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ENTERPRISE - As she was letting her dog out into her large, fenced yard in Enterprise on the evening of Nov. 19, Lori Lund was aware a wolf had been spotted around the community.

She looked around the well-lit yard to make sure there was no wolf in sight.

This wolf was wandering in and around Enterprise for at least a week before a renewable resources officer shot the animal dead on Nov. 24. - photo courtesy of Lori Lund

As she opened the door, her Maltese poodle - just a puppy - scooted past her and was instantly attacked by a wolf.

The predator had been lying out of sight under a table next to the door.

"I froze. I couldn't move," Lund said. "Once I realized what was happening, I pulled the door shut and screamed."

Lund said her dog just let out one big cry after being attacked.

"He didn't have a chance," she said.

For Lund, it was "pretty eerie" to think a wolf was wandering around the community.

According to her partner Joe Warren, after killing their dog, the wolf went to the other side of the yard and laid down, before jumping over the fence and disappearing.

"Never in the world did I think he would come up on our porch," Warren said, adding the wolf had chewed leather gloves on the table.

"It's pretty scary," he added.

Warren and Lund live in the RTL-Robinson Enterprises Ltd. yard on the north side of Enterprise.

Warren said he did not have a gun or he would have shot the animal.

The adult male wolf was wandering around Enterprise for at least six days before being shot and killed on Nov. 24.

The first shots were fired by Cory Rieger, who lives across the street from the ball diamond.

"I already put five shots in him before Ron got there," said Rieger, referring to renewable resources officer Ron Antoine from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR).

Rieger said he had let his dog out into his yard and was watching over it with a .22-calibre rifle when the wolf appeared.

"It just came out of nowhere," he said, speculating the wolf might have been under his trailer home.

Rieger said he was concerned his dog was going to be attacked.

"I wasn't going to let it happen and everybody is happy I did what I did," he said.

After being shot, the wolf retreated under the trailer.

Rieger called ENR and Antoine came to his residence.

Antoine crawled underneath the trailer to dispatch the wolf.

The renewable resources officer was about a dozen feet away from the animal and fired six shots from a .22-calibre rifle to kill it.

"It was kind of difficult to get him in a fatal spot," Antoine said.

Those two incidents were the closest encounters with the wolf, but many other people in Enterprise saw it.

Mavis Wasp-Colin saw the animal on Nov. 23.

She said her two children had gone to a store where they were warned a wolf had been spotted in town.

When they returned home, Wasp-Colin looked out the window and saw the wolf, which she described as grey and white.

"It was a pretty big wolf," Wasp-Colin said. "It was sort of skinny looking, too."

She said she was scared when she saw the wolf, especially since her children had just been outside.

For the next couple of days, she took precautions.

"I kept them in and told them not to go anywhere," she said, adding she also waited outside with them in the morning for the school bus to take them to Hay River.

"They were pretty scared," she said. "They didn't want to wait for the bus."

Scottie Edgerton, Enterprise's senior administrative officer, didn't see the wolf himself, but said many residents were "terrified" the animal was in town.

"We were pretty wary, because this thing roamed the streets," he said. "It had no fear whatsoever."

ENR first received a call about the wolf on Nov. 19.

Antoine and Jerry Hordal, another renewable resources officer from Hay River, went to Enterprise that afternoon and spotted the wolf walking on a snowmobile trail on the edge of the community.

They fired a cracker shell from a pistol to drive the wolf away from town.

"It scared it off and we patrolled that end of the community," Hordal said.

"We didn't see it back there at all in the next two-and-a-half hours."

Hordal said the attempt was made to scare away the animal because it was not an immediate threat.

"We were hoping we wouldn't see it again there," he said.

According to Hordal, the wolf was a bit on the skinny side, there was no indication it was suffering from any disease.

Warren said another two or three other wolves have been spotted around Enterprise.

Antoine said the other wolves appear to be wandering between the dump, several km away, and the outskirts of the community.

"They're not inside the community like the last one," he said.

ENR has set a trap and 10 quick-kill snares to prevent the other wolves from entering the community.

Antoine said, while Rieger's actions in shooting the wolf were permissible for safety reasons, the department doesn't recommend people use firearms inside the community.

Instead, he said residents should call ENR to deal with any wolf they see.

Hordal said a wolf is not in the same category as a bear when it comes to being a danger to people.

"There have been very few documented cases where a wolf has done anything to a person," he said. "They're more of a danger to pets."

Hordal added it is unusual for a wolf to hang around a community, adding it might stay if it finds food. He advises people not to leave pet food or garbage outside which might attract wild animals.