Karin Howls
Karin Howling with Apollo
Karin Muzzle-Greeting Her Brother Orca
Back When They were Pups
Karin Loved Pups
Karin and one of the 2005 Pups
Karin Howls |
Karin Howling with Apollo |
Karin Muzzle-Greeting Her Brother Orca Back When They were Pups |
Karin Loved Pups |
Karin and one of the 2005 Pups |
I have sad news: Karin passed away peacefully on Saturday, November 22, after just wanting to sleep on Friday, November 21. Monty and Gale checked her Friday morning and Gale and I (Pat) that evening. She did not seem really uncomfortable, just tired and very sleepy. Since she had days like that from time to time in the summer and earlier this fall, we were a bit concerned but our thoughts ran to a possible bladder infection, calling the vet, taking in a urine specimen the next day and probably putting Karin on antibiotics, but the next morning Karin was dead. Her relaxed posture, nestled in the straw, suggested she passed quietly from sleep to death.
She is survived by her mate, Apollo, her brother, Orca, her son and daughter, Chetan and Marion, and her grandsons, Wotan and Wolfgang. We took her body in for a necropsy, and the vet found that she had cancer. I was very surprised, since, in my experience, cancer sucks the calories right down and malnutrition can hasten the host's death. Rather than show the typical cancer patient's loss of appetite, and weight, Karin readily vacuumed down anything resembling food. When we put her and Apollo in the back corner enclosure a few days before her death, she tried to eat the leash - it was an object in a human friend's hand, and therefore must be edible - and she discovered some food Eclipse left behind her, and she promptly devoured it.
The cancer was extensive, but, most uncharacteristically for cancer, Karin gained a lot of weight. It was actually fat, not retained fluid. Nor did she show obvious signs of discomfort, other than what you would expect from a very fat, elderly canine. Her fall was peaceful. She rested a lot and enjoyed eating, even though we put her on a diet. In early November, Dr. Becker came out and anesthetized Karin to remove the unsightly "old dog lump," on Karin's forehead. It, ironically, did not appear malignant in itself, but Karin irritated it repeatedly, and it always seemed to be scabby and oozing, so off it came. Dr. Becker was very grave at the sight of Karin's distended belly, thinking that if it was due to retained fluid, it was a very bad sign, but after aspirating it repeatedly she could not find any sign of fluid retention. While unconscious, Karin also received quite a bit of cranio sacral therapy from therapist Sandy Prantl. Karin's blood work came back a bit ambiguous but there were no obvious red flags. I was still expecting a diagnosis of Cushings Disease, a malfunction of the pituitary gland resulting in production of too much adrenocorticotrophic hormone. It is fairly common among old dogs. They pee a lot, poop a lot, often have no arthritis pain because their bodies are making so much cortisol. They eat a lot and get fat, so they can have problems associated with obesity.
Karin was always an agile athletic wolf, which showed up when she, as well as Alyeska and Orca, received agility training from practicum student Nicky Osypka. Karin liked to teeter totter on her own occasionally and she displayed quite a talent for climbing trees. After the death of the previous alpha female, Altair, Karin became alpha female in the pack. She turned out to be quite harsh with Erin, Maya, and Marion as they grew up and Erin and Marion eventually instigated a fight and deposed her. Karin was so badly injured that she had to be rushed to the vet. Despite serious wounds, needing antiseptic squirted into them daily for weeks, she recovered, and lived with Apollo and Alyeska over at East Lake. This made Apollo very happy; while he was still in the pack he courted Karin repeatedly, but she rebuffed him, sometimes biting him hard when the other males were harassing him. Once over with him in the retirement section, she discovered she liked him very much indeed and they became quite an affectionate couple.
Karin had slowed down a bit as she aged, but still enjoyed going for walks even when she had to be retired from wolf - bison demonstrations. Sometimes she gave lessons to interns, and practicums on the proper way to walk a wolf on leash. Particularly as she grew older Karin always had a tendency to be chubby which we controlled, letting her gain more weight in winter and doing our best to help her lose it when spring arrived. It was usually very easy to give Karin oral medication because of her fondness for treats. She was also fond of being scratched and massaged, though she had enough of both these activities sooner than some of our wolves. She enjoyed a peaceful retirement with Apollo, sometimes enlivened by a rousing fence fight with Erin or her daughter Marion, or latterly, her other daughter, Eclipse.
Some of my favorite memories of Karin include her interaction with puppies. Her first litter fascinated her. She was so trusting of human friends that she brought her pups out to the front of the hut and let us look at them. Some of us were allowed to touch. In later years she always wanted to visit pups in the outdoor nursery. It didn't matter whose pups they were, either. She was extremely affectionate with Renki, Ruedi, Kailani, and Ayla, although they were not related to her. Once they felt comfortable with her, they snuggled, they nestled, and Monty has a picture of one pup who appears to be grooming a blissful Karin and another image shows a pup holding up a bone to Karin - she did not take it.
By making it to the age of fourteen, Karin lived to the upper end of the average life span for one of our wolves. Looking back over her life, she packed a lot into those years, and she seemed quite happy, enjoying visits from people and the company of Apollo. Goodbye Karin, we will miss you and we will look after those you leave behind.
Pat Goodmann