Maverick, a no name wolfdog rescue from New Jersey, who used to live at Full Moon Farm on the outskirts of Black Mountain, is a movie star.
Several months ago Maverick was adopted by Gentle Jungle in California.
“It was his here comes trouble look on the face that made them interested in him,” Nancy Brown, owner of Full Moon Farm, Incorporated, said. “He couldn’t be placed in a home with small children or other animals because of his strong prey drive. The same people who adopted him have supplied wolfdogs for the movies, ‘Dances With Wolves,’ and the ‘Lord of the Rings’ series.”
The wolfdogs were kept in quarantine at a facility near Auckland, New Zealand, until they began work on “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” produced by Disney. Wolves and horses were the only live animals used in the movie. All other animals featured in the $170 million movie, including the reindeer and Aslan the Lion, are computer-generated. The wolfdogs will return home as soon their scenes are completed.
Trainer Eadie McMullan said because the animals were not full-blooded wolves, only some were natural howlers, but she did not see that as a problem.
During the shoot they tracked through snow, knocked over furniture, snarled, bared their big teeth and howled in a wolf-like way.
