Rhode Island
Wolf dogs that once roamed Warwick have built a bond between RI and Ohio sanctuary
One year later, a strong bond has developed between Rhode Island and the Ohio sanctuary that rescued a pair of wolf dogs from Warwick.
When she finally agreed to take in a pair of wolf dogs that had been running wild in Warwick a year ago, Susan Vogt didn’t realize she was starting a relationship with a lot of Rhode Island residents that would end up helping support and expand her Ohio wolf-dog sanctuary.
Since the canine sisters, initially thought to be “black coyotes,” arrived at the Red Riding Hood Rescue Project last May, Rhode Islanders have donated thousands of dollars, food and toys, which have supported not just the two “401 Girls” but all 22 of the sanctuary’s wolf dogs, said Vogt, co-founder and president.
“What happened was the biggest blessing,” said Vogt, whose three-year-old nonprofit rescue relies entirely on donations. “Rhode Islanders have been tremendously supportive.”
More: ‘Fresh start:’ Warwick wolf dogs start their new life in Ohio in the ‘401 Run’
Here are some examples of the connection between Rhode Island and the Ohio rescue often called just “The Red”:
- A Coventry woman and her boyfriend drove 15 hours from Rhode Island to Middletown, Ohio, to deliver the wolf dogs to their new home.
- A Warwick woman has become one of the rescue’s volunteers, flying to Ohio to help out.
- A Providence woman has provided thousands of dollars in matching funds for several projects to expand and improve the rescue. Vogt calls her “our East Coast Advocate,” because she also hands out the rescue’s business cards and spreads the word about its mission.
- The sanctuary keeps an active Facebook page with frequent updates on the wolf dogs. “Our digital analysis still shows Rhode Island is our biggest audience,” Vogt said.
Just last week, after Vogt mentioned on Facebook that the sanctuary was running low on meat, a Rhode Island woman contacted her to say she would send deer and bear meat recently harvested by family members.
More: DNA test confirms Warwick dogs mistaken for coyotes are part wolf. Here’s how much.
Last spring the ‘black coyotes’ made big news in Rhode Island
This time last spring, the two wolf dog pups, then called Libby and Bella, caused a stir running free around Warwick. They were eventually captured and ended up in the custody of the Warwick Animal Shelter but couldn’t stay in Rhode Island because it’s illegal to keep wolf dogs here.
When Ann Corvin, director of the Warwick Animal Shelter, called to ask if The Red could take the wolf dogs, Vogt said no; her sanctuary was full. Corvin didn’t give up, and Vogt eventually gave in.
The dogs, renamed Wiley and Willow, have been at the sanctuary for almost a year and have nearly doubled in size. Wiley is about 95 pounds; Willow, a little shorter in length and height, weighs about 85 or 90 pounds. At about 1½ years old, they’re yearlings and still growing.
“They are doing really well,” Vogt said. “They have settled in. They know the routine.”
Wiley is a “rascal” and a quick learner, Vogt said, while Willow prefers to “stay in the shadows.” Delivery trucks often pull up to The Red with gifts for the wolf dogs, many from Rhode Islanders. Willow loves carrying stuffed animals in her mouth. “When people send her stuffies,” Vogt said, “it’s like her emotional support animal.”
A lot of people have asked about adopting Wiley and Willow, but they’re not ready for that. “They have this edge to them,” Vogt said. “They were treated poorly. They were running loose.”
With the sanctuary’s wolf dogs, one of the milestones comes when the animals allow a handler to place a slip leash over their heads so they can go out for walks. That kind of trust also makes it easier for veterinarians to work with the animals. Willow and Wiley haven’t gotten there yet.
“It’s work, and it’s a very slow process,” Vogt said.
‘This is a good place for them’
Danielle Verrier, of Coventry, is an animal lover, but her boyfriend, Alex Clarke, of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is the one who had experience working with wolf dogs. When Clarke asked Verrier last year whether she would drive 830 miles with him to deliver the animals, Verrier “didn’t think twice about driving 15 hours. I said, ‘No problem. We’ll make it work,’” Verrier recalled recently.
With the air-conditioning blasting to keep the animals comfortable, the couple drove straight through. “When you’ve got a couple of wolf dogs with you, you can’t really stop at a hotel,” Verrier said.
