When I was younger I used to go to the Kent County Show each year, watching the livestock and coming back with all sorts of leaflets, free samples and goodies. Around eight years ago they had huskies at the show and I was entranced - they reminded me very much of wolves. Shortly afterwards I joined the UK Wolf Conservation Trust and ever since then I've dreamed of seeing the wolves at the Kent Show. Well, last Thursday that dream came true as the team set off from leafy Berkshire for the showground at Detling.


I was due to meet everyone at the showground in the afternoon, but thanks to several accidents on the M25 it was into the evening before I got the call to head off. The showground is massive and it brought back all sorts of memories returning there, this time from the stallholders perspective...

It had been a hot day with temperatures in the high 20s and the heat lingered as we put up the cage. By the time we'd finished it was dark - I said my goodbyes and headed back northwards to the Isle of Sheppey.



Friday dawned sunny and warm, with an overnight low of 16C. I arrived at the showground to find everyone else had erected the merchandise tent and safety fencing - and there were some mutterings about the number of bugs flying around in the woods at night! The wolves were lead into the cage and soon made themselves at home.



We started getting visitors before the official 8 AM start and that set the scene - it would be eleven hours later before we called it a day. As the wolves haven't been to the Kent show before there was a lot of media interest. During the day Radio Kent and Invicta FM recorded interviews and we also had a visit from the Meridian news crew, who filmed their reporter doing a "meet and greet" with the wolves:



We also had some VIPs visiting the stand - the Duke of Gloucester, Lord Astor of Hever and the Lord Lieutenant of Kent stopped for a quick chat about the wolves and the Trust. They were amongst the hundreds of people who hopefully went home understanding more about wolves, their place in the enivornment and how, given proper socialisation, their innate fear of humans can be overcome.

As the stalls surrounding us started closing down it was time to nip off to the icecream van and I came back with the usual "Mr Whippy" type cones for the wolves, both of which vanished in the blink of an eye!



Saturday dawned with some clouds in the sky and after Friday's high of around 26C it felt much fresher - not that the wolves had been bothered as the enclosure was in a shady area of the showground. As on Friday I had a go at everything from working on the stall to chatting with the public and helping out with "meet and greets", both as a handler and as backup, making sure people only stroked the wolves on their bellies rather than their backs and the like. It's amazing how many people don't listen and a few even tried to stroke the wolves on the head... The reason we don't allow that is because wolves take that as a sign of dominance and although they'll accept it from us it's not wise to have a complete newcomer to them doing it.


A view from inside the merchandise tent

As with the other days, I had a fair few people moan at me because the wolves looked too thin! Compared to dogs who'll scoff anything you give them, wolves will only eat what they need. They're also in their summer coats and as most people think of wolves in their winter finery it's no wonder some people felt the wolves looked on the thin side. However, the vast majority accepted our explanations with only a few refusing to believe that the wolves were in fact in tip-top condition.

A similar thing happened with those complaining about the wolves being tranquilised and how awful it was of us to do that to them. Of course we'd never do such a thing as there's simply no need to - Duma and Dakota, like the other wolves at the Trust were handreared from cubs and don't have that innate fear of humans that non-handreared wolves have. During the heat of the day they prefer to doze, exactly as wild wolves would - something that's lost on a lot of people. If only the naysayers had seen the wolves later that evening as they were given hotdogs as a treat!



There wasn't as much media attention on Saturday, although a group from Life TV (a Sky channel) did some filming and recorded a lengthy interview.



Saturday was much busier than Friday - the former saw 20,000 visitors, with over 80,000 between Saturday and Sunday. Nonetheless by six o'clock the visitors started to dwindle away and we packed up for another day.

That evening back home was sweltering as the house had been shut up all day - it was a toasty 33C as I tried to get to sleep. By the following morning it was actually cold for July outside, with temperatures hovering around 11C. I arrived at the showground to find that almost everyone had gone to have breakfast, so I waited for them to return. Once they came back it was time for something special - the wolves were taken for a walk in the woods behind the stand.



The wolves had been taken out after I'd left the previous couple of nights, but this was the first time I'd seen them out there - they really enjoyed themselves.



Sunday went much as Friday and Saturday had - sunny, hot, a gentle breeze by mid afternoon and clouds of dust billowing around. With no rain since the first week of July and only a few drops in the month and a half before that the ground was baked solid and it didn't take much to cause dust clouds to form. It was quite interesting as I'm used to dusty air but for those from Berkshire it proved quite annoying! So much for the "garden of England" though...

Once again I had a go at pretty much everything and once again the wolves were great with the public, snoozing for much of the day as well.





After dashing around the show and grabbing some delicious cherries and a baguette there was some quality time with the wolves, another round of meet and greets then the final set of icecreams for Duma and Dakota.

Then the long task of taking everything down began as the show closed its gates - the grass had gone quite yellow where the hordes had watched the wolves!



Finally after saying my goodbyes (and feeling quite sad it had all come to an end) I headed back home, pulling up in Leysdown just after 9 PM - in time to see the sun set.



It's a closerun thing but I think it's fair to say that show just pips my trip to Ely in Minnesota as the best thing that's ever happened to me - even now it feels like a wonderful dream!

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