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!

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.

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.

Yesterday Keri called twice and Brenda once. The first time Keri called he spoke to G and wanted to speak to me. G told him to call back later in the evening, he did. He was nice, and asked, “Are you going to give me my dog back?” I replied, “I’ve had Chester for two years and am quite attached to him. I’m sorry, but no, I’m not going to give him to you.” He said, “okay,” and we ended the conversation. He sounded sad.

Two minutes later, Brenda called to chew me out. She said something about “doing the right thing,” and “what if it was a baby purchased on the black market?” She told me that her husband and children were crying. I told her the dog was legally mine; that I adopted him from the pound. She started yelling at me and hung up, so I don’t think she heard me ask her if I was going to need to get a restraining order.

The situation really sucks. I feel badly for them; I’d feel worse for me If I relinquished my dog to them.

I brought Red, Storm, and Decker as backup dogs for the kiddie run. I brought Chester, well because I always bring Chester in the the when there’s an opportunity to. I was walking around Pleasant Valley Center with Chester saying hi to folks. Chester was getting his usual remarks of what a beautiful dog he is. One of Chester’s admirers was checking him out and said to me, “Nice dog. I used to have a dog like that.” For some reason I asked, “Where do you live?” The guy responded, “13 mile.” I said, “This is your dog.”

Turns out it was Chester’s original owner. We shared stories of what happened, of how I came to be his owner (see Mysterious Dog in our Yard & Shit Happens), and of how he and his family were away for 10 months and his housesitter’s robbed him and told him that Chester was dead*. It was a really awkward situation, especially when he mentioned that he wouldn’t mind having Chester back. I told him he could visit and that I’d think about it, that I wanted to introduce him to Greg. We parted and said we’d see each other later.

I found Greg and told him the news. I told him that it was a messed up situation, that Chester remembered the guy, that the guy’s kids were sad, and that I didn’t think I could give Chester up.

Later on, I saw the guy again and introduced him to Greg. Greg stood there and basically told the guy that we would give him back. I stood in utter shock and didn’t understand why Greg would say such a thing when 10 minutes before I told him how I didn’t want to give Chester up and when he knows how a feel about Chester. Greg gave the guy our phone number. The guy already found out where we lived because he is friends with a mutual acquaintance of ours– and the acquaintance told him where we lived.

I left the Funale. I brought Storm, Red, Decker, and Chester home (they didn’t get to run with the kiddies).

Later that night I needed to go for a mush– even if I was sick. I had left with the “B” team (and Chester), and Greg was saddling up the “A” team when the dude stopped by. I don’t really know what happened, but Greg said he told the guy that I wasn’t interested in parting with Chester.

———–
*Note: The guy’s wife said they were told that Chester was hit by a car, adopted, taken to the pound, etc.

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.

• Levi is recovering nicely.
• Chez is a little better, I don’t think he has a brain lesion– even though that’s what the vet suspects. I know I’m not a vet, but it just seems that his breathing/eating problem is an airway thing. Maybe allergies. He has to get some bloodwork done.
• Bandit and Wild both have lumps…we have appointments to bring them into the vet.
• Chester is hopefully tapeworm free– we dewormed the entire yard with Panacur. He needs to get his urine checked to see if he still has a UIT (urinary tract infection). I think he’s better because he no longer has a 105.8 fever!
• Spot the cat is FAT! I wish she had her own floor instead of her own room. If she had her own floor, she’d get more exercise. She has a vet appointment for a check-up, and because she’s loosing hair.
• Dudley is really really clueless– more so than usual. He’s been peeing in the house, on his bed, and didn’t want to go for walkies tonight :(

Now comes the crazy part. I was jogging up CHSR and saw a lady on the side of the road. I asked if she was okay and it turned out she was guarding a momma and her 4 pups. Another concerned citizen was walking up to Anne’s house to see if they were her dogs. He was going to take the dogs to the pound since he couldn’t find the owner. I said, “Oh, don’t take them to the pound. My husband will kill me, but I can hold onto them until we find the owner.”

We loaded up the pups in his truck and drove back .5 miles to my house. We put them in the pen and I went out for a jog. When I got to .4 miles from my house I saw a box on the side of the road. The box contained a blanket, bone, and dish. I knew that the dogs were abandoned.

I ran up Bote St. to see if I could find the woman who was gaurding the dogs on the road– she told me she lived on Bote. I didn’t find the woman, but I found another pup. The pup was crouched up against a garage of a nice woman’s house. I didn’t think the pup was related to my pups because it was brown and seemed bigger. The woman said she was going to ask the neighbors if it was theirs, and if she couldn’t find the owner then bring it to the pound. I left, and continued on my jog.

When I got home I examined the pups and decided that the other pup was definately part of the litter. Today I left a note at the woman’s house. Hopefully she didn’t bring the pup to the pound. I want to bring the pup back because I think it’s too early to be away from it’s mom.

So now I have 5 new dogs. I’m hoping that some people from work will adopt them.

Vet update:

Levi had a huge sarcoma removed.

Chez has his mystery illness. Plus he got a hotspot, so both Chez and Levi are wearing helmets (e-collars). The Docs’ think the Chez has a c2-c3 lesion, which is affecting his respiratory drive and causing uneven pupils. This sucks. Chez is a really great dog– and started out as a great lead dog.

Chester had a 105.8 fever– very high. He has a urinary tract infection and is in the dumples.

Simba (or someone) has tapeworm. We bought a big tub of Panacur (which is good for lions, tigers, pumas, jaguars, cheetahs, panthers, leopards, grizzly bears, black bears, and my favorite pet– polar bears ) and will worm all of the stinkypups.

Chester has been free running in lead. He’s such an awesome dog! Unfortunately, he and Neptune got into a scuffle this afternoon. Neppy has two hurt paws and a cut on his face. He should be okay, but I’m still worried about him. he’s a big whiner– so it’s difficult to tell if he’s okay.