The route we took was Ratstack to Mullen Slough and then I trusted in “dog” and Chevy and Nikki led me through the maze of Two Rivers trails to the road crossing at Rosehip Campground. We turned around at Twin Bears– which was somewhat of a fiasco and the dogs ended up in a big knot. We took the Baseline (instead of the slough) to Jenny M and down the third turn.

The line up was:

• Chevy & Nikki (Lead)
• Ahab & Roo (after 30 miles it was Ahab & Moe) (Point)
• Capella & Shrek (Team)
• Phanty & Zeus (Team)
• Snowball & Moe (after 30 miles it was Snow & Roo except when she sat in the sled)
• Spike & Luke (Wheel)

Wow. I graduated to 12 dogs in these conditions. What was I thinking????

When I came home from the mush, Greg had moved the dogs to the downtown yard. :)

My neighbor told me that she was moving the sheep, so I figured it was safe to mush on the field. Ha. I got to a turn in the field and 5-6 loose sheep– were coming toward me. The sheep weren’t even on her property. I stopped the machine and cursed many times. I was able to turn the team around, but turning a 500lb ATV is without hurting the team or myself was challenging , but do-able. We trotted home.

Spike looked like she was having a hard time. She was in wheel position and took the brunt of the force when turning around. I think she had minor heat exhaustion. I’ve seen it before with Peetie.  When overheating the dogs tend to stumble. Spike jumped in the baby pool, but was stumbling and had her back left foot turned over without noticing. I put the gang away, gave everyone raw hide, and tended to Spike with an ice pack and ice cubes.

I need to stick to my rule. No running dogs unless it’s 40 degrees or below.

I found him with the chain looped tightly around his middle, him hanging with his ass up in the air, trying to climb the adjoining fence. Roo, on the other side of the fence, was trying to bite his feet through the chain link.

Ilana arrived home just then, and I managed to pull Snow up to get the swivel out of the post. She held him while I used bolt cutters to cut the chain. He was so tangled, I couldn’t untangle the chain from around him. Snowy is the idiot of the day.

Roo and Capella are in adjacent pens. Roo shares a pen with her sissy Nikki. Capella shares a pen with her brothers Phanty and Zeus. After a brief fight several weeks ago where Capella was the target and Roo was one of the chief instigators, things have gotten out of hand with them barking at each other and fence fighting. Fence fighting is where dogs in adjacent pens attempt to fight with each other through a fence, in this case a chain link fence.

We’ve put up some “Privacy Panels” for Roo. Three stylish 4 X 8 sheets of plywood now lean against the fence in Capella’s pen and are intended to prevent the girlies from seeing each other and fence fighting. For the most part, the privacy screens work well. Perhaps I’ll paint calming images on the screens to create a serene atmosphere for the girls.

Nikki: Right before the KC epidemic Nikki cut her foot on something. It was sliced open badly– not something that I could fix. She went to the vet and received several stitches in her paw pad. Healing time was estimated at 10 days and she was to wear a bootie and take cephalexin for an antibiotic.  Nikki appeared to be depressed that she couldn’t run with the team– at least this is what we thought because she wasn’t eating much and moped about. Then the KC came and she plummeted further into the doggie dumples. It’s been around four weeks of picking at food or not eating. I brought her to the vet today and she’s lost around 6 pounds since her visit to the vet four weeks ago. Doc felt a loopy intestine, so she’s scheduled for a barium test tomorrow. Possible obstructed bowel.

Chez: Last week I noticed a hole in Chez’s neck when I got home from work. There were drops of blood on the floor and his wound was actively bleeding. It was a regular puncture wound, but in a unique location. After speaking with a vet, I cleaned the wound and attempted to staple it closed. Stapling a dog by yourself is doable, but stapling a dog’s neck is tough. I placed one in a good spot and the other wasn’t very good– one end of the staple was in the skin and the other in the hole of the wound. I left it because he didn’t want me fussing with it. He too was put on cephalexin.

Magic: Around the time I noticed Chez’s wound, I also noticed a small puncture wound in Magic’s tush. I shaved part of it and cleaned it out. I put him on cephalexin because he tends to get infections.

Roo: Yesterday while we were saddling up the gang to go for a run, I noticed Roo’s back foot was bleeding.  We brought her inside to defrost the frozen iceberg of blood and saw her toenail was torn and instead of pointing vertical (like a normal toenail should) it was horizontal (pretty cool looking actually!). She must have caught it on the fence. She went to the vet today to have the toenail removed. The doc called me at work to check and see if she could cut her other toenails. I said “Yes!” Her toenails were pretty long and she was on the list for clipping– but I hadn’t gotten to it yet. It’s kinda embarrassing when your vet notes that your dog’s toenails are gnarly.

