When we woke up, Sam and Frankie were still gone.  Greg took the gang for a morning walk, and Frankie caught up with them on their way home. Frankie wasn’t very muddy, and didn’t look too wet. We were waiting for Sam to come running home, but she didn’t. We spent all day Sat. looking for her. We looked for her on the field, on some of the trails, on some of the trails that aren’t trails, on the road, at the pound, up the block, down the block, here and there. Still no Sam. Sunday, we repeated our hunt for her. Note, Sat. & Sun. were met with bouts of hard rainfall. Still no Sam.

I checked my StinkyPup blog and she,  Chester, Bruno and Stubby disappeared in 2007.  Stubby came back within the hour, Bruno within 7 hours (and was really tired), Chester within around 16 hours, and Sam 52 hours. I suppose there is still some hope that she returns home. Both Wild and Sugar were found at around mile 22 after one week. Dutchess was found at mile 22 after a couple of days.

What worries me are the traps, bears, wolves, and moose. Rattles was missing for three days and some folks found him in a trap. Rattles didn’t let us know where he was when we were basically right next to him.

So, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. I’m very sad and miss her so much.

Sunday night he figured out how to jump over a gate, sort of squeezing between the gap over the gate closure, where the gate doesn’t quite meet the fence. I was tending to the yard, and realized that Frankie was running around in the sled dog yard, instead of barking from the adjacent pet dog yard. I put him back, then he reappeared. I then put him back, and blocked one of the gates.

A few minutes later, there was a horrendous barking and howling, from another of the gates. Frankie had tried to jump through, and got stuck with his waist between the fence and the gate, suspended over the gate latch and a t-post, about 4 feet in the air. To make matters worse, Chez was biting his ass and feet, from the other side of the fence.

I ran to help, and started to try to lift Frankie from his tight spot. But he bit me — hard! On the hand. I backed off, managed to reach around and shoo Chez away, and adjusted Frankie’s rear feet so he wasn’t quite so stuck. He calmed down a bit, and then let me lift him out. He promptly ran through the dog yard, opened the gate at the other end (it wasn’t secured, since Frankie is the only one who ever opens the gate, and he was supposed to be in the other yard), and ran up the back porch to be let in by Ilana.

Later, we discovered that Frankie had impaled himself on the t-post, and needed another set of stitches. My next yard project will be to figure out how to add a little more fencing, to make it impossible to jump through the gap that Frankie found.

Last year, Frankie had five of his teeth pulled. The vet said he had cavities (different from human cavities), which is unusual for dogs.

This July, Frankie’s breath was smelling really bad–worse than dead fish mixed with poop.  We brought him to a vet who specialized in canine dentistry.  Besides having cavities, his bone was reabsorbing his teeth, and he had exposed rotting bone in the back of his mouth.

Frankie ended up getting all but 6 of his teeth pulled!

Franken-Teeth - July 2009

Nutok’s Teeth

While Nutok was getting stitched up at the vet from her unsuccessful attack on Monkey, the vet noticed she had a fractured tooth and let us know we should get it taken care of.  We brought Nutok to the same vet as Frankie (the vet who specializes in dentistry).  What we thought was going to be a straight forward procedure of removing one tooth turned in to a longer procedure that involved removing 8 teeth! She’s still in the recovery phase and has a checkup next week.

Nutok's Teeth

King Neptune’s Raw Hide

For the last several years, Neptune has been vomiting his dinner once a month and appeared to have tummy problems every now and then. I brought him to the vet and was told to give him pumpkin…and that as long as things were going in one end and coming out the other, and occasional vomit is okay.

In August 2009, he seemed to be getting worse. He would vomit 3-4x a week, seemed lethargic, not his usually self, and he was loosing weight. Turns out Neptune had a small piece of rawhide (we think) floating around in his stomach. Every now and then it would block the path from the stomach to the intestines, thus causing him to vomit.

The rawhide was surgically removed from Neptune’s stomach. The vet thought the rawhide had been in his stomach for a while!

Rawhide removed from Neptune's stomach (left) compared to a quarter (right) to show size.

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.

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!

We’ve moved Sugar into the house because she got beat up by Nutok. She’s been doing pretty well, although I haven’t moved her from the blog “sled-dog” category to the “pet dog” category because I’m not sure if the move is permanent.

