Loner

Should you be afraid of a lone, injured wolf? Trula Kielblock didn’t think so. With one look into the wolf ’s eyes, Trula realized she had made a connection with this animal that she’d never had with any creature before. The wolf, emaciated and afraid, first appeared from the forest in September 1997. With a daily offering of food mixed with medicine, Trula gained the trust of this magnificent animal and brought him back to health. After several months, he had gained the name Loner and was hanging around on the fringes of the resort. He showed a kind, caring nature, playing gently with guests’ dogs and only approaching people who seemed comfortable around him. He seemed to have found a pack.

Should you be afraid of a lone, injured wolf? Trula Kielblock didn’t think so. With one look into the wolf ’s eyes, Trula realized she had made a connection with this animal that she’d never had with any creature before. The wolf, emaciated and afraid, first appeared from the forest in September 1997. With a daily offering of food mixed with medicine, Trula gained the trust of this magnificent animal and brought him back to health. After several months, he had gained the name Loner and was hanging around on the fringes of the resort. He showed a kind, caring nature, playing gently with guests’ dogs and only approaching people who seemed comfortable around him. He seemed to have found a pack. In Loner, Spirit of Odell Lake, Trula tells the moving story of how Loner became the resident wolf of Shelter Cove Resort. She shares tales that reveal his startling intelligence and sensitivity, his abilities as a tour guide for resort guests, and his adventures with favored dog friends. Loner the wolf even became a healing presence for guests who had serious illness. However, not everyone who visited Shelter Cove Resort mixed well with a wolf. Trula and Jim contended with occasional visitors whose character was far less admirable than Loner’s. In the wolf ’s later life, such an encounter brought his very life into danger. Trula and Jim fought fiercely to allow Loner to remain free and at home at the resort. Over the years of Loner’s sojourn at Odell Lake, he gained a large group of fans, many of whom have their own stories about this loving and adventurous wolf. Several of their stories conclude this memoir. Loner brought the wild to Shelter Cove Resort, but during his life with Trula and Jim, he lived out the kind of caring and integrity that we would wish for in a very best friend.

Trula Kielblock is a graduate from Eastern Washington University, with a bachelor’s degree in Social Work. Trula was born in Tennessee, but raised primarily in Washington. After graduation from college, Trula entered the work force as a Probation Officer. After working as a Probation Officer in Spokane, Wa. and Albany, Oregon, she and her husband decided to quit their jobs, sell their small farm, drive thru espresso shop and buy a resort in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. Jim and Trula have owned and operated the resort since 1997, and are still residing there as of 2012. The Kielblock’s have 5 children, and 11 grandchildren. Trula has always loved animals, and has been a staunch supporter of wildlife in general. Trula has raised numerous baby robins that fell out of their nests, wild jackrabbits, a fox, and taken in many stray animals. At the resort she enjoys hand feeding the birds, squirrels, and raccoons that come to their back door each evening for handouts.