Dead Piggies :(

30. June 2009 stinkypup

Frankie and Chester aren’t allowed out together because they like to party and stay out late. Yesterday evening, Frankie and Chester finagled their way out together and ended up partying and staying out late. Frankie returned home around 4 hours after he disappeared. He was tired and had a touch of blood on his snout. Chester didn’t return home. Greg and I went looking for him. I was up until 2am wondering where he was. I drove to his old home to see if he was there. I walked through the woods calling for him. Finally, at 2am I went to sleep.

We woke up this morning at 6:30am and there was still no Chester. Greg drove around the block looking for him. No Chester :( I was worried about all of the things that could have happened to him, like getting shot, getting caught in a trap, getting kicked by a moose or mauled by a bear, getting captured by his previous owners.

At 8:00am, someone called and asked if we were missing a dog. I was sooooo happy that he was found. The woman who had Chester was caretaking for her inlaws. She found Chester sleeping outside of the inlaws’ pig pen. The three pigs had been shot.

When I went to pick Chester up, I was concerned that perhaps he had killed the pigs. The woman didn’t think so, she was pretty sure they had been shot. I have no idea what a bullet hole would even look like. After putting Chester in the Jeep, I went to look at the piggies. It was so incredibly sad. I almost started to cry. They were just laying on their sides– all dead and stinky. One of the pigs had a gouge in her side, the others had little holes that could have been from a gun.

I took Chester home and told him that he was a big dummy for not coming home last night. I’m glad he’s home, but am sad for the family who lost their pigs.

Chester, Frankie, Scummy Neighbors | 0 Comments »

Bucky’s Demise

21. May 2009 stinkypup

Greg has been trying to get rid of Buckwheat for months. For the last five months, Buckwheat was in a downhill spiral.  I brought Buck to the vet in January to see what we could do for his skin infection. He was on Cephalexin for quite sometime– which seemed to offer some relief. Then he was on steroids. But the time finally came and the events leading up to his death were kind of strange:

I was working from home on Tues. and decided to give Buckwheat a bath. He was so incredibly stinky– smelled like he was rotting from the inside (and he probably was).  I didn’t have dog shampoo, so created a mixture of Apple Cider vinegar, a teaspoon of lemon, some olive oil, and a huge bucket of water. I gave him a sponge bath on the porch.

Later in the day, I told Storm that she can move inside when Buckwheat was gone.

When Greg came home, we went for our evening walk with the inside dogs. I noticed Buckwheat just wasn’t doing well. I said to Greg, “I think it’s almost time for the Buck-a-r00.” Immediately after my comment,  Buckwheat collapsed. Greg carried him home.  Indeed the time had come.

We usually have our dogs euthanized at home because it’s more peaceful and less stressful for the dog and ourselves.  I was unable to get a hold of our house-call vet. I drove Buckwheat into town to the After Hours Clinic. After filling out the paperwork, Buckwheat and I sat on the floor of the emergency room. I was waiting for the usual doc to come in, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the doc on call was my old (not in age) vet, Dr. Pinto!!!! Pinto had moved away years ago and had happened to be in town for the week and thought she’d work a couple of shifts at the clinic.  She had euthanized several of my dogs before she moved away. I couldn’t have asked for anyone else (except for Dr. Rose) to be the vet doing the deed.

The euth went smoothly. I told Buckwheat to say hi to his brothers (Levi & Bandit) and sister (Darla). I feel a little guilty not getting Buckwheat back in a little box; I opted for a group cremation.

—-

As a side note, the pink stuff that they use to euth animals is Beuthanasia and the blue stuff is Fatal Plus. I was trying to think of the names because Pinto used the pink stuff and I was used to seeing the blue stuff.

Buckwheat | 1 Comments »

Denali Trip 2009

23. March 2009 stinkypup

This years trip to Denali (Denali 2009 - Map), like last years, was short and met with some difficulty. We left our house at 3:30pm Friday, March 20th and arrived at the park headquarters until 6:30pm. Just when we were ready to start mushing, Sam decided to deharness herself and took off. We waited around until Sam returned to the dog truck, and left the park headquarters in the dark. We probably traveled around a mile or two and then stopped. The dogs still had ya-yas, but it was late and we found a nice camping area that was protected from the wind. By the time we were done with dog care (melting snow for water, feeding) and human care (melting snow for water, feeding) it was 3:00am! The temperature was around -20F. Chester, Sam, and Bruno slept in the tent with us. Our sleep was interrupted by the constant whining of Sam and Bruno.

