Yuki the Wolfdog had a rough start to life. The wolfdog was born in 2008 to a breeder, and he soon went to live with his first owner. The owner kept Yuki until he was eight months old, but then he decided that the dog was too much to handle. Yuki’s owner dumped the puppy at a kill shelter.
Thankfully, a rescue organization stepped in to help Yuki: the Shy Wolf Sanctuary in Naples, Florida.
The rescue organization saved Yuki from the shelter and brought him to their sanctuary, a place where he had tons of space to run and play. When they did a DNA test on him, they were amazed to see how much of his DNA was wolf.
“His DNA testing came back as 87.5 % Gray Wolf, 8.6 % Siberian Husky, and 3.9 % German Shepherd,” Shy Wolf Sanctuary staff member Brittany Allen told Bored Panda.
Since Yuki has so much wolf in him, he quickly grew to be very large. In February 2019, Allen shared a photo of gigantic Yuki sitting on her lap, and it quickly went viral.
Some people accused Allen of Photoshopping the photo of Yuki, but she explained on her Instagram page that she didn’t change the photo at all.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BuWXGc2BS7b/
After Yuki’s photo went viral, the sanctuary received lots of inquiries from people who wanted to learn more about the wolfdog.
The sanctuary explained that 11-year-old Yuki is a shy wolfdog who has certain people that he trusts. He’s particularly fond of the sanctuary’s female volunteers.
“Yuki is one of those animals that he lets you know if he wants you in his enclosure or not. He has a very small group of women that he allows in his enclosure called his ‘harem’,” explained Shy Wolf Sanctuary volunteer Judy.
Sanctuary volunteer Jeremy Albrecht said they’ve nicknamed Yuki ‘Woowoo’ because that’s the noise he makes when he sees any of his favorite volunteers! It’s his way of telling the volunteers that he wants to hang out with them.
Unfortunately, the sanctuary learned in 2018 that Yuki has terminal cancer. The sanctuary is giving him all the medical care and love he needs. Yuki will spend the rest of his life hanging out in his sanctuary, spending time with his favorite people.
“Yuki has been fighting it for quite a while now and is persevering so it is business as usual while we enjoy our time with Yuki. When the day comes that he starts showing symptoms we will, as we always do, make the right decisions for Yuki’s quality of life,” Jeremy Albrecht said.
Yuki’s first few months were tough, but thanks to the Shy Wolf Sanctuary he has had a happy life filled with lots of love! If you want to help the Shy Wolf Sanctuary care for Yuki and their other wolves and wolfdogs, consider donating to their organization.
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