Just goofing around....

Shaking works better if the dog gets out of the water first, but don't tell Founder. He prefers his method of shaking while still standing in the pond!

Treat obsessed Pingo making a beeline for the Snausages bag! Nothing gets her to come back like the crinkle of a plastic bag! One shake is far more effective than yelling "PINGO COME" forty times!

Antare and his evil little grin. Up to something, most definately! I just haven't found out what it was yet!

Back to work, Lazy House Huskies!!

After three months of this:

and this:

Tonight the dogs got back to work. I hadn't really planned on starting training again yet, but my neighbor's niece is visiting for Germany. She'd never seen sled dogs before and the weather is cool right now. So she came along for a quad run tonight. Not nearly as much fun as on the sled, but it's always fun introducing a newbie to these screaming maniacs!

The dogs haven't seen their harnesses since April 22. As soon as they realized what was going on, the noise was deafening!

Hobo conserving his energy and laying down to screech at me!

A pumped up Pacer wondering what in the heck is taking me so long to get him harnessed up!

Sweet, gentle little Sundin. Sundin is a timid fella. He hasn't really let me touch him since the snow melted. The occasional quick pat on the head and that's about it. He is one of the happiest dogs in the yard though. He throughly enjoys not being chained anymore. I went down to his pen tonight, harness in hand, expecting to only get Ozzy(who is Sundin's roommate), but Sundin knew what that harness meant and he was coming running! It's the first time he's ever run on the quad for me and he did great!

And my Paxil, my amazing, one of a kind Paxil! She's ten years old, has chronic pancreatitis, has battled cancer twice and she's still screaming to run! There was NO WAY she was being left behind tonight. I have offered her full retirement with couch privledges repeatedly. She has so far refused! She almost broke my ankle pushing out of the way so she could get through the gate first! She ran lead beside Pingo and never missed a stride, responded immediately to every command(including an on-by past a loose dog and at least three squirrels!). Dogs come no better than my Paxil!

They ran a short 5km loop tonight. I thought they needed a break half-way around the loop. The dogs disagreed so their break was quite short! They did remarkably well for rehomed and rescued mutts who have been lounging for three months straight! The tourist enjoyed herself; the dogs and I had a great time too!

Blue, Green and Beau....

One of those picture perfect moments on the Yukon River, beautiful in blue--taken just upstream from the Marsh Lake Bridge last Monday.

Green, Green, Green! Nothing but green! Taken Saturday on the McClintock River.


And another Beau update. One more set of blood tests revealed why Beau's liver isn't working very well. (Beau didn't even have to go back to the clinic since they stole so much blood the first time!). Beau is hyperthyroid. Very common among older kitties, not so unusual among young kitties either. There is a cure for it, but it is not available in the Yukon. Given Beau's rather fragile health, a trip to Saskatoon for radioactive idodine therapy is out of the question. So once a day, every day for the rest of his life, Beau takes a tapazole pill. Problem solved--more or less. He's still ancient and this won't solve all his problems, but it should give him some more quality time with us. Fortunately, Beau is a laid back kitty and doesn't mind taking his pill. With some of the other cats here, I'd be paying that big bill for the trip to Saskatoon just to avoid having to pill them daily!

Or not....

Not renal failure anyway. Beau's blood test results indicate his kidneys are doing ok...not great, but as well as an ancient cat's kidneys can be expected to work. But his liver is in rough shape. It's not working well at all! The only thing that makes that somewhat better than renal failure is that the liver does have some ability to heal itself. The vet who's been treating him(Did I mention she looks like she just graduated from high school last week???) says there are several possible causes of liver failure in cats. The most obvious in Beau's case is exposure to toxin. Who knows what he got in to or ate while he was a stray! The other options are hepatitis, cancer, tumors....all sorts of lovely things! All of them require a biopsy and possible surgery to determine. I have decided not to put Beau through anything invasive.

Look at that little face! He's content, happy, not in any pain, not suffering...oh and he's stoned on catnip! For now I'm just going to manage his symptoms and as long as he stays like he is in that picture, he won't be going back to the vet. I can do sub-q fluids at home as he needs them. I've already got milk thistle on hand. It's supposed to help the liver clear toxins. He's supposed to stay on a low protein kibble, but he's not thrilled with it, so I'll offer him canned food a few times a day. If he doesn't want the canned prescription stuff, he can have the Fancy Feast Ocean Whitefish and Tuna that he loves so much! As long as he eats!

The vet had no prognosis or time lines for him. He could have days, weeks, months....maybe even longer. I'm aiming for longer!

Poor ol' Beau...

So, he wanders the streets for God only knows how long, alone and probably wondering where his family went--he obviously had one before he got here!

Finally finds his way to a nice, comfy home to spend his golden years in and what happens six weeks later:

Renal Failure!

I won't have his actual blood test results until Monday, but the vet says Beau's kidneys are very small; he's dehydrated and generally not doing very well. He also has a broken tooth that may be affecting his ability to eat.

He got some sub-q fluids today and I bought every brand of renal support canned food I could find at the clinic. Once the test results are in, Beau may have to spend a couple days on an IV at the clinic. Then he'll get sub-q fluids at home on a regular basis.

I knew when I brought him home that I wouldn't get years with him. Adopting a senior comes with different expectations than adopting a kitten, but I was expecting longer than a couple months. I'm not giving up on him without a fight! As long as he's comfortable and happy--he's purring on my lap as I type this--then I'll do whatever I can to keep him that way!

He is going to be sticking his nose in everything for a while yet, if I have anything to say about it!

Landscaping 101...

Kayleigh is available to dig tunnels, trenches and caves all summer long! She works cheap, prefers payment in bones, but you can't be fussy about where you want the holes dug. She is a malamutt after all and she will dig wherever she pleases!

Paddling trip

Since I've never done this trip before, I jumped at the chance to paddle with a few friends from Whitehorse to the Takhini River Bridge. I've always wanted to do this trip , but since I usually paddle alone, I was a little apprehensive.

But it's actually an easy paddle. We had a headwind yesterday which meant we had to do a little more work than usual. The current is pretty quick through here and does most of the work! I could do it alone now, if I can just convince Stuart to pick me up at the bridge. Paddling back against the current is not going to happen!

Pretty little spot where we pulled out for a quick break. Quick only because the mosquitos were swarming us! There no bugs on the water, but once we got off the river they were awful!

The scenery was spectacular! It's pretty amazing to have this as your playground!

Approaching the bridge, a few hours later and almost done paddling. What a great way to spend a day!!