We’ve been bringing Frankie into the house more and more as “dog of the day.”  Frank is a really good lead dog, but he runs like a duck and just doesn’t have the build of a sled dog. He gets very cold in the winter, and my plan is for him to stay inside on cold winter nights. When we adopted him, he was an inside dog– but his owners gave him up because he was high energy and was destructive. He’s been very well behaved inside, although like Chester, we don’t leave him home alone. He’s quite comfy on the couch– but Neptune doesn’t like this since the couch really belongs to him (Nep.).

Since I’m probably going to participate in the 2009 Serum Run, I needed to get some more dogs. Of the 25 dogs that we have, only 4-7ish can run 750 miles (30-60 miles per day). These dogs are:

• Nicky (Can run in lead, but doesn’t know commands).
• Decker (A great lead dog, but doesn’t know how to poop and run so she holds it in and has bloody diarrhea at the end of the day. She’s not a good eater on the trail).
• Storm (Can run in lead, but is petrified of snow machines because she got hit by one.)
• Simba (A good team dog, but has extremely BAD feet. I need to take diligent care of his feet, otherwise they’ll crack and bleed.)
• Higgs (A possible candidate. He tends to overheat and get tired).
• Asa (Higgs’ brother– a possible candidate, but has had some wrist injuries).
• Roo (A possible candidate, but Roo tends to not eat at all on long trips. She also crabs a lot (runs to the side) in Manmat harnesses and does better in a traditional x-back. She can run in lead, but gets tired after 20 miles).

Sooo, we got some new dogs from a neighbor who was getting out of mushing. This puts us back up to 31 dogs (ack!!!) The new guys are:

• Dutchess (A 10 year old female that we’ll use for gee/haw training)
• Luke (A 3 year old male)
• Spike (A 3 year old spayed female)
• Rocket (A 5 year old male)
• Ahab (A 5 year old male)
• Chevy (A 4 year old male)

I’ll post pics and bios soon.

1. Lead: Frankie & Decker
2. Point: Red & Storm
3. Team: Monkey & Higgs
4. Swing: Simba & Rattles
5. Wheel: Nicky & Roo

Ending Team was:

1. Lead: Nicky & Decker
2. Point: Simba & Rattles
3. Team: Monkey & Higgs
4. Swing: Storm & Red
5. Wheel: Frankie & Roo

The trail conditions were soft packed snow, no overflow (although before the race we were told there was 50ft of wet overflow/water that was 1.5 feet deep– good thing Greg didn’t encounter this!).

Red is another good leader. He too knows his gees and haws. He’s part of the “B” team because he’s a little slower than the the “A” team and he overheats when it’s above zero degrees Fahrenheit.

Chester is officially an inside/outside/pet/sled dog. He’s a great guy. Whenever he wants to, he slips his collar and jumps the fence. He usually does this when I go out for a mush. I’ve been running him as a loose leader and he does great.

Other updates– the StinkyPups finished the Chatanika 100 in 15 hours and 45 min. They were very tired. I’m already planning for next year. The key is to get out there and train. My dogs are used to running 40 miles with little breaks, but they weren’t used to camping out and running another 41 miles — (the 100 miles race was really 81 miles).

The line up for the race was:

• Decker & Frankie
• Storm & Red (I dropped Red after 40 miles)
• Simba & Rattles
• Asa & Higgs
• Pumpkin & Monkey (Monkey got really sick– she’s okay now)
• Roo & Nicky

Leaders were:

• Red (ha ha ha– only for the first 5 minutes)
• Storm
• Roo
• Nicky
• Decker
• Frankie

Both Red and Monkey got to ride in the sled for a little bit, not at the same time.

Here’s some thoughts for me for next years race:

• Bring more Heat (for cooking)
• Train them for camping trips
• Bring a thermos (my socked water bottle instantly froze– and it wasn’t even cold out)
• Figure out a hydration system for me and the dogs

• Lead: Decker and Roo
• Point: Stormy and Frankie
• Swing: Asa and Higgs
• Wheel: Rattles and Simba

As soon as I got to our access trail I saw another team ahead of me. I slowed down, stopped the team, and hooked in. I didn’t want to be on the other team’s ass while going down an icy hill. I waited several minutes and then…”ready, let’s go”…we were off.

