Wednesday is wolf day (Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, NM)

Good idea.

Idly checking my phone in the cozy living room of the Inn at Halona in the middle of Zuni Pueblo. When I'm away from home, Google always likes to suggest cool things to do nearby. Creepy, yet convenient. (Huh, is that the internet privacy debate in a nutshell?)

If we'd known it was down more than five miles of dirt road we might have had second thoughts. But we did not, and the road was called Candy Kitchen Road, and so off we went. (NB there was no candy kitchen - we was robbed!)

The Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary rescues wolves and other canids, mostly from misguided attempts of private owners to keep them as pets or in personal collections. There are lots of levels of 'experience' available, but we just did the walking around tour, which came with free bonus squelching in thick, clayey, mud.

Wolf actual

While we waited for our tour guide, we were treated to a group howl. I recorded the tail end of it, as it were ...

What if I never find out who's a good boy?

All the photos are through wire fence - if you think about it this is probably a good idea, too. There was a variety of wolf species and wolf-dog mixes, all resplendent in their furriest winter coats.

I learned how to tell a wolf from a dog (eye colour, ear shape, tail, skull shape, hips, stride, and a few things that you'd need to actually get up really close to check, such as a pea-sized gland half-way down the tail!) What intrigued me the most was the guide's stories about wolves' behaviour, personalities and interactions - they sounded much more like cats than dogs.

Some of them were real attention-seekers, trotting out ready to be admired - our guide told us though that some residents are kept far away from visitors. A lot of these animals have been treated horribly, neglected or abused, before they're rescued, and some never psychologically recover well enough to feel okay around people.

we r not shibes, lol.

Not only adorbs but we can sing, too. 

They also have a few dingoes who had been smuggled out of Aussie (world's thickest customs officer apparently believed that they were Shiba Inu).

And most unusually, several New Guinea singing dogs. I had no idea these were even a thing.

Fox is so fluffy

And last of all, a dear round red fox was curled up in his corner.

Phone, you were right.

Best shipwreck ever (Sandbar Resort, Parker AZ)

Looking for somewhere to eat, we were attracted by the riverside location and all the pretty Christmas lights. When we went in, everyone was outside on the deck - and when we went outside on the deck, it looked like a private party. I asked.

"Yes it is," said the man behind the bar, "but you're invited."

In which we strike gold at Tonopah (Whitney's Bookshelf Used Book Store)

Oh a real, proper, second-hand bookshop. Feels like home just to walk in. The front window had already told us there was a wide and deep collection ... the owner greeted us warmly as we came in, and gave us the keys to the city - or, at least, showed us the filing system.

The Teen immediately vanished into the back reaches, while Simon and I browsed the local and mining books first. (I'm still looking out for those books on Pioche history!) I found Michael Moore's Medicinal Plants of the Desert and Canyon West, which had been on my list for a while. Score!