CR2013: Yamnuska Wolfdogs and Highwood Pass Closure

For our first morning of not-hiking Joan and I visited the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary (YWS), subtitled Alberta Wolfdog Rescue and Adoption. In Canada it is illegal to own or keep a full-blooded wolf, but wolf-dog mixes are allowed under various restrictions and requirements. Sometimes these animals are rescued from the wild (as opposed to being shot), and sometimes they are rescued from unscrupulous breeders or overwhelmed owners.

The domesticated dog (Canis Lupus Familiaris) is a subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis Lupus), so a wolf-dog is considered a mix, not a hybrid. This leads to the terminology "high content,"  meaning an animal exhibiting more wolf traits than dog traits, and "low content." Also, many wolfdogs have parents that are themselves wolfdogs, further muddying their genetic heritage. As you would expect, the more dog heritage the more doggish the behavior, and so also with the wolf heritage. Many breeders claim a much higher percentage of wolf than the animal really has, or specify an absurdly precise percentage. Caveat emptor.

In this photo Georgina De Caigny, one of the founders of the YWS, is bonding with a low wolfdog. An animal that was more wolf than dog would have no part of this.

Georgina gave us some treats to toss to the wolfdogs. The high wolfdogs kept their distance; a few might walk up to a treat if you tossed it near them, but the low wolfdogs would come right up to you and nuzzle your hand if a treat was still there.

The wolfdog in repose on the table in the above photo is a high wolfdog, the alpha female of the pack, and nobody sits on her table except her. The wolf pack rules and hierarchies are always enforced. 

This is the alpha male, Zeus, also a high wolfdog. He would have nothing to do with us, and given that humans have driven the grey wolf to near extinction, that's understandable.

This beautiful wolfdog, called Nova, kept his distance, but was not as standoffish as the alphas. Still, he would not approach us for treats.

Once the novelty of our being inside their enclosure wore off, some of the wolfdogs took a snooze.

When a newly rescued wolfdog is taken by the YWS, it's a delicate time. Anything that is considered a threat to the order of the pack will be attacked, so the newcomer has to make nice, especially to the alphas. A frequent visitor to the pack is, unexpectedly, a Pomeranian named Duckie.

The low wolfdogs love to play with a tennis ball as much as Duckie. The high wolfdogs don't care enough to overcome their skittishness.

Joan and I enjoyed the hour with the wolfdogs, Georgina's stories and the questions and answers. After leaving a donation we then drove down Highway 40, the heart of Kananaskis Country, to the point where the road was still closed because of the June 2013 flooding. This was a kilometer or so beyond Highwood Pass, which had itself been closed when we first arrived in Canada.

The numbers for this storm make it a 500-year event.

Tons of flood material were carried across the highway wherever there was a small stream or gully.

The highway has been cleared by pushing the rubble back against the berm.

This washout comes within inches of undermining the pavement, but for now, it's OK to drive here ... the closure you saw earlier is a hundred yards further on.

We turned around and visited the Kananaskis Lakes on our way back. They had suffered too.

We ate our lunch near the dam separating the upper and lower lakes. It was just a moment's drive to get a view of the upper lake.

From this spot atop the dam I also took a photo looking down to the powerhouse and the lower Kananaskis Lake.

The most dramatic of my photos may be this one, of the "bridge to nowhere" at what used to be the Kananaskis Country Golf Course. The course of the creek has changed, and rubble is everywhere.

Upstream, a large but solitary backhoe was trying to undo Nature's wrath. It's going to take many weeks of work.

That evening Joan and I chose our non-hiking activity for tomorrow: Banff.