The New Litter - Bet

Howdy Ho Everybodies,

I certainly appreciate your patience while I recover from this horrific ghastly stomach churning wonderful miracle of nature.

As most of you know from the Facebooks (and if you aren't on the Facebooks, you really should at least check in once in a while, you don't need an account, you can see everythings and stuffs here), Kelly and Turtle were expecting a litter, and as her due date arrived, the Musher passed the time by crocheting and the rest of us waited.

When she didn't seem to be in any hurry, we decided to stare at her and will her to ploop out the puppies.

The Musher crocheted and we waited.

and we waited...

... and waited...

... and waited...

... and waited...

... and we waited...

... and we waited...

The official "Waiting" poster will be available for sale by clicking this linky link

FINALLY it was time!!!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Except Kelly decided that if she was going to ploop out some puppies, she wasn't going to do it just anywhere, or in that perfect little comfy pool where all of the ick and stuffs would be contained.... oh no... where does she decide to ploop out the puppies?

ON. MY. CLOUD!

MY cloud!!! She plooped out puppies on MY bedroom cloud!!!!!!!!!!

Urp... I get nauseous just thinking about it again.

She couldn't ploop them out on my living room cloud.  Why couldn't she ploop them out on my living room cloud, you may ask?

BECAUSE SHE DID THIS TO MY LIVING ROOM CLOUD!

Sweet mother of everything holy, that Kelly is a one dog wrecking crew (don't ask the Musher about her heating pad or iPhone charger... just DON'T go there...)

Sigh... seriously?

Ok, fine, the puppies ARE adorable.  4 little boys and 2 little girls.

Aren't they adorable???  Yes they are, and because we had oodles of peoples that guessed 4 boys and 2 girls, we had to draw a winner of the puppy pool... and the winner is:

Congratulations R. A. Becky Campbell, contact Heather Minion with your mailing address, we'll send you some North Wapiti Kennels swag!
E-mail Heather Minion at:

Musher Minions (help4northwapiti@gmail.com)

Soooo, anywhooooooooooo... all of my clouds are ruined... utterly and totally RUINED I TELL YOU!!!

To help raise the funds for my replacement clouds, I'll be auctioning off the 6 hats the Musher crocheted while we waited (and waited, and waited, and ... see above).  Hopefully between that and the "Waiting" posters that we'll also have for sale in the next day or two, I'll be able to buy new replacement clouds... until then... sniff... I just don't know where I can sleep.

Oh, and I heard that some of you are waiting to find out the theme of this litter...

Well, since Kelly is the Mom, and Turtle is the dad, and Turtle's nickname is "Turd", it's quite clear that this litter is the Poutine litter!  Get it:  Kurds!

So, we have:

Gravy
Fries
Cheese
Fromage
Frite
and Sauce

They don't seem to like their new hats very much though...

In Memory of Brittany Handler

Many sled dog kennels have handlers come and go without a lot of notice. The handlers have entirely separate living quarters and most of the interaction they have with the 'human family' is in the dog yard. That is not us. The handlers who come volunteer for us over the winter eat, live and work alongside us (especially me) every day. Most come back for a second (or third or even fourth) stint with us. Basically they become family.

On Wednesday we lost one of our family - Brittany Butt. Brittany leaves behind her husband, Jeff and her adorable young son, Teige. So very tragic.

Brittany first came to the kennel in the fall of '11 for 2 months and then again for the winter of 12/13. She seemed to pop up frequently when we were in Alaska to help out too, both in 2012 and last winter.

Over that time Mark and I had the privilege of watching Brittany transition from a lovely young woman to a wife and mother. 

Our memories of Brittany are many. She had a big, bright, often and easily offered smile - and no trouble laughing at herself. Which was good, as she was one of the most uncoordinated handlers I've ever had. I remember suggesting she not wear shorts in the house as the multitude of bruises she was always sporting was slightly disturbing. She took great pride in them all - even if she couldn't remember where they all came from. 

I came to rediscover biking during Brittany's stay here. I was shocked to find out she didn't know how to ride a bike, so gave her my old one. She crashed a lot, but didn't give up. When she moved to Alaska, she took the bike with her and contacted me last summer looking for recommendations for a more comfortable seat for it. I was happy that she was on the seat enough that that was a concern for her!

There are also a lot of 'food memories' around Brittany. She was always appreciative of the food put in front of her and like one of my sled dogs, ate with enthusiasm and enjoyment. Mark and she could polish off a 9 x 13" pan of chocolate zucchini cake in a startlingly short amount of time. Nice to know your cooking/baking is appreciated.
She also had a huge fondness for Canadian chocolate bars. If I was running errands in town without her, throwing an Aero bar into the cart would be sure to bring out a big smile when I got home.

And then, of course, there are the dogs. She had nicknames for most of them - and a number of them like 'Etch a Sketch' for little Skecher have become part of the kennel language.
The dogs were often a source of her bruises and crashes - like the time the front end of my 16-dog main string knocked her off her feet and dragged her down Highway 2 trying to get after the disgusting carcass of a road killed moose - but she never held it against them (and they didn't get the moose either!).

Brittany tolerantly dealing with young and enthusiastic Chewie!

