Petey pic...

I've been getting a little flack(in the nicest way) because apparently I never post about my cats! Well, truth be told, the cats are much less trouble than the dogs. They don't cause me near as much stress or chaos! But just so my friend(no names right, KittyPurrington??) doesn't get too upset at me, here's a pic of Pete!

It's my new favorite of him! It's almost hard to remember how sick he was a couple years ago, except that I might still be paying that bill off! He's worth every dime and then some though!

Dashing through the snow...

Well, not exactly dashing, but plowing through it anymore. More snow fell this morning, fluffy, light stuff today!

Seeing as it is Monday and it was early in the day, the trails were likely to be empty, I took out my "problem team". I have three dogs who are prone to difficulties on the trail, mostly if we run into a loose dog. They are also really hard workers! Deuce is unpredictable, somedays he blows right by, other days he wants to stop and have a little fight first! He's like that in the yard too. Hard to tell which dogs he will get along with and which he won't. Franklin has been attacked by loose dogs before so now he starts things first. We've had a couple good passes lately and that's helping Franky alot. Funny how it takes just one or two bad passes to completely screw a dog up and it take hundreds of good ones to undo the damage! Then I took Antare who can be a bit of a butthead towards his teammates. He thinks he's a tough guy, but the reality is no one has caught him yet to put him in his place! Just for giggles, I added Hobo as the 7th dog. Hobo has to run alone as he is a psycho! He just gets way too excited and if he can't go RIGHT FREAKING NOW, well he'll just bite whoever is closest to him! Hobo gets hooked up last all the time!

Now this could have been ugly, but it went very smoothly. Not sure where all the skidooers are, but the trail was untracked! So it was a little slow, but the dogs did great!

The enchanted forest actually looks enchanting! This is my favorite spot along this trail!

This is just not right. I forgot to put my gloves on and didn't even notice until we were several miles from home! The dogs were insane at hook-up and I had no help today. Things were about to get out of control so I just dove on the sled and pulled the quick release! Gloves were in the sled basket, but I couldn't reach them!

Ok, there was a bit of messing around, but really if the worst that happens on a run is Deuce stops to mark a tree or two--well, I'll take it! It's not like we were in a big hurry anyway!

Great hordes of snow!

Oh, beautiful snow--heavy, wet, sticky snow, but who cares there is tons of it!

This is what the yard looked like last night. Well, actually, I guess it was very early this morning! A quick trip to the neighbors' turned into a big bonfire and a very late night! But that's not the point right now!

The yard as it looked about noon today. Ooops, should have put a tarp over all that wood!

Earle playing in the fresh stuff. The dogs have been a bit wild today. Many loud games of chase and Husky WWF going on all day long!
Paxil and Boots do not care about snow. Boots has some issues with wet paws and Paxil recently discovered the furniture. Hard to tell she's my lead dog, isn't it!? She is loving that futon!

We didn't go for a run today. This is some very heavy snow. It would be a ton of work for the dogs to break trail and it's pretty warm out. So I decided to let all the guys with skidoos do the work and break the trail for us. I don't work tomorrow so we will be out and about then--with the trail set and no one on it! I love Mondays!

We did go for a run on Saturday. It was a little warm for them, but they were zippier(is that word?) than expected.

Probably helped that I had two big frieght style dogs in wheel, Chase and Founder. Chase just likes to work. He's not all there, but he's a sweetie and a strong puller. Founder is actually in training as a leader, but yesterday he just wanted to tag along. He hates stopping for long. His enthusiasm is contagious sometimes!

Pingo ran well, but when we got home she made her opinion perfectly clear..."It is too hot for this stuff!" She may have had a point. There is something wrong about running a dog team without a parka on!

Founder needed a snow bath too. Course, he's kinda goofy so he might have just felt like rolling around!! Who knows what goes on in his head!?

Poor Mac....

On Sunday morning, we had a small scuffle in the yard, caused by my neighbor's dog. A gigantic St.Bernard mix in the driveway gets everyone's attention around here! The chaos led to a big pile of huskies with Mac on the bottom! Not really a fight, just a ball of worked up fur! No one appeared injured. Then two days ago, Mac started to limp. So he's been in solitary confinement resting what I thought was a pulled muscle. This morning, I woke feeling like crap, so I called in sick. Thank goodness for that! When I got up and went to put Mac outside, he had trouble getting up. His left back leg is twice the size it should be!! So my sick day turned into a day at the vet clinic! This was another one of those times when having 31 critters paid off at the clinic. I called at 9 and Mac was seen at 10!

He has a massive infection in the muscle and tendons of that leg. There is a tiny puncture wound in his thigh. Rather than just healing on it's own, as most little punctures do or turning into an abcess, as bigger ones tend to, this one just infected his whole leg. Fortunately, it has not spread beyond his leg at this point.

He's on a massive dose of two different anti-biotics for the next three weeks, plus some Metacam. If the swelling doesn't go down soon, he has to go into the clinic and stay for a few days with IV anti-biotics. He'll love that(insert sarcarsm here) He was not a happy camper at the clinic. He was cooperative, but more scared than I have seen Mac in a long time. Made it pretty obvious just how far he has come since he first came here.

No running, no playing, not even a walk for Mac for the next 10 days at least. His sledding season is finished. He is supposed to be on total rest--outside to do his business and back in. That's easy right now cuz he feels lousy. It's not going to be so easy once he starts to feel better! Mac is a very busy dog. I think I'll be investing in some new Kongs and chew toys to keep him occupied and spare my leather boots from his bored teeth!

