Sorry, Obama doesn't run with the wolves

Wolves found no sanctuary at CSU Sunday.

Barack Obama's appearances in Denver and Fort Collins on October 26 set records for starstruck crowds and creative guesstimates of crowd size by reporters. But the Democratic presidential hopeful's latest swing through our candidate-besieged state (you'd think we had ninety electoral votes here, not nine) also left a local wolf sanctuary hustling to keep its most important fundraising event from being derailed by the Obama Express.

Frank Wendland, cofounder of WOLF (Wolves Offered Life & Friendship), reports that his small nonprofit had reserved the Oval on the Colorado State University campus as the launch point for the group's annual 5K race on Saturday, October 25. Two days before the race, though, Wendland was told that CSU had another event planned for the same area over the weekend and couldn't allow his donors to use the Oval. Wendland figured out that it was Obama and hastily tried to alert runners of a new starting location.

"We are honored to have his presence in our area," a diplomatic press release croons, "and we are happy to step aside for his campaign. We are doing everything within our power to rearrange our event and mitigate any losses."

Like the Wild Animal Sanctuary I profiled in "Survivor of the Fittest", WOLF has been helping hungry, homeless carnivores for more than a decade. But when a presidential candidate comes to town, the local causes have to step aside and let the big dog eat. -- Alan Prendergast