His Story
We acquired Moon in 1999 from a wildlife care center that closed just as they had a new litter of wolf pups. He was first purchased as a pet but was donated to our center when he was a few months old because he had already become wilder than any domestic pup. Luckily, there was a new puppy, Hopi, at Wildworks, so Moon had a companion to grow up with right from the start. Moon is a gray wolf, also known as a timber wolf. Although they are called gray wolves, they actually come  in many colors. Moon was born brown, turned gray, then white as he aged, finally growing into his name. For the first five years of his life Moon worked in our wildlife programs. He was shy at first and hard to train, but with time and patience he learned to tolerate new and unfamiliar environments. An expert dog trainer named Sol Spitz worked with him for many months, slowly gaining his trust. When Moon was ready to start traveling, we assumed that he would willingly ride in the van with the other show critters, but Moon had a different idea. One day as Sol was walking him toward the van, Moon jumped through the window of Sol’s little red sports car and wouldn’t budge. He rode in the back seat to the program that day and to every program from then on with his head out the window, white fur blowing in the breeze.
When Moon reached maturity he became very wary of new people and environments and seemed to prefer a more predictable life at home with Hopi. He howls at dawn with our two coyotes, Trickster and Mesa, and Hopi joins in as they greet the day together with a wild, beautiful song.
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