King Neptune: Neppy went to the vet today because of his on/off eating. His bloodwork was mostly normal, except for his pancreatic levels. We’re sending his medical files from one vet to the other, so the vet can examine his previous blood levels. Stay tuned.

Storm: This one isn’t vet related, but spring related. Now that it’s getting lighter out and late in the winter season, the moose are out and about. Storm decided to chase one this morning.

Greg was a speed demon and took off at a very fast pace. I  was behind him, but eventually he pulled ahead quite a distance. After running for a while I was passed by a bikejorer. I was expecting some other bikers to pass, but there weren’t any. I stopped seeing the white paper-plate made trail markers. The bikejorer passed on her way back. Then Greg passed me on his way back and told me that he didn’t see any markers and neither did the bikejorer. I continued to the dyke and turned around where Greg and the bikejorer did. On my way back I saw the white paper-plate 3 mile turn around sign.

Turns out, the signs weren’t there on our way out. They had been blown over and broken. The bikejorer found them on her way back and put them in a prominent spot for us to see. Instead of running six miles, we ran around eight.

Greg came in first, with a time of 52 minutes, Lisa S. came in second with a time of 55 minutes, and I came in with a time of 57 minutes.

It was a beautiful day to be out. The sun was shining, the temp was 30 degrees above, and it was very windy. A good time was had by all.

Other news at Stinkypup is Decker’s radial subluxation. On Monday June 21st, Decker got beat up during a puppy party. Greg wasn’t around, so it was just me who pulled one dog off & hooked them up, pulled another dog off & hooked them up, and so on. I’m not sure who started the fight, but many snouts were involved, including Monkey, Pumpkin, Capella, Spike, Chester, Rocket, Ahab, Zeus, Nikki and Roo. All ten dogs were pulling and jumping and tugging on poor little Decker. Dog fights suck.

After I got everyone back on their chains I fed them, and then tended to Decker’s wounds. She had a couple of puncture wounds, which I shaved and cleaned. When Greg came home he helped me tend to the rest of her wounds. She had a long laceration on her back leg and bleeding puncture wound near her left armpit. We cleaned her up, gave her Rimadyl, Tramodol & Cephlex and put her in the pen. We’ve seen a lot worse, but were keeping an eye on her. She didn’t eat much on Tues. Wed. she ate a little and her wrist began to swell. We put ice on her wrist, which helped the swelling a lot. On Thurs. her entire arm began to swell. We iced it and the swelling went down, but she wasn’t getting better.

On Fri. we brought her to the emergency vet, who thought she just had a bad infection. She gave us Clavamox (a stronger antibiotic). Although the swelling went down, we now noticed she wasn’t bearing any weight on her leg and her wrist was floppy. She was breathing hard (a sign of pain in dogs), but I thought she was just too hot.

On Tues. we brought her to Dr. Flemme at Mt. McKinley animal hospital. Flemme is an expert in canine orthopaedics. He diagnosed her with lateral radial subluxation. He took e-xrays to confirm the problem. We left her at the vet and he was able to manually reduce the injury (meaning put the bones back where they were supposed to be without having to do surgery).

She needs to stay in a crate for 10 days and she’s quite uncomfortable. After that we’ll move her outside to the pen. I already told her she can move inside, but I think she prefers living outside with her sisters. She’s a shy girl.

Decker sporting a $200 cast.

Decker

So, that’s the current news from the StinkyPup ranch. Magic is adjusting to his cropped tail (I still need to take some pics), and of course, we all desperately miss Sam.

Luke also went for a vet visit today. The vet wasn’t sure if he has a torn muscle or if it could be having back problems. Instead of doing ex-rays right away, the vet prescribed Methocarbanol (500mg every 8 hours). Methocarbanol is a muscle relaxant. Luke’s back thighs are very muscular and super tight.

Higgs and Luke added incredible strength to our “A” team. They are both big dogs (70lbs), who usually run in wheel and carry the team. With Rocket & Decker (a great leader) on bed rest due to a shoulder or wrist injuries, and Asa off the “A” team because he doesn’t like to run without his brother and he doesn’t like to run with Greg, we are left with Nikki, Chevy, Ahab, Capella, Zeus, Spike (who has harness rub on her chest), and Roo (who can’t run more than 100 miles). Soooo, my secret plan to run the Chatanika 200 and possibly the Quest 300 isn’t looking good this year.

Scott and I did recon the day before on the snow machine, to confirm the trail was in, and check out snow conditions. We were doing a 20-mile trip, from a parking area at Mile 42 on the Steese Highway. The trail was in, and had been used a few times within the past week. Snow was sufficient, and the cabin was nice and had plenty of tie-out room for dogs. (The Bureau of Land Management web site hadn’t been updated since December 16, when the trail had not yet been assessed by BLM staff.)

