Wolf-dogs

[Chewbaccus]

Every so often, you pick up the paper in the morning, and you read something that says "Today's going to be a fun one." As reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

...A Westmoreland County woman, found mauled by her pet hybrid wolves, had been alive when she was attacked, and she bled to death, an autopsy report shows.

The body of Sandra L. Piovesan, 50, of Salem, was found yesterday morning inside the enclosure in her backyard where she raised nine canines, all part-wolf and part-dog....

The odd thing is, I'm sitting here on my lunch break reading the story (as of the morning paper, it was unknown whether it was the wolf-dogs that killed her, or if she keeled over into the pit) and what enters my head is "You know where I haven't been in the longest time? The Cellar."

[glatt]

Funny that the story would remind you of us.

Welcome back. Stick around. It's just the same as when you left. Pretty much.

[Undertoad]

WB Chewie, whether it's for a post, a thread, a month or a year. Come and go as you please!

[Hoof Hearted]

I'm a new member to The Cellar, and I used to have a wolf-hybrid. She was out of a half Dobie ~ half wolf and her sire was a German Shepard. So, she was only 1/4 wolf...but I was constantly amazed at the amount of her wolf-like characteristics.

She was amazingly smart and knew the names of all her different toys, in addition to various phrases and other words. She even learned to s-p-e-l-l..
Her coat was different from a domestic dog.
She did not bark unless there was a reason, and then it was more of a howl-bark. She would also communicate with little yips when she was playful or trying to get our attention.
She did not tolerate children well, we observed her try to put our nephew "in-his-place" and I disabused her of that notion and at that time, decided that since I couldn't change her nature, I would be sure the situation could never be repeated. If children came over, she was placed somewhere out of their reach.

She was born on Thanksgiving Day in 1987 and we lost her in the Spring of 2000.
She survived being shot when she was in the 'care' of a boyfriend. bullet entered to the rightt of her spine over her loins, travelled through her and missed her organs/bloodvessels (vet was AMAZED) and exited at the center/side of her left ribcage, breaking several ribs.
She survived heartworm treatment (injections of cyanide?, some sort of poison...) after I left (escaped) the boyfriend and took (liberated) her with me.
She saved me from a snake by leaping in front of me and leaning on my legs, then grabbing my leg in her mouth when I tried to walk around her...then I saw the snake cross the path.
She accepted my husband-to-be on our first date.
I miss her, but I never forgot her wild roots.
Heidi

[Chewbaccus]

Originally Posted by Hoof Hearted

So, she was only 1/4 wolf

That might explain it. From what I gather, these ones were straight half-and-half, and pretty nuts. Reports have them as very nocturnal, only coming out at night and then to howl at the moon (police reports for noise complaints), the ASPCA were familiar with the lady from visits after reports that the hybrids were attacking each other. In fact, they were allegedly turning on each other when the cops rolled by after the lady was found dead.

Still, nice to know that there are some good outcomes from the whole notion. I'm honestly curious as to how it's even remotely pulled off. My father used to run a kennel and someone once brought in a wolf for obedience/protection training, he could never establish pack dominance over it. The training went nowhere.

A sidenote: it was found that the recently-deceased has sold several of the hybrids' pups over the Internet, so there's a race on to contain the little beasties.

And thanks for the welcome. The stream of consciousness went "wolf hybrid would be a cool picture...that'd be a sweet Image of the Day...yum, Chicken McNugget (as I said, lunch break)...wonder how the Cellar's doing?..."

[Trilby]

[skysidhe]

I didn't know wolfs were seasonal breeders.

[limey]

Originally Posted by Hoof Hearted

... She was amazingly smart and knew the names of all her different toys, ...

That'd be the GSD in her, my brother had a GSD who had over twenty toys each one of which he knew by name. He would go and fetch the toy my brother named at playtime, even if it was at the bottom of the heap.