Well, we swore we wouldn’t get another dog….but every once in a while a dog comes along that you just can’t say no to.
Bonsai spent several weeks of his life on the glacier tours this summer, pulling the heart strings of tourists and employees. But he wasn’t thriving. He was much smaller than his litter mates and was constantly regurgitating his food. A trip to the Juneau vet and x rays confirmed that he has a vascular ring. Unless surgery is performed the prognosis is pretty bad.

So, this little guy comes back to Fairbanks and the musher was going to put him down. He was rescued by a caring person and taken to the shelter where he was booked in and right out into foster care.
After bloodwork in town it was determined that he might have some liver problems. So off he went for an ultrasound. Although it wasn’t definitive, everything points to him having a liver shunt.

This is not good. His liver is small and his kidneys are large. When I found this out I could have made the decision to euthanize him right away. But I looked at this little dog, that is acting very normal for a puppy and just couldn’t kill him.
Don and I are fostering him now. He will have surgery next week for the vascular ring. We will worry about the liver shunt down the road.

We are extremely lucky to have the Fairbanks Animal Shelter Fund here in Fairbanks. This fund pays for medical care for many shelter animals and pays for those extras that our tax dollars at the shelter don’t. It is a wonderfully run non-profit that will pay for Bonsai’s surgery. You can donate to the Fund at P O Box 71267 Fairbanks, Alaska 99707. Any questions you can email the ShelterFund.

He does take some extra care which I will write about in future posts. We are hoping to improve the quality of his life no matter how long it is.

He pretty much has the run of our house with all the BIG dogs (big to him…he is only 12 pounds) and loves to play. Here he plays with Misty his new good friend.

I met some wonderful people today at work from Pittsburgh PA. They have followed the races up here for many years and had the usual lower 48 view of sled dogs. It is always heartwarming to listen to folks who love dogs, understand their need to work and love our state. But it is also a little disconcerting at times as to the “rosy” view that a lot of people have to our sport without knowing the darkness of it. As we all know up here, dog racing creates a LOT of dogs. Our state population isn’t large enough to find homes for all the sled dogs that don’t make the team. It is why we see so many come through our borough shelter and why organizations such as The Second Chance League exist. Is it crueler to euthanize a dog that is injured and can never run again, is too old, or too slow….or is it crueler to leave that dog on a short chain for the many remaining years of its life?
As in any sport that involves animals (horse racing, greyhound racing, dog mushing races) the abuses are there. My hope would be that the animal comes first and the ego or need to win comes last. Possible?