After partying the dogs, I decided to take the four wheeler to look for Sam. I was convinced that Sammie was caught in a trap. I knew there were some traps by the Pot-latch Bridge and by the Dyke. I headed out prepared…had my cell phone, GPS, and some tool thingies (pliers maybe?). Greg and I walked the trail yesterday, so knew where the bad spots were and my plan was to leave the ATV when it got really bad (meaning muddy, marshy, impassable).

Everything was going well, until I hit a bog. Since I had my phone, I called Greg (who is out of town). His suggestion was to tie eight or nine dogs to myself and go for a drag (that’s what I did the last time the 4 wheeler got stuck).  It was just about 9pm, so I decided to call my wonderful neighbors Scott and Maureen. As usual, they came out to rescue me. I thanked them and told them I was going to walk to the Pot-latch and Dyke.

They went home, I went on my extended walk/run, and I didn’t find Sam. I saw bear poop, wolf poop, lots of moose tracks (but surprisingly no moose poop), and unfortunately, no Sam poop.

Here are some pics of the 4 wheeler and flowers.

Stuck in the Mud

Stuck in the Mud

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.

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!

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.

Today, around 2am I was awakened by an overwhelming smell of poop. My first thought was that Buckwheat must have pooped on his bed made of old blankets which is located right next to our bed. I turned on the light to find that Buckwheat wasn’t in the room. Chez was sleeping on Buckwheat’s bed.

As a side note, Buckwheat is around 112 years old and has been losing bowel control. He often leaves a present and doesn’t even know it.

Back to the story…

I went into the office room to see if the Buckster left me a present. Nope, it didn’t smell like shit in there. I went back to the bedroom in search of the cause of the foul smell.  I around looked for a frozen poopsicle that someone may have brought in through the dog door. I didn’t see anything. The smell was truly overpowering. I though maybe Bruno was having bad gas, and sniffed his bum. Nope. It wasn’t Bruno. Neptune’s tumbly had been growling, so I sniffed his bum. Yuk. Neptune smelled like shit. But wait, I looked at the bed and there was a brown turd sleeping next to me. Geez. Gross. Nasty. Barf. How could this happen?? Neptune wouldn’t shit in the bed? Would he? How come I didn’t smell it until now? Where did it come from. Help. I’m sleeping next to crap.

Okay. I got a hold of myself and began to clean up. I pushed all of the dogs off of the bed, pulled the sheets off, brought the nasty ones outside, and put new sheets and blankets on the bed. I walked by the office room to find that in all of the excitement, Buckwheat left me a warm present. I cleaned this up and was ready to get back into bed, but it occurred to me that both Neptune and I were sleeping on a turd. I began to sniff Neptune, and sure enough, he smelled like shit. I escorted him into the bathroom and began to clean the parts that smelled bad. It wasn’t working. I put him in the shower. At first he was whining, but then realized that he was going to get to take a shower with me, so he didn’t mind. I washed the both of us and then used the hair dryer to dry Neptune off because I didn’t want a wet dog to jump into bed.

By now it was 2:30am and I felt compelled to call Greg, who was in Texas, and tell him the news. He didn’t seem to mind being woken up at 5:30am to hear about shit in the bed. It’s not the first time we’ve been woken up do to some type of excretion.

We all went back to sleep. But the question remains, who shat in the bed? The suspects are Neptune, Bruno, Scully, Chez, Sam, Chester, Sugar, Buckwheat, and Ilana. We were all in the bed at sometime during the night.

• Sugar was sleeping just outside of the bedroom– in a location where she normally doesn’t hang out. Could she have been in the bed just before I went to sleep?
• Earlier in the evening, there was a turd in the hallway, which I suspect was from Buckwheat. It wasn’t a full turd though. Could Buckwheat have been in the bed, shat in the bed, and then leave additional stuff in the hall? But why didn’t I smell the shit when I first got into bed?
• Chester was in bed, right before I climbed in, and Scully was in be right before Chester.
• Sam and Bruno were in there usual spots, curled up on top of me.
• Chez was on Buckwheat’s bed, but could have been on the bed earlier in the evening.
• Neptune was sleeping right next to me.
• Ilana sometimes dreams that she has to take a dump. Could she have shat in the bed while dreaming about taking a dump?

Who do you think shat in the bed? You can take the poll on the right of this page to voice your opinion.

Magic: Magic got his ass severely kicked by Duke, Chester, Simba, Red, and a bunch of other dogs. He’s recovering nicely. I’d bring him inside, but he likes it better outside with his buddies and I think he’s a cat eater.

Sammie & Bruno: I took Sam and Bruno for a 4 mile run tonight and they did great! The line up was Duke and Storm in lead, Sam in Point/Swing, and Sugar and Bruno in wheel.

I took Chester to work with me on Sunday. We had a nice drive in together. When I came home, I let Chester out of the car and walked to the gate. When I opened the gate, Stubby, Bruno, and Sam bolted out and then took off with Chester. Stubby came back in a few minutes. Bruno came back in a few hours. Chester and Sam have not returned.

I’m really bummed out and miss them. Bruno *really* misses his sister Sam. He’s been glum, whiny, and doesn’t have anyone to play with.

I hope they are safe and they come home.

We still have Bruno and Sam. For some reason we call them our little snausages…I have no idea why. We also call them little monsters– especially Sam. She is going to be a handful. She’s pretty darn cute though. If you’re interested in adopting Sam and Bruno together, let me know.