Super handlers Helen, Simone and Brittany helping me get organized for the 2013 Eagle Cap Extreme.

Keeping her high maintenance traveling partner, Bet, happy on the way to the 2013 Canadian Challenge. 

Chris Smith - another of our extended family - and Brittany at our 2014 Alaska Open House.

About to dye her hair 'kennel colours' in '13

Helping load straw bales in '11

That Brittany smile.

Camping with the team in '11

Some of the cartoons Brittany (also known as Briffany when Bet got her name wrong) inspired by her misadventures at the kennel. She was such a good sport about being cartooned for them.

We are all shocked and in mourning at Brittany's passing. We wish courage and strength to Jeff and Teige as they deal with this all. And Brittany, from the bottom of ALL our hearts, we hope you are at peace.

With love and sadness,

Karen

My Work is Never Done - Bet

Howdy Ho Everybodies!!!

It's your not roving, not reporting Border Collie, Bet, here!

Winter is fast approaching so we have chores to do here at North Wapiti to prepare for the oodles of snow!

Of course, this type of work requires an officially official supervisor... namely ME to get things done the right way... today we had to put the tractor away or something.

This is the tractor (no gratuitous advertising... unless they want to sponsor us... we like sponsors... hint)

We had to move the tractor away from all of the snow (see background)... and my feets are cold.

Due to regulations, I'm not allowed to wear any FABulous ensembles near the machinery... which is a pity because I have some rocking ensembles that would look FABulous with the green of the tractor... alas... rules is rules.

The Musher insists on driving ever since that small incident where the pedal got stuck and I just brushed against the garage ever so slightly.  Not my fault the garage walls are paper thin and I told you I'd pay for the damage with my allowance whenever I get out of the hole after our Fantabulous Alaska adventure...

I'm pretty sure the tractor goes faster than .00000001 MPH Musher... no, seriously, there's this pedal thing that you stomp on.

See, it's right there... you stomp on it... really hard... try it... also try brushing the oogie things off the foot rest while you're at it.

Here, let me help you press the pedal harder... I'll just reach down there and rest my head on your warm leg.... and... zzzzzzz

Eventually we were able to park the tractor and get it all situated and stuffs and things, and guess who came along to take all of the credit...

There's something wrong with that cat... something horrible.

- Bet

Give Me 40 Acres to Turn This Rig Around!

Watching a large string of sled dogs turn around on voice command is a thing of beauty. If you would like to see how beautiful it looks done well - check out this KD Lang video 'Barefoot' (which also happens to be one of my very favourite songs) at 3:16. Not sure whose dog team it is, but I do know it was shot in Kotzebue, Alaska, so I have a few guesses.

Anyway, this blog is not about one of those beautiful turns. 

Actually, many, many years ago I had an awesome dog named Iceman. He was GREAT at turning teams around on command - and on whim. A bad night on Race to the Sky when I snapped back from dozing off and wasn't sure whether I was going forward or backward made me make the decision to not teach this command to my leaders anymore. 

So now if I want to turn my team around, I just go up front and lead my leaders around. It's still a bit of a trick to get all around without a tangle, as everyone needs to wait and come around in turn. Usually they all figure out what we are doing and rush to get to the head of the line. Keeners. 

Today I had young, HIGHLY ENTHUSIASTIC Neo in lead with his mom Tramp on our run. Tramp is GREAT on commands, but like her boy, not great on standing still. Thankfully she usually bounces around but keeps her tugline tight. I had put some of my very best leaders - Tess, Wifi, See and Boo - behind them without necklines - just in case. 

I was zigging and zagging and really putting some pressure on  young Neo and he was responding beautifully. 

And then we came upon this......

As we were coming up on it I was pretty certain I could get the ATV over, but it became apparent very quickly that that was not the case. Time to turn around!
 
Coming around politely and holding them lined out patiently in the woods while I sort everything out is DEFINITELY above Neo's pay grade.  I could have swapped out him for one of his top notch backups, but that wouldn't teach him anything - and these are TRAINING runs, after all.

I took a deep breath and brought everyone around.

Pandemonium ensued. The main line got tangled in branches, there was apparently something in the woods of INTENSE interest, and I must have had to put Neo back where he was supposed to be 40 or 50 times. 

Eventually though we got it sorted. 

No....wait....Eventually we got it sorted. 

No....wait....EVENTUALLY we got it sorted....

Yes!!!!

For the record the tree was SHOT down by ....idiots ..... target shooting earlier in the week. They left all their shell casings, targets and the tree blocking the trail.

NICE!

I was going to curse them on the blog and say I wished them a totally unsuccessful hunting season....but then I saw this and figured it was a given anyway. 

LOSERS!

Straw Inspector

I brought home our winter load of straw today.

Apparently 'quality control' is important and KD volunteered for the task.

"I'm a professional....don't try this at home"

"Good bouquet.....

"Seems dry"

"No mice to be found (drat)"

"Colour is good"

"Is this the entire shipment?"

"I think it was left in the field a few days too long...."

".......but it should do"

"Afterall, it is just for the dogs!"

"Where do I sign off on the shipment?"

 Errrr....hummmmm.....thanks KD. Couldn't have gotten the job done without you! (???????)