(This is one of the first pictures I took of him.  Look how skinny he is)

(This is his latest picture taken 3-18.  He is filling out and enjoys this warm weather that we are having. )

Update 3-14-2015:  He is a trooper.  His eyesight is getting worse, but he has gained weight.  8 pounds up than when he first got here.  He sleeps most of the day except for feeding time.  Then he is animated and excited for food and treats.

Update 2-18: What a little sweetheart.  He loves to have his head and eyes rubbed, but not really into pets on the rest of his body unless you can get him right between his front legs on his belly.  Then he stands in bliss.  He has gained several pounds, being fed 3 times a day.  Every now and then he will get “manic” and start dashing around the downstairs with his little tail flying.  Always fun to see.  But yes…he is an old boy and loves his bed and his naps.

Our new little boy on his favorite dog bed.  You can see how terribly thin he is.  He sure does love to eat and we are feeding him 3 times a day.  Hoping to get his frail little body built back up.

Update: May 14th.  This little boy has a lot of names! Since he can’t hear us, it really doesn’t matter what we call him except to us.  I have called him Chief Lambikins (he minds me of a baby lamb or a baby goat!!) but Gummy Bear seems to be the name most used.  Or “PUPPY”….he can kind of hear if we say that really LOUDLY.  I never thought he would live this long.  But he is still eating 3 meals a day, having great stools (even though he really doesn’t know when he wants to go and we have found it a lot of different places downstairs) and at times has these manic spells that he dashes around crazily that makes us laugh.  But he is best at sleeping.  He sleeps so soundly that often I have wondered if he is still alive when I go to get him up….He is a doll and is not available for adoption at this point.  He is up to 40 pounds.  His coat never has grown back.  Interesting…..not sure why.

Pics of the newest boy that was brought into the Second Chance League.  He was found roaming on Chena Hot Springs Road weeks ago.  He was already neutered and had been shaved from his neck on down.  But no one picked up this petite older dog. His teeth were terrible so the Shelter Fund paid for his initial care and tooth extractions (thank you Ronnie!).  No one was really looking at him because of his age.  They figure he is 14 years old!!  But still spry although totally deaf.  I couldn’t bear the thought of him spending a lot of his remaining time left on earth in the shelter so SCL pulled him into foster care and Don and I brought him home.  He is meeting the other dogs slowly and will be living in the house as soon as everyone meets him.  Right now he is in the heated dog barn with a couple of our other dogs that don’t really like being in the house with 13 other dogs.  We will probably change his name although he can’t hear us.  He needs some good nutrition as he is very thin and right now weighs less than 30 pounds.  He is a tiny boy.

It seems that he understood riding in a car and after I put him in the back seat he jumped into the front seat and gave me little kisses on my cheek.  I think he is grateful to be out of the shelter.

I thank the shelter staff for taking care of him and seeing to his medical needs.  Hopefully he will have some good years left.

Summer is flying!!  I haven’t been to the shelter in a bit.  There haven’t been a lot of huskies there and the ones that come in they haven’t been chaining outside.  Our lovely Charming is in foster care and blossoming.  He was the last husky to be outside.  So I keep an eye on the web site and with phone calls about dogs at the shelter.  I’m hoping this trend keeps up where we don’t have masses of sled dogs dropped off.  We continue to work behind the scenes, spreading the word for any huskies that do come in.

Have a great fall everyone!

A warm day (41 above) walk to the pond with the girls.  I complain about the warmth but the day was beautiful and we enjoyed being out on the trail.  It is still very hard packed and a bit icy because of the rain and the heat but made for easy walking with spikies on my shoes.

Misty with the setting sun.

4 girls heading home.

“HEY!”  the dogs are saying…”HEY HEY!”  “Look a stranger in our midst.  Who stopped here?  This isn’t one of us.  I wonder if we will see them up the trail?  Is it a husky?  Male?  Female?  Maybe we will make a new friend.”

The dogs always find the pee spots and the poo spots and have to stop and check them all out.  Alas we didn’t see a new friend today.  Being a holiday I thought more people would be on the trail but other than a couple of voices that came off a side trail and went on ahead of us possibly on fat bikes, we didn’t see a soul.  A nice 25 above day.

Heading home up the road.

Pixel never stops running.  If she sees me far behind she turns and runs as fast as she can and makes an abrupt turn and runs back up the hill.  This is the only time the dogs are ahead of me.  During the whole walk they are usually behind, but going home they head up the hill quickly and up the driveway.

The fun never quits.

She is a character.  She loves socks, gloves and boots.  She goes out of her way to watch me and if I dare leave a little space where she can get into the closet she runs in and comes out with either a boot or a glove.  She has great glee shining from her eyes and she runs around the house with her prize making happy chortling noises.  Given the chance she will start chewing on them, but luckily she is usually caught and the object taken away.  We do have balls and kongs laying around, but her true delight is something we have been wearing.

I went running today with the 4 girls.  Headed to the pond.  Pixel always gets super excited about our outings and as I run down the road she comes back leaping high into the air and we do some sort of body slam……so I decided to be creative and avoid the body slam by spinning around each time she came running back.  So as I spun she would run on past and not slam into my chest….until about the 5th time as I spun around she slammed into the back top of my legs and took me down.  The cartoon flip off my feet, legs straight up in the air and I came down hard on my upper back and neck before the rest of my body reached the ground.  I lay there for a minute getting my bearings and slowly got up feeling some bruises.  But after I ran it off, my body felt amazing.  My usual stiff back was gone….my tight neck…released.

Not sure how I will feel tomorrow, but for no charge at all Pixel did a great adjustment.

I can hire her out for cheap if anyone is in need.

Blackberry loves the new dog bed.  They were on sale at Fred’s at a great price so I bought one.  Should have bought more so maybe will get another one next time I’m shopping.

My usual picture of the trails in the winter and the 4 girls.  I must have dozens of these types of pictures.  White trail, dark trees, blue or white sky.  Walking in winter doesn’t have the hues of color that occur in the other seasons but the quietness, the beauty of the trail and the easy access to the wilderness in the winter makes up for the lack of color.  Even the 4 girls are black, white or black and white!

Sweet Zorba.  At 13.5 years old he was ready to leave earth to start his next adventure.  I’m never ready to see them go though.  It is always hard on the ones left behind.

I was blessed to get Zorba from another musher when he was quite young.  He worked so hard that he couldn’t do the longer distances of his original owner so he came into my life all full of spunk, high energy and speed.  He was a super sprint dog that got along with everyone and always had a happy smile.  He never barked much but had a long wooo whooooooooooo.  He was always easy to pick out when dogs were barking.

One of my first memories is when I was hooking up at team at Musher’s Hall.  I hadn’t let him loose before and with his energy I wasn’t about to try that day.  But when I had a lot of the team hooked up and went back for him, he pulled away and shot down the trail in a cloud of snow.  OH NO!!  I called for him and he slowed, looked back and realized that HIS team wasn’t with him.  He came running back up the hill as fast as he went down and was put into the team.  He earned my trust that day.

He had IBS most of his life which was hard to figure out at first.  How to get his system under control and weight on him.  After trying different foods I finally found one that worked for him and he gained weight and was a happy dog for his later years.  But age caught up to him and his body gave out.  I’m sad, but so happy that he spent so many years of his life with me and the pack.  And heartily welcomed Don into that pack.
I will miss him as I miss all the other dogs that have come and gone in my life.  There is a special place that I’m planning on meeting them all again somewhere far down the road.

Love you Zorba.