Arriving at The Red, Verrier immediately got a good vibe. Having worked with other rescue organizations, Verrier believes she can sense when the humans are in it for the animals. She remembered thinking, “Oh, yeah. This is a good place for them. Everyone cares so much for these animals.”
After staying a couple of days in May, Clarke and Verrier returned in July for a visit. Verrier said, “They’re my Ohio friends now.”
Helping out a long way from Rhode Island
Caring for 22 wolf dogs requires a lot of hard work, and the Red Riding Hood Rescue Project relies on many volunteers. Alicia Bigos is a little different from the sanctuary’s other volunteers, because she lives in Warwick and flies to Ohio to help out.
Bigos has gone twice, helping with tasks such as feeding, cleaning up after the animals and providing enrichment. She plans another visit at the end of this month. The rescue doesn’t accept just anyone, according to Vogt, but requires its volunteers to pass a training program.
Bigos has always been “fascinated” by wolf dogs and “absolutely fell in love” with them on her first visit, she said. “Susan and her husband [Colin] are such welcoming people. I instantly felt at home, like I belonged there.”
“We all love her,” Vogt said. “We want her to move here.”
More: Mistaken for coyotes in Warwick, turns out Bella and Libby were puppies – the domestic kind
‘She has built this place’
Vogt hopes to soon meet a woman who is perhaps the sanctuary’s greatest Rhode Island supporter, Alicia Mancini, of Providence.
“I have yet to meet her, but I adore her,” Vogt said.
Mancini and her husband, Rob, have provided thousands of dollars in matching funds for several projects. They’ve helped expand Willow and Wiley’s pen, which, in turn, enabled an expansion of the entire facility, allowing the rescue to build more pens and take in more animals.
They’ve donated money to extend water lines from Vogt’s house to the wolf-dog pens so volunteers don’t have to lug water buckets a quarter mile, and they’ve also donated, so the rescue could put down thousands of yards of gravel to keep the animals and volunteers out of the mud.
“She has built this place, I told her,” Vogt said. “She’s done a tremendous amount of good.”
Mancini and her husband have provided their financial support anonymously. To show their gratitude, The Red named its expanded section after their pet cat, Kurtz.
Vogt calls Mancini The Red’s “East Coast Advocate.” She sent her business cards, which Mancini hands out to friends and family. Mancini sometimes wears a Red Riding Hood Rescue shirt and finds that people will often ask her about it. She often tells them about the rescue and the mission and hands them a card.
Helping the wolf dogs at The Red “feels good,” Mancini said.
“It’s worth it,” she said. “It’s a wonderful thing.”
WATCH: URI women’s basketball clinches A-10 regular-season championship
The Rhode Island women’s team beat George Washington University 72-48 on Saturday, Feb. 28, clinching the Atlantic 10 regular-season championship
SOUTH KINGSTOWN – What was a peerless achievement in University of Rhode Island women’s basketball history now has some company just four short years later.
The Rams are Atlantic 10 regular-season champions again after a special Saturday afternoon in Kingston, a coronation more than a contest against visiting George Washington.
The Revolutionaries never had a chance after the hosts got off to a sharp start at the Ryan Center. URI left no doubt in front of its best crowd of the season, and a significant portion of that gathering stuck around long after the final whistle to see the nets cut down again.
It was all Rams in this 72-48 cruise, a result that matched what was a first in 2022-23 and handed URI a No. 1 seed in the upcoming conference tournament. George Mason dropped to the No. 2 spot despite posting the same 16-2 league record as the Rams, and that came thanks to a comprehensive 79-63 defeat in a Valentine’s Day matchup.
“There’s nothing more satisfying as a coach than to have the confetti fall and to cut down nets with this group of young women,” URI coach Tammi Reiss said. “I’ve never been prouder.”
URI scored on each of its first five offensive possessions and authored a masterpiece through the opening three quarters. It was only in the fourth when Reiss emptied her bench that George Washington showed any semblance of being able to keep pace. Palmire Mbu led three in double figures with 23 points, and Sophia Vital played yet another complete all-around game to help the Rams run roughshod.
“We were just extra motivated today,” Mbu said. “We wanted to do great for our crowd.
“Just trying my best. Trying to be aggressive and to give solutions on offense and defense. It felt good.”
