Rogue
Born on March 1, 1995
Arrived at Mission: Wolf on May 5, 1995
Passed away on March 13, 2011
Sex: Male
Lived with Aurora, Saidee
Did you know? It takes $3,000 a year just to feed and care for one of our wolves. By giving $5 or more a month, you can take a wolf to dinner by becoming a Wolf Caretaker.
Rogue’s Story
Rogue was a very large wolf/malamute cross that came to Mission: Wolf as a puppy in 1995. He had been purchased to be a companion for a young boy. At five months old Rogue outweighed his five year old companion and continued to play too rough with the child. As Rogue quickly grew within a few months, his owners realized the mistake they had made. There was no way around it – Rogue was going to be a handful and could not live with their boy.
The owners found out about Mission: Wolf and drove up to the refuge with Rogue. When Kent went out to meet them, the owners said that if we didn’t take Rogue, they were going to set him free in the area. Exasperated, we accepted Rogue, bringing the refuge to a high of 52 animals on site at one time.
An older wolf-dog named Yaqui raised the quickly maturing Rogue. Within a year, Rogue began to challenge Yaqui for alpha status. Eventually, their fights became so intensive that we had to separate them from each other. Rogue lived a solitary life for several tears as we worked to find him a mate. He became know as one of our hardest residents to care for and demanded extra attention from everyone.
In 2001, we received a call from a family that had a young female wolf-dog who needed a home. Rogue and the new female, named Saidee, took to each other quickly. Saidee’s presence helped to calm Rogue down greatly. He was still known for “rogue-ilizing” (his form of howling) at anyone who came close.
In 2002, Rogue’s right eye became infected and had to be removed. He fully recovered and didn’t seem to miss his one blue eye except when he tried to catch meat at feeding time. A few years later his other eye was diagnosed with glaucoma.
Saidee was mostly dog and although Rogue enjoyed her company, she was lonesome for human contact. Saidee moved up to the staff kitchen to be trained and was placed in a permanent home. We introduced Rogue to a new, three-legged female wolf-dog named Aurora. Aurora’s bouncy personality won Rogue over almost instantly. They were very content with each other, and Rogue’s aggressive temperament continued to be mellowed by Aurora’s presence. For several years they have lived together and spent many hours playing.