Hopefully my goofy boy will back soon. Seems odd to see him so quiet and still! I think I'll take the 200 dollar bill from today down to my neighbor--maybe he'll start to keep his dog at home!!!!!

As an added bonus, I get to take his temp several times a day all weekend! WOO Hoo!

Updates...

Delta has settled back in, like he never left. The other dogs accepted him right away. It was like he had been at the vet for a day, not vanished for a month!

The only real difference is he is slightly braver than before. He has slept inside several times, which he never did before. He even seems to want to be in the house. Course, he gets extra food when he's inside so that probably helps! He is HUNGRY!!!

He's always the first one to grab a chunk of meat now or claim a pile of kibble. He used to kinda hang back and wait til the chaos was starting to settle down and then he'd find a place to eat. Not anymore. He's right in there, grabbing meat from my hand even!

He's a little sick of the camera too. I've taken a lot of pictures of him in the last week!

Other stuff happened around here while Delta was AWOL, I just couldn't bring myself to post any of it!

On March 4, Sundin came in the house for the first time. Looks thrilled doesn't he?
He was terrified! So scared I don't even think he noticed the cats! He did not like it in here at all, but I'll spoil him yet. His mother, Pingo, used to be afraid in the house too. Now she believes the futon is her personal property!

He is much happier outside for now! He's come a long way since he first let me catch him in February. Catching him isn't an issue anymore. He happily follows me into his "holding pen", especially if I have a bucket with me. Buckets usually hold food or baited water, both things Sundin adores. He lets me harness him without trying to take my hands off and trots nicely on leash over to the sled. And Wow, can he pull!! He's a little dynamo in harness. He's even adjusted to my neighbor's dog, Daisy, who tags along on every run and usually spends the first mile or so barking in front of the leaders.

And Stuart went back to work, with all his fingers intact! He doesn't have much movement in the crushed one, but it's coming along. No more pins in it and it looks like the doc even saved his nail.

Now I think I'll go take a few more pictures of Delta :)

DELTA IS HOME!!!!

DELTA IS HOME!!! It took a long while this afternoon, many bags of treats and some KFC(that's stuff is great bait! I took his littermate, Antare, with me this afternoon and kept him beside me. Delta came out of the trees and wooed as soon as he saw Antare. But he wasn't so sure about me yet. Slowly over about four hours, he let me get closer and closer. Eventually he found a safe spot, just like he does at home, and let me catch him. I carried him to the truck--he's much lighter than he was a month ago. Other than the weight loss, he's fine. Two furless spots on one front paw and alot of sap stuck in his fur and that's about it! :)

Here he is in the truck, looking more than a little freaked out!


Safely back inside his house!


Even plain ol' kibble tastes great when you haven't eaten regularly for a month!

To all of you who sent us messages of support, sent prayers and good vibes to Delta, kept an eye for him, took a poster, called his name....THANK YOU. Thank you from the bottom of our relieved and grateful hearts. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

DELTA IS ALIVE!!!!!

He's not home yet, but Delta is alive!! I saw him tonight. He's hanging around out on the Annie Lake road. He's in a relatively safe area with other dogs and a couple mushers' yards around. He appears to be uninjured. Skinny, but not hurt. He's terrified and won't let us or anyone near him. But he did recognize me and stopped to watch me once. I'm going to be out there as much as possible. A very nice couple has agreed to feed him and let us leave his favorite dog house in their yard. Delta has been hanging out with their dog for a couple days.

Please keep your paws crossed, pray to whichever diety you choose to believe in, whatever you do to send good thoughts. They are working! My boy is almost home!! I do not have words for how happy I am. There will be a big party here when I get him home!!!

Paxil lightens things up...

There hasn't been a whole lot of laughter or silliness around here lately. Which is unusual for this place. The sheer number of inhabitants usually ensures something ridiculous will happen almost daily! Paxil, who is very well named, decided to lighten things up a bit this afternoon. I left her in the house for five minutes and came back to find this:

I don't actually feed Ol'Roy. I do feed a much better quality kibble than that stuff, but the dogs love that junk! I use it sometimes as bait in their water. I swear the folks at Wal-Mart add some kind of crack for dogs to that food. When they won't drink, adding a bit of Ol'Roy guarentees they'll lap their bowl clean. When Paxil was really sick and refusing to eat anything, I could get her to eat Ol'Roy. Seriously, it's puppy crack!

Delta remains missing. We've had a few phone calls, but that's it.

Still no Delta...

It will be two weeks tomorrow since we last saw Delta. Every couple days I get a phone call from someone saying they might have seen him. The dog is always gone when I get to the spot though. Black and white husky crosses aren't exactly rare around here so I can't even be sure it is Delta people are seeing. I can't believe how many people just let their dogs roam still. I would have 50 dogs if I had picked up every one I've seen running loose in the past few days. Pisses me off, actually. I don't let my dogs roam, my yard is fenced better than the local jail, they all have collars, tags and microchips and I'm still missing one! These people don't even try to keep their dogs home or have tags on them and nothing happens! ARGHHHHH!!!

I have decided that missing is worse than dead. I'd rather find his body than spend the next 10 years wondering what happened to him. Lord knows my brain isn't coming up with any nice things that could have happened! Each possiblity seems worse than the last.

This is the last picture I took of Delta. He was watching me build a fire. He liked to sleep in the ashes after! Silly boy.

I have not given up hope yet. I still look for him every day and call his name all the time. If he's out there, I'll find him.