Scott contributed two of his dogs, Nike and Panda (short for Pandemonium) so that we could either have one team of 10, or two teams of 5. Ilana wanted to take Chester, so decided to ski in with Chester as a ski-jor dog. We got to the trailhead around 10:45 Monday morning (as the sun was rising), and Ilana started skiing a few minutes afterward. I left about an hour later, and Scott and Maureen left an hour after that (it takes awhile to get dogs bootied and harnessed, and the snow machine’s sled packed, but we had guessed I would be the slower team). This trail is uphill for about 7 miles — not often steep, and sometimes flat or slightly down, but mostly uphill. Ilana made excellent progress, and had gone almost 10 miles by the time I caught up with her, an hour after I started.

Trail conditions were good. Ilana needed to keep Chester close, so that he didn’t get caught in a trap. Trapping is legal on this federal land, as long as there is signage indicating there is trapping going on (there was). It’s legal on state land, which was the first 7 miles of the trail, without any signage. We saw, and smelled, multiple traps which were often just a few bandwidths off the trail. Yech.

Skiing was challenging for Ilana, and she got blisters early on. I passed Ilana, then Scott passed me. A little while later, Maureen passed me, too. I arrived in camp around 3:00 pm, a little more than 3 hours after starting. Scott and Maureen were there for about 1/2 hour before me, and, surprise! Ilana arrived within another hour. We bedded the dogs in straw, snacked then fed them, and gave them a little rubdown.

The cabin, like others in the White Mountains, requires a free advance reservation. It was snug, with sleeping room for 6 (or more, including a loft). It came with a dual-fuel Coleman lantern, a propane stove, and a wood-burning barrel stove. We stoked the stove and got comfy for the evening. As often happens with winter camping, we were all starting to fall asleep over our dinners by 6:30 pm, but rallied and had a game of Cribbage and some conversation. Still, we settled down by 9:30 or so. Scott had some barkers, so it was tough to snooze soundly all the night through.

I fed the stove before bed, so the cabin stayed reasonably warm all night. Probably close to 50F at dinnertime, then barely below freezing overnight (we left some water out, and it did not ice over). People started getting up by 9:00 am, and after a leisurely morning we were on the trail by 11:30 am. I was the lead team again, and was not passed. I made it back to the parking area by 2:00 pm, about 1/2 hour faster than the trip in. There were fewer Asa shenanigans on the way out (though there were some).

One of the nicest parts, in both directions, was watching the incredibly long sunset, with the moon rising. The sun was setting to the SSW, and the moon was rising almost directly opposite, to the NNE. The moon is nearly full, which means (by definition) that it’s opposite the sun. But from the hilltops, with really long twilight and dawn, we got an unparalleled view of this celestial display. The weather was perfect: clear, with lows around -12F and highs on the hilltops of maybe +15F. We encountered just a couple of people on the trail, who appeared to be workers doing some trail maintenance. The cabin logbook, though, showed that the cabin had been in constant use for the past few weeks.

For the trip home, I took Chester with me. He free-ran for the first 4-5 miles, where we hadn’t seen signs of trapping. After that, I put him on an extensible leash, and kept him close to the sled. Ilana rode in the snow machine with Maureen. They arrived just a few minutes after me, and Scott got there 1/2 hour later. We packed up, and drove home. All the dogs seem to be happy, healthy, tired, hungry and uninjured. Tracey, our dog sitter, had taken care of the home gang. Tomorrow, we’ll be back on the trails of Two Rivers.

But Decker has a sprained wrist, and has been off training for over two weeks. We’ll ease her in again next week. She’s a champion lead dog, and seems rather depressed to not be running.

Simba got pulled off the “A” team last season, due to a persistent shoulder injury. So, we eased him in this year, and included lots of stretching and massage. But no luck: the injury is still there.

Roo is good for training, but only pulls for 20 miles or so. After that, she can keep up, but doesn’t work. Definitely more of a sprint dog.

I was worried about Asa (he’s getting older, and had a persistent resistance to running with me, last year), but he and brother Higgs are still pulling strong and true.

The most recent loss is Luke. We are not sure what’s going on, but he did poorly on Saturday, then on Sunday simply wouldn’t pull (he was getting tugged by his neckline). He is sort of limpy, and sort of looks constipated, and we are not sure what’s up. We’ll let him keep resting for a few more days before visiting the vet (we have not had a week without at least two vet trips in 5 or 6 weeks!).

So the current “A” team (in the typical pairs we run them in):

Chevy, Nicki
Ahab, Rocket (who I’m not that sure about…he seems to overheat)
Capella, Zeus
Higgs, Asa
Roo (good spunkiness, but limited miles)
Spike (used to run with Luke)

We might get Phanty trained up. He’s only a yearling, and really doesn’t have much of a clue about anything, but seems to have potential. Also, I hope Decker will get back into training again. Bottom line is that today, we have 10 “A” team dogs, and maybe three others (Decker, Phanty, Luke) who might get back onto the “A” team.