URI owned a 21-point lead entering the final 10 minutes, thanks to 18 assists, just two turnovers and 63.4% shooting from the field. The Rams buried the offensive struggles they experienced in road losses to La Salle and Richmond with what had been a typical display of crisp execution. URI closed 26-for-35 from 2-point range, collected 48 points in the paint and racked up another 17 off Revolutionaries turnovers.
“I do believe the last four years we had talented teams – we had talented players,” URI guard Ines Debroise said. “But I think it’s also how we can put all the pieces of the puzzle together. This year that’s what we were going to do from day one.”
Mbu’s bucket off a Vanessa Harris steal gave the Rams a 25-10 lead and forced a George Washington timeout with 6:38 left in the second quarter. It seemed just a matter of time before this one was out of reach, and Brooklyn Gray followed a Debroise 3-pointer with a pair of layups to make it a 32-12 cushion. URI’s lead never dipped under 12 points again, and Mbu’s hook in the lane capped an 8-0 run that took it back to 58-38 with 1:00 left in the third.
Video of URI coach Tammi Reiss speaking postgame on Feb. 28
URI women’s basketball beats George Washington to win the Atlantic 10 regular-season championship
“They were sharing the ball in a championship game,” Reiss said. “It wasn’t 1-on-1. That’s what makes this team special.”
The Rams (25-4, 16-2 Atlantic 10) set a new program best for conference wins in a season and are now one shy from a new overall mark – they collected 26 while making a run to the WNIT Round of 16 in 2022-23. URI shared the league crown with rival Massachusetts that year before suffering a semifinal upset against Saint Louis and missing out on a third meeting with the Minutewomen.
“Their job is to show up and be us,” Reiss said. “Execute our game plan with discipline and ferocity for 40 minutes. Our job is to manage them – their health, their minutes.”
The Revolutionaries (15-16, 7-11 Atlantic 10) dropped to the No. 10 seed in the upcoming conference tournament and will play No. 7 Saint Louis in the second round on Thursday, March 5. The Rams will open Friday’s quarterfinals in an 11 a.m. tip on the USA Network against either No. 8 Loyola Chicago or No. 9 St. Bonaventure. No. 4 Davidson and No. 5 Saint Joseph’s are in URI’s half of the bracket, while the second-seeded Patriots and third-seeded Spiders could be on a semifinal collision course in the other half at Henrico Sports & Events Center.
“It’s going to be tough for everybody – probably three games in three days,” Mbu said. “We’ve got to push to the end and play like we’ve been doing.”
GEORGE WASHINGTON (48): Sara Lewis 2-10 2-2 6, Gabby Reynolds 7-13 2-2 17, Tanah Becker 1-2 1-1 3, Mia James 2-6 0-0 4, Kamari Sims 2-4 0-0 4, Emma Theodorsson 0-6 2-2 2, Jaeda Wilson 1-2 0-0 2, Filipa Calisto 2-2 0-0 4, Colleen Phiri 0-0 0-0 0, Caia Loving 2-2 0-0 4, Payton Dulin 1-1 0-2 2. Totals 20-48 7-9 48.
RHODE ISLAND (72): Palmire Mbu 9-14 3-4 23, Albina Syla 5-6 0-0 10, Brooklyn Gray 5-6 0-0 11, Sophia Vital 3-6 1-2 7, Ines Debroise 4-7 0-0 9, Vanessa Harris 3-7 0-0 7, Aimee Michel 2-2 0-0 4, Valentina Ojeda 0-2 0-0 0, Ta’Viyanna Habib 0-0 0-0 0, Eva Agba 0-1 1-2 1. Totals 31-51 5-8 72.
Halftime – RI, 40-25. 3-point FG – GW 1-8 (Reynolds 1-2, Becker 0-1, James 0-2, Sims 0-1, Theodorsson 0-2), RI 5-16 (Mbu 2-4, Gray 1-1, Vital 0-2, Debroise 1-4, Harris 1-2, Ojeda 0-2, Agba 0-1). Rebounds – GW 23 (Sims 5), RI 26 (Vital 6). Assists – GW 7 (Sims 2, Loving 2), RI 21 (Vital 7). Turnovers – GW 13 (Sims 4), RI 7 (Gray 2, Harris 2). Blocked shots – GW 2 (James 1, Loving 1), RI 3 (Mbu 2). Steals – GW 3 (Lewis 1, James 1, Sims 1), RI 6 (Vital 3). Attendance – 6,580.
