SHELTON, Wash. — There's a new sound filling this forest near Shelton. But the animals singing are not wolves.
“It's quite beautiful, it is a beautiful sound. When one howls, they all start howling,” said Jodi Woolard, founder and CEO of Roam Wolfdog Sanctuary, an educational facility that teaches visitors about wild wolves, and Wolfdogs, and provides sanctuary to a pack of ten Wolfdogs that’s growing larger with each rescue.
Woolard and her husband Troy Johnson opened this non-profit sanctuary to save animals that aren't quite wild and aren't quite pets.
"A wolfdog is purposely bred by specialized breeders, they are generations of breeding Wolfdogs to Wolfdogs," Jodi said. "The goal of that is to produce an animal that is very much like their wild counterparts, almost indistinguishable, but at the same time trying to acquire that dog temperament.”
Some zoos use Wolfdogs as ambassador animals and you've probably seen them on-screen.
"They are used in film work, like 'Game of Thrones,'” Jodi said.
They're also illegal as pets in 12 states, and some Washington counties, for good reason.
"Some people don't have an understanding of what it takes to own them - they require 8-foot fencing, they require dig guards, they are highly intelligent animals,” Jodi said.
They’re also destructive indoors, Jodi says they’re impossible to house-train and will destroy furniture.
Shelters often euthanize Wolfdogs if no sanctuary can be found for them. Prior to opening Roam, Jodi owned a dog boarding facility for 18 years, and rescued her first Wolfdog in 2020. Lakota had a broken leg that had to be amputated, and intestinal parasites from neglect.
"He didn't survive.” Jodi said.
But Lakota inspired Jodi to rescue more - and Roam opened it's doors to visitors in May, 2024.
"We felt these animals, they deserved a better home," she said.
Rigg, Lumi, Isabella and the rest of this pack live in a 40-acre forest - each pen has an acre of room to roam.
"We want it to look as much like their natural environment as we can give them," Jodi said.
Also, Roam does not breed Wolfdogs - every animal here is spayed or neutered.
Roam is open to tours by appointment, we met a group of siblings that came all the way from Buffalo, New York for a tour.
"It seems like they live a really good life here, I'm a little jealous, being cooped up in the city, of the world that they get to inhabit,” said Josh Miller after meeting the pack.
There's even a gift shop, and a resident husky - who's got zero wolf in him and enjoys scritches from visitors.
But the highlight of each tour is always when Riggs, an ambassador animal that is 95% gray wolf, starts to howl and the other Wolfdogs join him.
“To hear them howl kind of lit up that child heart inside of me, I felt like I was a little kid watching National Geographic. Just incredible,” said Jessica Miller, who toured the facility with her siblings.
A sound connecting everyone who hears it - to something wild.
“We're hoping to create a lasting memory for people, to have a greater understanding of what they are,” Jodi said.
Roam Wolfdog Sanctuary offers daily tours by appointment only, book online or call 360-915-4317.
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