When this 3-day-old wolf pup was abandoned by its mother, nature seemed cruel. Fortunately for the helpless pup, a kind woman named Alida was there to save its life.
Alida took in the young puppy and began to raise her much like a dog. But unlike a dog, the puppy didn’t have generations of domestication in her genes so it took a lot of work and socialization to try to domesticate the wild wolf.
The wolf puppy was shy and leery of people, animals, and places. But her commitment to socializing the wolf around new people, places, and other animals would be the key to saving her life. And, Alida was committed to helping the puppy.
The pup she named Kira was born to a wolf who belonged to a family that was not taking care of her. The wolf ended up in a rescue nursery and that is where Kira was born. Despite being owned by people, the mother wolf was not domesticated and didn’t trust people.
Alida had this to say about the mother:
“If released into the wild, there’s a high probability she will die since no one taught her to hunt. Kira’s mother abandoned her babies when they were 3 days old and in the nursery, so they were fed by hand. And I took her away as soon as Kira got stronger and also first fed her with milk.”
Trying to give her a good start in life, Alida took the puppy from the nursery when she was 28 days old. She began her socialization very early to give her the best chance of growing up to be an animal that was not scared of everything, a trait innate in wolves.
“I took her from the nursery when she was 28 days old. She is smart but very stubborn. When making decisions, she focuses on herself, not me. From the very beginning, I began the process of her socialization. She saw a huge number of dogs, people, and children.”
“We walked in different places so that she could study different smells, hear new sounds. Wolves have an innate neophobia, a fear of everything new. This is a very difficult process, long and tedious, but it is necessary so that Kira can live with me in an urban environment and feel comfortable.”
Although it wasn’t easy, Alida’s dedication to training and socialization, Kira grew up to be confident and learned to trust people and new situations:
“Upbringing, too, had its problems, but with age, it all goes away and the work bears fruit—Kira has a stable and mild psyche, does not react to aggression from other dogs, and does not provoke conflicts herself. She treats children very carefully and if the child is afraid of her, she doesn’t approach him.”
Today, everywhere they go, people are curious about the wolf:
“On the street, people generally react with curiosity, ask to be photographed, ask if it is dangerous to live with a wolf, and especially when there’s a child at home (I have a 7-year-old son, Bogdan.)”
Today, Kira is full grown and happily living with Alida and her son, who Kira loves dearly. The family has its fans and critics but by understanding how and why this special wolf needed saving, it is easier to understand how a wolf that should have been living in the wild, ended up with a loving family. You can follow her on Instagram.
“In real life, people react quite normally, because Kira is very friendly and doesn’t instill fear in people. But on the internet, people are both angry and stupid, they write different things. Especially after a series of reports about us, there were a lot of reports that I was acting very stupidly since I kept a predatory animal at home.”
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