When I got to the bottom of the hill it was time to pass. The musher in front of me didn’t know I was behind them. I started to pass them and half way through Rattles attacked the leader of the other team. Shit! Rattles and Simba and Frankie were all attacking my neighbor’s new dog, Starving Marvin. My neighbor and I got everyone to stop fighting. We then had to untangle everyone. Actually she only had four well behaved dogs, it was my team that needed untangling. While she was tending to her team, I tended to mine. Each time I got Decker and Roo untangled and I went to untangle the next set of dogs, Decker and Roo turned around and got everyone tangled again. This happened at least 4 times before I switched Decker with Storm. The problem was that my lead dogs weren’t “lining out” (holding their line tight and staying up front). I thought Storm would be better at lining out than Decker. I was wrong. Finally, my neighbor was finished fixing her team and was nice enough to hold my lead dogs while I untangled the rest of the team, then…”ready, let’s go.”

We were off…only to run into a big truck in the middle of the trail. Yes, a huge pickup truck. The owner of the property was out cutting wood. His three dogs were loose ready to pounce my team. Luckily, the dude saw me, pulled over so I could get by, and waved. I waved back. It’s nice to have friendly neighbors.

So, now we’re really ready to go…until I saw another musher coming towards me. This is usually no big deal, but we ended up passing on a narrow bridge. I was telling my leaders to go onby when the other musher said, “wait, my dog is attacking one of yours.” Sure enough, her dog had his teeth sunk into Frankie’s neck. All I could think of was Rattles and Simba joining the fight, and I pushed them away. The other musher (my other neighbor) got her dog off of Frankie. By then all of my dogs were totally tangled. Sigh. I wanted her to go onby so the dogs wouldn’t fight (they were still right next to each other), but I think she was untangling my dogs, so I pushed my sled off of the bridge. Higgs and Sima had already fallen off the bridge. My neighbor helped untangle the dogs and I tried pushing the sled out of the frozen creek. I couldn’t push the sled myself, I needed my dogs to pull. I ran up to Storm and Roo and said, “Girls, I know you’re tangled, but you need to pull, ready, let’s go.” The girls and the rest of the team pulled and I pushed the sled and we popped the sled out of the ditch. Yippie. My drag pad broke and my neighbor gave me a wrench to fix things while she untangled the rest of my team and held my leaders. Note: her team was lined out the entire time.

When everything was sorted out and we were ready to go guess who comes along? Greg! He had a team of ten. He saw us and stopped ahead. My neighbor had run up to her team to get going. I was ready to go, but Storm and Roo and the gang turned the team around again. Sigh. We were once again in a big tangle.

While I was untangling dogs, my neighbors dogs attacked Duke, Greg’s lead dog. When the fight was over, my neighbor went on her way and Greg came to help me untangle. Finally, we were ready to go again.

The dogs were really fast. We took the first gee (right) and I stayed low. We went through the small turns on the base line trail. Then came an intersection. I wanted to go onby, but Roo dragged the team to the left. I fell off the sled and went for a short drag. I was able to stop the team and get back on.

The rest of the run was uneventful. I decided to cut my run short because Higgs wasn’t keeping up with the rest of the team.

When we got home Greg was soaking in the hot tub. Even though most of the dogs had run today, I had a puppy party. Everything was just swell. Then Levi wanted to eat a frozen poopsicle. It happend to be Red’s poopsicle. Red attacked Levi; and so did Rattles, Simba, Duke, Frankie, and Peetie. I was screaming at the dogs, but they wouldn’t stop attacking Levi. Greg heroically jumped out of the tub, ran into the dog yard, and broke up the fight while he was garbed in slippers and a towel at minus 10 degrees. He carried Levi into the house.

Levi ended up going to the after hours vet and getting lots of stitches. He’s in pretty bad shape, so he’ll get to stay inside for a while.

Oh, I called the neighbor of the first fight, the one my dogs started, and her dogs were fine. Turns out she got Starving Marvin from the other neighbor (the one whose dogs attacked mine).

So, is this Karma?

A. Frankie (Simba and Rattles) => attack Starving Marvin (owned by Neighbor 1; previously owned by Neighbor 2)

B. Neighbor 2′s dog => attack Frankie

and poor Levi got his ass kicked by everyone. Levi’s karma is that he’ll be a permanent house dog…if he wants to stay inside.