Carol Kleckner's Fairbanks Husky Rescue

Cabin Fever and drools

Carol Kleckner — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:23:47 +0000

OK….having this many dogs in the house (14) with temps the month of Jan. staying from 20 to 45 below…well, cabin fever has taken over. Here is an example of my life at the moment..
Pixel! Bring that dog bed back. NO don’t chew the stuffing out of it…where did you get it from? It goes back in this crate…now what do you have? Towels from the other crate? Chance likes to sleep in there- she doesn’t want your drool all over them…Bonsai! Please don’t chew the fuzz off your tennis ball…oops too late….(throw tennis ball in trash…get another tennis ball)..Bonsai! What are you doing digging under the couch? oh….2 tennis balls under there. Ivy wants to go out? OK..who else? 6 dogs out…4 minutes later 3 dogs back in. 5 minutes after that 1 dog back in 5 dogs out. 6 minutes later 3 dogs in 1 out. This is a math question…how many dogs are still outside? ha ha.

Who just chewed a hole in my blanket? Everyone looks guilty. Is someone in the utility room? what is going on? WHY are you pealing up the linoleum. ARGH…there is a big chunk on the bed. Where did this stuffing come from? HEY..that was a new dog bed.
Is that scratching at the door again? Who needs to go out? Someone coming in? I thought everyone was back in? Oh Loon! What do you have? Frozen poop! oh lovely. No kisses from you. Who puked straw in the bedroom? Please don’t eat it again Mardy.

How about a kong? Look how many we have? NO one wants to play with a kong? here are more tennis balls. I will toss them down the steps. Zorba….we don’t eat tennis balls, can I have that one back?

Look at the dogs in the dog barn! THEY aren’t chewing up their beds…they are grateful they have them. I guess they are getting a bit more tired with all the times we are forcing them to go out and pee and run around.
See, we aren’t forcing YOU all to go out and get cold and tired. OK…let’s do that. Everyone, house dogs and barn dogs. Time for afternoon hour romp and feeding.

Chores done, dogs all fed. Everyone crashed out.

Bonsai! what do you have? Pixel, what is in your mouth? Where did the 2 of you get these pieces of plastic? Does anyone sleep around here?

Winter chores

Carol Kleckner — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:50:52 +0000

Every winter one of our chores is to keep the dog houses up out of the snow. This winter we haven’t been as diligent because the dogs are either in the house or the dog barn and when they are outside for their romping time, no one uses a dog house.
But today I decided to clean out houses and get them up on top of the snow. Once I knock the box free I lift or swing it out of the hole. I usually put the old straw in the hole and move the house to a new spot. We only chain some of the dogs when they eat so really the placement of the house is not important because they have free run of the yards.

We have tried to pull out some of the posts but after a dozen years it is difficult! And impossible during the winter time. We got a bunch out of the side yards last summer and will try for the main yard this summer.

It was hot working today at -17! I had to take off my outer coat.

Rosie

Carol Kleckner — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:26:48 +0000

Rosie is a sweetheart! She loves everyone. This is a young husky mix that would love to be your running companion or to learn to skijor. Once the weather gets a bit warmer we will take her out for a run. She is inside at the shelter but is anxious to find a new home.

Molly

Carol Kleckner — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:25:00 +0000

Molly is a small pointer mix with a great personality. She isn’t high strung but does have a lot of energy. She would make a great skijor dog or sprint dog. She comes from sprint lines. She would need a dog barn or to live in the house with her short coat.

Molly is inside at the shelter. Check her out!

Rocket

Carol Kleckner — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:22:51 +0000

Unfortunately I didn’t get a good picture of Rocket. He is a very tall black with some white dog that has run the Iditarod. He is at the shelter because his owner couldn’t keep weight on him. He is very active on his chain. He is also verrryyy shy. But once he is petted he calms right down. I will love to see him run. He needs a patient and kind person.

I’ll get a better picture next time.

Tiger is back

Carol Kleckner — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:20:45 +0000

Tiger is back at the shelter. We ran him October 18th. He is a very friendly guy and was adopted into a pet home. Poor guy was abandoned and came back to the shelter thin, but still has that happy go lucky personality that I loved when I first met him.
He is a great little dog. He ran great and pulled hard although his back legs kind of have a wide stance when he runs. But this petite guy is all heart. He would make a great pet to pull kids around on a sled or skijor. He is inside at the shelter.

4 sled dogs

Carol Kleckner — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:17:13 +0000

4 kennel mates came to the shelter recently. Some of them are siblings. We have no information on them because they were left in the after hours cages with NO paperwork. This is truly a shame because we don’t know why these dogs are there. Have they been running? Are they even harness broke? They are all very friendly and in good shape. We will get them out to run soon.
So far they haven’t been given names but I will revise this post once they do and get better pictures.

Bonsai eats

Carol Kleckner — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:52:12 +0000

Well, the boy has been a great puppy…he rarely chewed anything and now has all his permanent teeth (including still the one canine puppy tooth that never dropped out)….but he has taken now to chewing different things and we had a little scare the other day. He didn’t eat and we were sure he had something stuck in his esophagus. Don finally got him to eat that afternoon but shortly thereafter UP came all the food plus several large chunks of foam from a dog bed. They had gotten stuck and couldn’t go down.
After that he was back to his regular high energy, madly playing self.

Cold Moose

Carol Kleckner — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:15:51 +0000

It is -34 here in the “hills” where usually we have a nice inversion and not as cold as Fairbanks (which is -40 at the moment). Mama Moose and baby have been around for a couple of days. It is hard to try and drive them off, so we don’t.
In this picture, Chance is admiring Mama’s great girth and trying to spot baby hiding directly behind Mama. You can see how the moose is concerned about Chance. She would rather eat than expend the energy attacking the fence.
She did give one turn and a kick to the fence as they ambled off later. As if trying to get in the last word.

Star-rest in peace

Carol Kleckner — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 10:00:49 +0000

My little girl is gone. 16 years and 8 months old. I had her for nearly 15 years. I had her when I owned my bed and breakfast (she was a great friend to all my visitors), lived in a cabin without running water or indoor plumbing on Love Road and here at my current home. She was a tiny girl weighing around 32 pounds. Star lost her front leg to a pick up truck when she was 2 years old. She never knew she was handicapped and still skijored with me until she was around 8 years old. When she was loping all out no one could tell she was missing a leg until I would stop and then people would stare in amazement and awe that this little dog could still do something that she loved.

She was diagnosed with cancer in January of 2011. She was given 3 weeks to live. Of course, dogs don’t listen! nearly a year later she decided that it was time to go, not 3 weeks.

She was in renal failure and it was a challenge sometimes to find something that she would eat. But she survived on many different foods over the months.

She had a very rough Thursday. I thought sure she was going to die in my arms. But she slept peacefully all night and ate a few different things on Friday. On Saturday she decided that my bowl of cheerios with craisins and yogurt were pretty tasty so she ate all of that. Then she had a salad for lunch. But she was frail and was having a hard time getting around. She seemed to be thirsty but really couldn’t drink much. I think we all knew it was her time. Dr. R. came up and we peacefully let her go.

I can only think that now she is off on her next adventure with all 4 legs and a healthy appetite. I will miss her dearly. She has been the dog that was with me the longest of all my sled dogs so far.

Rest in Peace little lady. We love you.