Oreo Caretaker

Oreo arrived at Mission: Wolf in the spring of 2009, when he and his siblings Buku, Batman, and Asia were only four days old. Their mother, Valley Spirit, and another wolf hybrid named Talon had been confiscated from their owner and taken to a dog shelter, where Valley gave birth to the four pups two days before she was to be transported to the refuge. When the six arrived at Mission: Wolf, Talon was placed in the vet building pen while Valley and the pups were taken to a wooded enclosure. Valley immediately began exploring her new home and upon finding an old den, cleaned it out and one by one carried her pups down to it.

Over the next few weeks, staff saw none of the pups as they remained well hidden in the den. Valley, however, was becoming increasingly friendly and social. When the pups finally did emerge, staff were shocked to see what looked to be four lab puppies stumble out of the den. We had assumed that since he came from the same property, Talon was the pups’ father. We have since obtained information that the pups’ father is indeed a pitbull.

Oreo was the first of the four pups to approach staff and he loved to be pet and played with. Though Oreo looks like a dog, as he grew his behavior became more wolf-like, meaning that he began to avoid human contact. He moved to a lower enclosure with his brother Buku and a female wolf-dog cross named Kiya. Unfortunately, Kiya passed in 2015 leaving the just the brothers in the lower part of the refuge away from people but next to their brother Batman and his partner Fenris.