caught him before he could let himself out into the corridor.

This last week the weather has been so stormy that taking sponsors in with wolves and swapping the wolves around at East Lake has been a problem, let alone taking them out for walks.

We hope to resume soon.

May 21, 2004

Since the spring of 2003 Since spring I have exchanged a few e-mails with a nice lady named Sandy Prantl. She heard Orca's story and, well, I'll put in Monty's caption from photo of the day when she arranged to come out and evaluate Orca and "work" on him: "6/29 Later in the afternoon Orca had a visit from Sandy Prantl. She is an occupational therapist and certified craniosacral therapist. She works on animals and people with a number of neurological problems. She saw Orca on a visit to the Park some time ago and felt she might be able to make an improvement in his condition.

Orca seemed quite interested in the social interaction and when she started working on him he would present his back to be worked on. He seemed to enjoy the experience and between bouts of kissing and a few time outs she was able to do a fair amount of work on him.

By late July Orca's hind legs were showing about equal muscular development. This was the first time since his accident that the right hind leg felt about equal to the left. This is a good thing because it means his left hind won't have to do an inordinate amount of work to make up for the greater weakness of it's right side partner. SandyPrantl came back in late July and worked on Orca again. When she walked in he greeted her excitedly, reminding me of the second time massage therapist Carrie Craddock, came to work on Orca. With Carrie, Orca practically bounced up and down, greeting excitedly and all but saying "I remember you! I remember you! You made me feel good; now make me feel good some more!" And he was much the same with Sandy. I don't pretend to understand the hows and whys of craniosacral therapy, but I can read wolf facial expressions and body language and Orca liked being worked on. He also made it plain that we other humans could be gainfully employed scratching his ears while Sandy worked on his other end.

September has been a busy month when it comes to grass. Instead of Wrestlemania at Wolf Park we have Mowingmania, which means that the wolves get moved around a lot, including locked up in holding pens which several of them dislike. Yesterday I was pretty sure Orca tried to give Amanda's elbow a grumpy little nibble as we persuaded him into a holding pen yet again. The day before (9/8) he balked outright when Amanda and Gale were moving him and they waited him out. Gale said they got hotdogs to persuade him. September 10 Orca got to go and visit a holding pen he actually likes - the one behind the observation building. He likes to explore, scent roll and dribble the wolf version of graffiti all over. I noticed that he may have been active enough to tire himself out in the holding pen. He was scuffing his toes a bit on the walk back.

One part of being moved from pen to pen is something Orca enjoys very much: hunting for other wolves' left over food. This fall he made out like a bandit (a particularly apt expression in this case) and has had to go on a diet at regular feeding days.

Mowing isn't the only reason we move wolves. Every time we shift the alphas, one or two of the singletons have to go in a holding pen at least temporarily. (And one has to take a turn of a week living in a holding pen because we have more wolves, singly and in groups, than we have larger enclosures). On one such occasion when we were moving Orca, he deployed his big hair. His hackles were so striking that Monty said this about them on the Photo of the Day caption: "Orca's hackles were like an explosion of hairy fire works (fountain variety). His hackles came up like fireworks (Pat's description) when he got face to face (a fence between them of course) with Tristan. Tristan is the only wolf who will bother to threaten back. Orca has impressive hackles.

One holding pen Orca does enjoy is the Turtle Lake Enclosure holding pen next to the observation deck, which he got to occupy on September 10. Once there he got to "snoopervise" Amanda and John who were electrifyingthe peninsula with a new sodium vapor yard light!

When Sandy arrived in late September to work on Orca she also worked on some other wolves. After her visit to Orca, we took her to work on Deneb. While we were in with Deneb, Orca went rooty kazooty, not just trying to play run but bowing, bobbing, weaving and bouncing with all fours off the ground. He dropped to the ground with a huge grin and wove and bobbed his head back and forth. It looked from our vantage point as if he was playing peek-a-boo with Chetan. He did this on his own - the happies were not chasing and wrestling when Orca went rooty kazooty, though they had been chasing while we were in with him. He also came over and watched Ursa's treatment very intently, but fence fought with Soccy and Kiri while Bill was being done.

Once the park closed we knew we tried to make the most of the time we had before the start of breeding season to take the single wolves out for walks and "runs" or at least potters in the fields. When tensions rise within the packs we try not to do a lot of walking, or even shifting wolves around, unless for some essential reason. In their aroused state, wolves in the packs may redirect aggression to pack members instead of the conspicuous wolf being walked or allowed to romp off leash in an adjacent field.

