December 7, 1999

I was SHOCKED to see that it has been 2 weeks since my last entry. Where does time go???

I just got back last night from Alaska, where I was for the Iditarod's Mandatory Rookie Meeting. It was fun to get to meet some of the other rookies and do some visiting! Jamie West and her husband, Harry, were gracious enough to open their home to me and even loan me a truck so I could get out to Willow on Sunday. I also got to Palmer to visit Earl Norris in the hospital. For those of you that don't know Earl, he is one of the ikons of Siberian Huskies and racing in Alaska. Earl had a stroke last week, but they are figuring that he should be back home for Christmas. My thoughts are certainly with him, his wife, Natalie, and everyone else at Howling Dog Farms.

Things kept hopping around here even while I was away. Mark was busy running teams over the weekend so the mileage didn't fall off too much. We are heading into a difficult time here as the dogs mileage is to a point where runs take up a good part of the day, yet there is still much to be planned, acquired, packed, and organized before I leave for Alaska in 19 days. YIKES!!!! Christmas just falls at too busy a time to be celebrated much around here, but we do have some plans for some family get-togethers next week. Between vet visits and runs, we might even get a turkey dinner in there somewhere! I've done no decorating of the house (unless piles of dog booties in the dining room and drop bags in the hallway count!) other then sticking a wreath outside.

We had a scare with Pirate last weekend. Turns out he had a good size tumor in his intestine. Some of you might remember that Pirate is the rock eating dog from Oregon that we got a few months back. He is very young to have such a thing, we are hoping that it is a product of one of his earlier rock removal surgeries. Right now he looks a little like a patchwork quilt with shaved patches on his legs and belly. We were very grateful to Pirate's Uncle Blunder, who was rushed to the vet clinic by his owner, Roger Morey, so we could do a blood transfusion. It certainly helped his recovery!

We were VERY excited to get our December issue of 'Dogs in Canada' magazine in the mail last week. Dogs in Canada is the Canadian Kennel Club's official publication. It is a very well done and award winning magazine and this month it features OUR DOG TEAM - not only on the cover, but with a 4 page article by Heather Brennan inside! They all did such a nice job - I was overwhelmed when I saw it for the first time. Unfortunately, it is not available online, but if some of you might be interested in getting a hold of a copy you can order one at the Dogs in Canada website.

Well, seems like I could go on chatting forever this morning, but there is not a speck of food in the house and I need to run into town and do some grocery shopping before running a team today!