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On X: @BillKoch25
While shoveling his driveway during yet another winter storm, a man in Providence, Rhode Island found something rather unexpected—a very cold giant lizard. Fortunately, the animal rehabilitation experts at the New England Wildlife Center found that besides being very dehydrated and having frostbite on its tongue and toes, the female tegu named Frankie was doing okay.
Tegus are large South American reptiles, so how did Frankie end up in the middle of a snowstorm in New England? Tess Gannaway, a veterinarian at the wildlife center who treated Frankie, tells Popular Science that she was probably someone’s pet.
“Given their size they often roam folk’s homes like dogs or cats and there is a chance that in warmer months Frankie escaped and was surviving on her own outside until the weather got too cold for her to manage,” Gannaway explains. There’s also the more unfortunate possibility that the lizard was recently abandoned.
Either way, Frankie was likely unable to pull her tongue back into her mouth at the start of the storm, which caused the frostbite on both her tongue and her toes. The tongue frostbite is particularly notable because known cases of animals with mucus membrane related frostbite are exceedingly unusual. Because of the frostbite, Frankie no longer has the iconic reptilian V-shape in her tongue.
In fact, veterinary medicine as a whole didn’t have any published accounts of such an affliction. As such, Gannaway and her veterinary student turned to human medical literature to decide on Frankie’s best treatment option, and ultimately identified what they were looking for.
This “is really cool and an example of something in veterinary medicine and other fields we call one health, so the intersection between human and animal health,” Gannaway explained in a New England Wildlife Center video.
In the human report, a portion of a patient’s tongue had unintentionally frozen because of a medical intervention in the mouth. Doctors then removed the dead external tissue a number of times, healing the injury within three weeks.
Similarly, the team at the New England Wildlife Center aims to remove part of Frankie’s dead tongue tissue every two or three weeks. Hopefully, the tongue will heal on its own, but the good news is that tongues are rapid healers.
Gannaway says that the team is “cautiously optimistic” about Frankie’s future.
“She did great during her first debridement [the tissue removal] and has moved on from liquid to solid food. New England Wildlife Centers’ Veterinarians will keep checking her tongue every 2 weeks to see if she needs further sedation to remove more superficial tissue,” she adds.“Until then she is on pain medications and an antibiotic. Tegus can live normal lives with only part of their tongue so as long as we can get her tongue to stabilize she should be ready to live a warmer although slightly less adventurous life.”
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Police bodycam footage shows the moments officers arrived to the scene of a deadly mass shooting in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
The shooting on Feb. 16 at the Dennis M. Lynch Arena killed Rhonda Dorgan and Aidan Dorgan, the ex-wife and son of the shooter, who died by suicide.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.
Gerald Dorgan, Rhonda’s father, died from his injuries this week. His wife, Linda Dorgan, and family friend Thomas Geruso remain hospitalized.
Around five minutes after the first officer arrives, he beings helping paramedics with a man who identifies himself as Aidan. Twelve minutes in, Aidan Dorgan is transported to the hospital, where he would later die from his injuries.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), visiting www.thehotline.org or texting LOVEIS to 22522.
For the last 10 minutes of the footage, the officer then begins helping paramedics transport the other three gunshot victims.
The video ends with police prepping witness interviews.
The shooting rocked the Pawtucket community. Chris Librizzi, head coach of the Blackstone Valley Schools hockey team impacted by the shooting, said the players and coaching staff “are devastated over the events that took place at Lynch Arena on Monday and intimately affected one of our teammates.”
As authorities continue investigating the shooting in Pawtucket, three patients remain in critical condition.
“We will lean on each other and support one another, as we have always done as a team,” he added.
Pawtucket police said two handguns were found at the scene after the shooting, a Sig Sauer P226 and Glock. Other weapons have been seized at the suspect’s storage unit in Maine.
Investigators continue reviewing all video evidence from before, during and after the shooting, including surveillance footage from the Dennis M. Lynch Arena, police body-worn camera footage and other records — a high school sports livestream captured the shooting from a distance — police said.
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