July 19, 2004 Puppy Name Theme

After much discussion with Mark, we are leaning towards a 'Storm' theme for the Kaylinn x Moses litter - with Lightning (one of the girls has a zig zaggy white stripe on her collar), Flash, Boom, Rainy and Thunder my favorites names. We have to avoid any electrical storm names, as Mark is going to name the Surge x Olena puppies after electrical things (after all, he is an electrician). :) Karen

July 15, 2004 2004 Puppies

Well here we go with the first of our 2004 puppies!!

Kaylinn and Moses just welcomed their first puppy at 7:30am. A BIG strapping black and white male.

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10am - grey and white boy.
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10:30 - Puppy number 3, Grey and white male that looks EXACTLY like Puppy #2 I think these greys will be 'saddlebacks' like their Dad, as I've never seen grey puppies quite like these 2 before.
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Finally, at 11:30 - a girl. A grey and white one - just like puppies 2 and 3!

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Well, all the dog books will tell you bitches shouldn't go for more then 2 hours between puppies. Kaylinn (and most of my girls actually) have never read any of the whelping books - so after a 4 1/2 hour break Puppy 5 - a big grey and white girl has arrived.

And that looks to be all she wrote! :)
Karen

July 14, 2004 Sissy's Battle

Over the last few months a very special dog in our lives, Sissy has been waging a fierce battle with cancer. As many of you know, Sissy was a very dependable, strong leader in my team for a number of years. Among her accomplishments she boasts finishes in the Knik 200, Klondike 300, Race to the Sky and Iditarod.

She has also always been an extra special dog in the heart of Mark. A year or so ago Mark made the very selfless decision to let Sissy retire to a wonderful home with Donna Quante. After working through a few settling in issues (Donna's poor cats!!), Sissy and her new family were just getting comfortable with each other when a lump on her elbow was diagnosed as cancer. Bless Donna - she quickly went on the offensive and was determined to obtain the best care possible for Sissy. For many months things were touch and go as Sissy went through aggressive chemotherapy treatments. Donna was great at keeping us posted about Sissy's condition.

Sissy has shown Donna and her vets what Mark and I already knew - she is one tough cookie. She has battle back strongly and it looks like, for now, she is out of the woods. We are all thrilled.

Today is Sissy's 10th Birthday. Mark and I would like to publicly give Donna our heartfelt thanks for giving Sissy the most precious gifts of all - happiness, love and life.

Have a great birthday Sis - maybe you can actually catch one of those pesky squirrels today.

Karen

July 2, 2004 - Mark's Entry Season Totals

Hello:

Well July 1st has come and gone with out much fanfare around here. To most people July 1st means the first real long weekend of the summer, to others its Canada’s birthday & I guess in Eastern Canada its Moving Day (I don’t know what they do if the have to move any other time of the year). Here at North Wapiti Kennels it means the end of one training season and the beginning of another. Nothing that we do actually changes, the dogs don’t notice the change in the date, we still get up early to take advantage of Northern Alberta’s nice cool mornings. The only thing that is done to mark this annual occasion is we zero our database. This allows us to compare one year to the next and to gauge how the kennel is progressing.

Here are the numbers as of July 1st 2004 for the 2003/2004 training season:

- Number of dogs in the training pool, 41

- Number of runs, 209

- Total miles accumulated by the kennel, 55190.00

- Dog with the most miles, Moses with 3076.5

- Dog with the least miles, It’s a tie, Vortec & Spider with 7.5

- Number of dogs over 3000 miles, 5

- Number of dogs over 2500 miles, 17

- Number of dogs under 100 miles, 13

- Dog with the most miles in lead, Kara with 1382.5

- Number of miles Karen did behind a team, 3708, 1890 on a quad, 1818 on a sled.

- Number of miles Mark did behind a team, 1396, 941 on a quad, 455 on a sled.

These numbers are pretty accurate, we measure the mileage with a GPS, we always round down to the nearest half mile and record it on our own special database. Its kind of fun to watch the numbers grow after each run. At the end of each month we print off a month end report and compare to previous years. Our goal is to always be improving and not slack off. At the beginning of each season Karen sets a Monthly goal, if we’re getting close to the end of the month and we’re not near our goal it gives us a bit more motivation to get out of bed.

Here are the numbers as of July 2nd 2004 for the 2004/2005 training season:
- 0

Later,
Mark