Verified wolf threat in Arbor Vitae

Early Monday morning Nick Krueger was awakened by his hunting dogs barking outside.

“It isn’t super uncommon,” he said of the barking. “They might bark once in a while at a deer or a fox or whatever, but then they really started barking.” By the sounds of the dogs, he knew something was not right. He ran out to the run where the dogs were, which is 20-30 yards from his house, to find a wolf standing approximately 2 feet from one of this dogs, just out of reach of the dog. He later found tracks that went into the run where his dogs live.

He yelled and screamed at the wolf, shining a flashlight toward it. The wolf finally retreated, but not far.

“He stood there about 10 yards from the dogs and just stared at me,” Krueger said. “I went closer to the dogs and he moved another 10 yards, but just stood there and stared at me.” The wolf did this repeatedly, retreated only a few yards at a time, Krueger said.

Krueger said he continued to yell and scream at the wolf until it finally moved off into the woods.

Krueger said he no longer feels comfortable keeping his dogs at home. The dogs spent the rest of Monday morning in his garage, and he has since moved them to his parents house out of concern that the wolf will come back as it knows where the dogs are.

“I mean, I’m worried about my dogs, obviously, but I have kids,” He said. “My neighbors have kids. They run back and forth through the woods doing what kids do — playing outside.”

This is not the first time a wolf has been seen in the area, which is less than a mile north of Arbor Vitae Woodruff School, he added.

Krueger said his neighbor saw the wolf not a week earlier across the road and there was another report of what he thought was likely the same animal.

Krueger called the Department of Natural Resources about the encounter. Jeremy Irish of U.S.D.A. came to document the report on Tuesday. Krueger said Irish documented it as a threat to pet and to human safety.

“This thing was not afraid of me at all,” he said. “The thing was not scared. But there’s nothing they can do about it.” 

He said he wanted to make sure people in the area are vigilant when it comes to their kids and pets with the wolf still in the area. 

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].