Wolves in the Wets

Traveling up to our land this morning where we are going to build a cabin, I saw a gray wolf.  I was a bit surprised, as there aren't supposed to be any wolves this far south in Colorado.  Or anywhere in Colorado for that matter.  At first I thought it might be a coyote, which are thick as the thieves they are, in the Wet Mountains where we have our little slice of heaven.  But I can tell a coyote from a wolf, and this was a wolf. 
I asked around in the town of Westcliffe if there had been any other wolf sitings.  I found out that there is a wolf breeder, or researcher, the folks in town were divided on that, that has on occasion, "lost" a wolf into the wild.  Some of the people believe he lets them loose when they are too old to be of use (which would make him a breeder, I think).  Not sure why he wouldn't just euthanize them, it would seem to be more humane than just letting them go into the wild where they will likely die of starvation.  Anyway, he must have let another one get "lost", because I saw a wolf standing in a patch of aspen trees, in a big snowfield, checking out the mule deer in the draw below.  When I stopped to take a picture, he took off into the trees. 
I'm actually kinda fond of the idea that there might be wolves where we build our cabin.  There's all sorts of cool things that happen when a whole pack end up taking residence.