The real Wolf Canyon Ranch, which is mostly portrayed accurately in the novels was started in 1980 with a small herd of llamas, which grew to over one hundred along with twenty alpacas. There were two dromedary camels, a small herd of reindeer, a large heard of fallow deer (Tinkerbell was a spotted fallow deer), cows including highland cows, one zebra-donkey, and over a dozen horses. The llamas were primarily a breeding herd but later they were used for packing into the Pasayten Wilderness, north of the ranch along the Canadian border. All the animal names are real and did exist like the llama Pipestone, Sharifa the camel, the horses Skipper, Dawn, and Blacky, Tinker the Mediterranean Fallow deer, Rosie the Irish Wolfhound.