On December third, Orca got a run (maybe scrabble is a better word) in the field south of the dam. He spent the better part of an hour exploring the pasture, the little riparian "woods" and periodically going along the fence and threatening the Happy Pack, who were, from Orca's standpoint, annoyingly unconcerned about his threats. He also found bison dung and rolled until he was green.

Sometimes Orca was kissy this winter. Sometimes he growled a little at Monty. Sometimes he was only grumpy toward wolves and kissy with human friends. Usually he did not do much greeting during Saturday cleanups. During winter Orca occasionally allowed craniosacral therapy, sometimes he wasn't in the mood, or allowed a little and then emphatically told humans to cut it out. We hope that he will accept more in the spring when his attitude is a little more like the late Mother Teresa's, metaphorically speaking, and less like that of Ivan the Terrible, who had terrible back trouble, and who consistently behaved more badly than Orca at his worst.

Well into spring, Orca caught a fox snake with had ventured into his enclosure. He was shaking it and tossing it about. Luckily for the snake, we were taking some seminarians in to visit him, but changed plans and managed to rescue the snake. Amanda Shaad, the Park's managing director, was taking a small TV film crew around as they shot footage of the park. She suddenly had my arm, snake and all" thrust into the corridor in front of her. "Amanda, can you take this snake?" I asked. Things like this always happen to Amanda; she has many interesting stories to tell. She released the snake, injured from being grabbed by Orca and tossed around, but still living, near the bridge. We hope it lived. Orca survived the disappointment of having the snake removed. He wanted to finish killing it.

November 21, 2004

Orca had some walks this summer. The south pasture, which he really enjoys exploring was not as available as usual this summer due to an unusual level of bison activity. On one of them he also had cranio sacral therapy, which greatly affected the therapist, Sandy.

The flood at Wolf Park affected only one enclosure at East Lake, really, so Orca and the other East Lake wolves did not get the opportunities to make themselves stinky by rolling on dead bass in the grass.

He also got to meet people that way but we have not been taking people in to meet him in his enclosure much because he bit one of our practicum student's who accidentally knelt over a piece of cached meat that Orca had hidden extremely well. He has also just seemed a bit more grumpy over all this summer, and not so outgoing. He has definitely been insisting on walks after meeting sponsors. He likes looking at the New Guinea Singing Dogs; it makes a nice break about half way along the "loup loop."

We noticed he threatened some of the people who went in to the puppy nursery when the puppies were moved over to East Lake, so we did not let him in with puppies and people he did not know really really well. Actually, he couldn't wait to get in with the pups and then, once in, he could hardly wait to get out again.

In late August, Monty got a really round-eyed portrait of Orca as he lay under a mulberry tree and contemplated a "B-52 Bomber" horsefly. Orca tries to chase down these insects and bite them in pieces. Monty caught him looking so hypervigilant that Orca reminds me of the dog in the Hans Christian Anderson story with "eyes as big as saucers."

As winter approaches, Orca has grown a beautiful white fluffy coat. This time of year he often strikes us as biting a tad overweight, but when you pet him, you can defintily feel that the bulk of his bulk is fur not fat.

• Bob Fritz, APRL Company, P.O. Box 1853, Martinez, CA 94553, 800-440-7955 for donating a fantastic supplement called Peak II
• Treats from Marilyn & Tenuk! :-)
• Dr. Jane Richardson for donating bandaging material for Orca's feet needed his first few months after the accident. Also lots of encouragement and explanations, based on first hand experience, of what it's like waiting for nerves to regenerate so you can get in touch with outlying body parts.
• Peter Maeder for sending "Becozyme," a Swiss B vitamin from Switzerland.
• Randy Hempel and Goia Patton for telling us about Noni juice and to Randy for donating some.
• Carrie Craddock of course for all her work massaging Orca back to health -- and teaching Pat and Monty her wonderful techniques.
• Veterinarians Dr. David Harper and Dr. Noreen for all their work in keeping him alive and helping his back heal.

What Orca is currently getting:

• Cosequin
• Vitamins E and Selenium

Donations are always appreciated. With the addition of Orca's medical costs, these donations are especially helpful.

If you have any questions, please contact Pat Goodmann pat@wolfpark.org, Research Associate, Wolf Park.

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs © Monty Sloan/Wolf Park For permission to use or for more information about wolf photographs please check with Monty Sloan