The next day (March 21) we got up late, and eventually left camp at around 1pm. We were following the trail that had  started at the park headquarters. Since this year was such a big snow year, the bad section of overflow and glare ice (around 1 mile after park headquarters), wasn’t bad at all. Soon the trail petered out and we were following a ski trail. The snow was very deep, so I put on my snow shoes and broke trail, then ran back and mushed with my snow shoes still on. Repeat process.

Unfortunately, the ski trail we were following let us to the park road and the road had just been plowed. It snowed a little bit the night before, so the road had some snow cover on it. We cruised down the road to the Savage River camp site. We stopped to set up camp (around 4:00pm), and it took us a long time to melt snow and take care of dogs– but at least this time we were able to do chores in the daylight. We kept Sam and Bruno, with the rest of the dogs, on tie-outs and let Chester and Storm free. Storm was very needy.

After a night of endless whining from Bruno, we woke up at around 9am and began morning chores. After chores, we scouted a possible route back to headquarters that would have led us through Jenny Creek. There was a lot of open water on the creek, as well as no-snow spots, and we didn’t see a definitive trail, so we decided to head back the same way we came out. We saw HUGE wolf tracks and tons of fresh wolf scat; HUGE bunny tracks; and a big fat bird that was waiting for us to leave camp.

We probably left camp around 2pm and were quite bummed to see that the road had been plowed again– and this time it was plowed to the asphalt. We mushed for around 1/4 mile on the road (Yuk) and eventually got back to sections of the road that had some snow. We found the turn off for the ski trail, and with a little maneuvering got the teams to make the turn. The rest of the mush home was uneventful.

Dogs

We brought 21 pulling dogs and one fun dog (Chester).

Days 1 & 2

Ilana

1. Nikki / Chevy (no one wants to run next to Chevy because he nips at his running mate)
2. Ahab / Decker
3. Rattles / Simba
4. Asa / Higgs
5. Peetie / Red

Greg

1. Frankie / Storm
2. Dutchess / Rocket
3. Sam / Bruno
4. Roo
5. Monkey / Pumpkin
6. Luke /Spike

Day 3

Ilana

1. Nikki/ Chevy
2. Frankie / Dutchess
3. Sam / Bruno
4. Monkey / Pumpkin
5. Asa / Higgs

Greg

1. Decker/ Storm
2. Ahab/ Rocket
3. Rattles / Simba
4. Roo
5. Peetie / Red
6. Luke /Spike

Trip Planning
Since I was traumatized by Spot being killed, Greg was in charge of packing and trip planning. I don’t know the exact amounts of what he brought– but it was a lot of food. For dog food he brought two 40lb bags of kibble, a block of turkey skins, Champagne race meat, energy pack, 42 pieces of big fish, some left over snacks from the Serum run (which Peetie, Sam, Bruno, and Chester stole from my sled) and some fat. We came back with most of the turkey, race meat, energy back, and 30lbs of kibble).

Gear

• Our Mountain Hardware winter tent is great, however our 20+F sleeping bags really aren’t appropriate for -20F.
• Once again we had stove problems. Greg purchased a pump for our MSR stove, but there are two separate pumps for the Whisper Lite and the DragonFly, so the pump he bought didn’t work with the stove we brought. We also had issues with our Colman stove.  Note to self: bring fire starter paste!

Ahab, Asa, Bruno, Chester, Chevy, Decker, Dutchess, Frankie, Higgs, Luke, Monkey-Tail, Nicky, Peetie, Pumpkin, Rattles, Red, Rocket, Roo, Sam, Simba, Sled Dogs, Spike, Storm, Vet Visits, Wild, trips | 0 Comments »

It’s a dog’s world

18. March 2009 Greg

Spot, the cat, was killed yesterday by three of our dogs. Ilana took the dogs for their regular morning walk, and started scooping the yard when everyone returned. This was before their breakfast. I had left for work earlier in the day. She heard a ruckus, and went into the house to find three dogs attacking the cat: Chez, Sam & Bruno. She got them to stop, put Spot on the countertop, but they got her again.

Ilana finally got Spot into a portable cat kennel and sped off to the vet. Spot was not very responsive, and seemed to have a broken back. She called me from the car, and I met her at the vet. Spot’s back wasn’t broken, but she had severe internal trauma and the vet recommended we euthanize her immediately. So, we did.

Spot was about 12 years old, and had lived with us since North Carolina. We knew she was in danger with so many dogs in the house, but did not have any good placement options for her. It was a sad day, to see pet dogs turn to their primal instincts.

Bruno, Chez, Deceased, Sam, Spot | 0 Comments »