Pupdemonium

My brother Jim and his girlfriend Beth are up visiting for the weekend. I took advantage out of the situation and roped them into helping me free run the puppies with the ATV for the first time this morning!

It took a few minutes for Bet to shake off the cobwebs and get her charges in line - but soon enough they were boogie-ing down the trail in hot pursuit of her!

We stopped for a few breaks but the pups were wheeling and roaring around so much I didn't dare pause too long!

And we are off...

And we are breaking....

...and we are running!!

The puppies were GREAT, had a GREAT time and enjoyed their drinks and kibbles after!! (and yes, they have a bucket of clean water - but apparently dirty pool water is WAY tastier. I'm taking their word for it.)

And then, of course there were snuggles and praise - the BEST part!!

Back To Normal - Bet

 Howdy Ho Everybodies!!

After our kinda long vacation hiatus, I just wanted to assure you that everything is getting back to normal again.

I had my personal chauffeur take us to pick up The Musher and Musher Mark

Please excuse the intrusive ©... we've had peoples stealing our stuffs and things

Sigh...

I got lei'd

I know some of you were thinking something naughty

Isn't it pretty??  It makes my eyes pop and matches my collar and stuffs and things.

Of course, the Molly Toddles gave the Musher a rousing howdy ho welcome back greeting

Molly tried to control them, but there's no stopping puppy power

The Molly Toddles really wanted to show the Musher all of their super cool moves like Jagger swagger, so Molly and I set up a cage match demonstration.

Um... that was a bit too fast... hardly exciting at all... I had a word with Molly about this

Um... Molly... your kid is a wuss

For some reason, Molly didn't take kindly to that tidbit of advice.

 You need to get in there and act like you have a pair!!!

Nuh uh!  You aren't the boss of me

WHAT?  While you're in MY kennel you play by MY rules

I'm telling DAD!

See, see how easy this is, knock them over backwards and go for the throat, how many times...

gah gurgle

What?  I can't understand you

I said, you're choking me!

Fine, I'll chew on your head

MOM!  Ow, the other kids are laughing at me!

What?  Your old mom isn't too old to take you to the ground, see???

mbglrmbekeoifkd ick

No FAIR!! That's NOT FAIR, you're bigger than me

I'll show you what's fair little pup of mine

Nobody is going to call my pups a bunch of wussies

Um... Mom... it's the crazy Border Collie... have you seen her around mosquitos?

I mean seriously, she's afraid of hummingbirds... and bees... and ... her own shadow

gack

Wait a minute... you're right.  None of my puppies are wussies...

Ok, here's what I want you to do...

whisper, whisper, whisper

Hey... um... what you are guys doing?

Um, wait... this is suppose to be a puppy cage match... I'm the referee

No NO, you don't attack the referee

Molly, your kids are attacking the referee, that's against the rules

MOLLY!  Call off your kids!!!

MOLLY!!!!

Don't make me go Ninja!

... and from there things just went downhill.  I'm not pleased to say that there are no more pictures because the Musher had to come save me... sigh.

It's good to have her home again.

- Bet

NorthWapiti's Jinx

NorthWapiti's Jinx
June 13, 2002 - June 18, 2014

Like yesterday I remember leaving Rainy Pass in the wee hours of the morning in the 2008 Iditarod. It was storming hard and I soon ran into the team of another musher all but stalled in the storm. We took over the leading duties with my little grey/white leader virtually STORMING her way through the snow and wind.
The next day in the calm of a checkpoint the musher we had taken over the lead for came over and asked me what it took to train a leader 'like that'.
I smiled and said I hadn't trained her at all .... she just came that way.

Many a musher owes that grey and white girl for getting them through storms when their leaders stalled. She NEVER failed me.

She was the BEST storm leader I've ever known - and a darn fine leader the rest of the time.

She was never an 'easy' dog. She was affectionate, but not snuggly. She challenged and questioned me a lot. Sometimes deserved, sometimes just 'cause she could. She was a lot like me. I know I said her name in 'not nice' sentences many times - I'm sure she did the same with mine.
I will say that never a moment went by that I didn't love and respect her though.

She had the softest fur of anyone of my dogs - and the most annoying whine - which she knew how to use to get her way.

I stood outside an ice cream shop in Hawi, Hawaii a few days ago crying buckets of tears as my wonderful vet, Dr. Tannis Jackson, walked me through what was going on with my girl and helped me get to the hard, but necessary decision.
It hurt to not be there for her final moments, but I held her with all my heart in her last minutes.

Huge thanks to Tannis and Colleen for making sure Jinx was done right by. I am blessed to have folks like that in my life that honour my relationship with my dogs and can be trusted to make decisions in my absence.

It still seems unreal she is gone. I'm sure it will hit again when I'm back at home tomorrow and that annoying whine is missing.

One of the cool things about Jinxie was that she was a competitive dog - and the dog she had the most heated competition with was Snickers. Leading separate teams when Mark and I were training together if they saw the other coming up behind, they would just pick it up and boogie to stay in front. They pushed each other to give their all and were a dynamic pair. I smile to think they might be together again.