Dog of the Day - Shooter

Kazlo's Shooter of NorthWapiti
DOB - June 7, 2006
Sire - Ch.Chuchinka's Pathfinder (Chester)
Dam - NorthWapiti's Whinny at Nanook

Nickname - Shootie

Where these pups were first born their breeder, Tara was calling them the 'Whinny/Chester' pups. That got shortened to the 'Whin/Chester' litter, so giving them 'gun' names seemed more then natural!

Chester was a very loved main leader around here. Sadly, he only sired one litter in his lifetime. His son, Shooter, has the same fun loving, easy going personality that help make Chester such an amazing dog.
Shooter hasn't yet had the impact in harness that his Dad did, but he is keeping his head down and working hard on learning the skills to make that happen!

A good, solid, handsome boy!




Shooter is sponsored by Joanne Lee!!

Killing Two Birds With One Stone

First off I want to comment on the nice view I'll have in my rear view mirror for the next few weeks.

Mark had a few extra holidays that he needed to use up before the end of the year, so he is off for the next 2 weeks!


Smartie seems pretty happy about that and snuck in a kiss while Mark was busy trying to get a bootie on an uncooperative Dew.

*******************

So, I've had this missing Greyhound parcel floating around northern Alberta for the past week or so. It's been reported here and there and paperwork for it showed up in Grassland, AB last week, but no package.

Richard and I were out scouting out some new trails on Monday (Got to chat with a 'Fish Cop' who was concerned that we were doing some illegal hunting on the last day of the season out of Mark's little Ford Escort!!) and passed through Rochester - where the parcel was SUPPOSED to come to - on the way home. Richard suggested we stop in and ask about it, but I reminded him that they had assured me it wasn't there. Of course, we arrived home to find 2 messages on my answering machine telling me the parcel had now been found and was in Rochester. No one was in a hurry to drive back out to pick it up, so Mark suggested that we run to Rochester with the dog teams the next day to get it. Good thinking - that would kill two birds with one stone!!

So yesterday morning we hooked up two teams and headed out.
We took a nice meandering route-


-and arrived in Rochester after about 20 miles.


I ran into the Grocery store/post office/Greyhound depot/coffee shop - - while Mark and the teams waited patiently outside.



And this...



...was contents of this well traveled package.
These might be the most delicious meat snacks on the face of the earth!! And thanks to my Mom and a nice deal from Longview Beef Jerky, I now have a good number of them to pack along on Iditarod this year!! (This particular package didn't actually make it home - it got devoured turning the trip! The rest are safely in the freezer now!)

The dogs did a bit of smooching with some 'Rochester-iarians'...



...before hitting the trail home



Seventeen miles...



...one pretty sunset (sorry no pics) and one beautiful moonrise later...



...we arrived back home!!

More pictures can be seen here

A Few Quick Snaps

Been pretty busy running dogs and getting Iditarod supplies orders and organized the last few days, so I have fallen behind on the blog. I'll get back to the Dog of the Day feature very soon but to tide everyone over till then, here are a few snaps from one of my recent runs!




Running past a well site.


Wolf tracks!!! There have been a number of wolves in the area this fall!!




I love this old abandon house. A curtain on one of the upstairs windows is pulled partially back, so it always looks like someone is watching the team go by.

Oh The HORROR....

The frozen ground is hard on everyone feet - including Bet's. Before she is allowed to go outside to run her energy burning circles around the dog pens she is now required to 'get dressed'.




She has tried to convince me that this is cruel and unusual punishment. I'm not buying it.





And the Siberians are just rolling their eyes.



And trust me, the second the door is opened, she is off like a shot, completely forgetting all the theatrics from moments before!

Cool Gifts for the Holidays and No Long Lines

Get trampled on during Black Friday sales? Stood in a long line only to find they were all out when you got to the front of the line?

Well, we've got the cool stuff for you and there's no waiting in long lines or fighting for the last one!

Visit our totally cool, one of a kind auction to benefit Karen Ramstead and her "Pretty Sled Dogs" run for Iditarod 2010!

Just click here and bid on the coolest gear there is, including one of a kind Karen Ramstead Items that you can't get anywhere else!

Hurry up and BID!!!!

Dog of the Day - See

NorthWapiti's Sesequon
DOB - May 11, 2007
Sire - NorthWapiti's Skor
Dam - NorthWapiti's Kluane

See is out of our 'Cree' litter, named by a native friend. She is named for a prized medicine rattle in Cree culture. It is a symbol of power and strength. She is littermate to Meg, Utin and Sukih (Cree).

I have a whole bunch of piebalds on the team this winter. The trick to telling See apart from the very close looking Bingo and Bang is all in the ears - one of hers is not completely trimmed in dark grey, giving her the appearance of having 2 different colored ears! It's very cute!

This is the cream of the two year olds in our yard. She is definitely Alaska bound this winter.

I've written other blogs talking about See's rocky start as a sled dog and her subsequent rise to being a young superstar so I won't recap that here but it makes me smile to see how far she has come in a year and a half!

A very special dog!




See is sponsored by our good friend, Marlene Daniels of Belgrade, MT

I'm Jealous (and rather annoyed)

Tonight the dogs will be dining on Eagle MVP formula kibble (for the main string - Eagle Power for the remainder) followed by a soup of Nova Scotia lobster, prawns and Alaska salmon.

Now I will say, this is not the way the dogs normally dine. Normally their soup is ground chicken based however circumstances just lined up to give them this extraordinary meal tonight.

First off, they can thank whichever of us accidentally knocked the plug loose on our little 'people food' freezer that lives out in the garage. It wasn't caught till too late and a good portion of the food in there was deemed (by me) to be unfit for human consumption including some Alaskan salmon and the 4 bags of frozen shrimp I had picked up when they were on sale at Safeway last week.

For the lobster component of the meal they can thank UPS. Friends Brenda, Rob and Colleen from Nova Scotia had wanted to donate some lobster for me to turn into trail meals for Iditarod. Being that lobster is my very favorite food I was thrilled!!

Unfortunately, UPS dropped the ball (they agree btw and are refunding the shipping costs that my Nova Scotia friends paid - but they aren't replacing the lobster!) and the lobster thawed long before arriving here. It is okay for dogs, but not for the musher, I'm afraid.

It simply broke my heart to dump those lobster tails, prawns and salmon into the soup bucket this afternoon. I know it didn't break the dogs hearts though. I've seen them licking their lips all afternoon anticipating their evening meal!

For the record - Mark, Richard and I will be having either hamburger casserole or hamburger soup for dinner tonight.

*sigh*