PORT LUDLOW — A gold-winged Emmy towers over the television set.
Portraits of movie-star parents line the walls.
But the images Colleen Paige wants to talk about are the 3-by-5 snapshots she keeps in a plain plastic cover.
“This is me with Dakota,” Paige says, pointing to a photograph of herself nose to nose with a wolf.
“He doesn’t like women and he doesn’t like blondes, but he let me get this close to him after 10 minutes.”
Paige is an animal trainer and author who lives in Port Ludlow. She’s also the director of Wild Eyes Sanctuary, a rescue home in northwest Montana for tigers, lions and other animals that have been abandoned by their owners.
Because of the danger of wildfires, Paige plans to relocate the sanctuary to the Olympic Peninsula, and is putting together a proposal for a television show on animal rescue that would be filmed at it.
‘Fuzzy or furry’
“I love animals of any kind, fuzzy or furry,” Paige said. “I love rats and snakes — nothing scares me.”
As a noted dog trainer, Paige has appeared on Animal Planet, the cable TV channel, and is the author of an audio book, Dog Drool, coming out in print this fall.
She has also done radio, writes for magazines and, two years ago, came into contact with the owners of Wild Eyes while working on a television project called “Canine Design.”
They asked her to become involved in the sanctuary, which shelters 30 animals, including seven tigers, a Barbary lion, two bears, a spotted leopard, a black panther, a bobcat, other small mammals and a collection of cockatiels.
“We want to make sure these animals are as safe as possible,” Paige said.
“This is supposed to be the worst year for fires.”
For more information about Wild Eyes Sanctuary, log onto www.wildeyesfoundation.org or call Colleen Paige at 360-437-9460.
Information about dog training services and her audio book, Dog Drool, is on her Web site, www.universitydog.com.
