We believe that Sugar’s hip problems were caused at least partially by being a wheel dog in an earlier life, before we got her, with a traditional X-back harness. Such harnesses tend to put downward pressure on a dog’s rear, and this is worsened in the wheel position where the sled is lower than the gangline, and there are more jerks and bumps. We got Sugar as one of our first kennel rescue dogs. She was part of the sled team for a few years, but then made the transition to inside. One interesting thing is that while outside, she had persistent urinary problems — to wit, she’s peed in her dog box, resulting in many winter experiences chopping the frozen piss out of her box (embedded in straw, stuck to the wooden box). Nasty. But when she moved in, this immediately stopped. She did lose most bowel control over the past year or so, but not urinary.

We were away in Denali for a couple of nights, and upon return found that she had not stood for 2 days, and barely ate (our dog sitter should have called us to tell us this, but did not). We took her to the emergency vet, since one of our favorite vets was on duty. We decided to euthanize her that night, since there was no clear sign of why she had the sudden “crash,” but we didn’t think it was fair to do more testing and treatments, since she had been through so much.

Scully was a super sled dog, but kept getting beat up, especially by Pumpkin and Monkey. We moved her inside after a particularly nasty set of injuries, and she lived inside happily for a few years. One particularly valuable role is alarm clock for Ilana, helping with bits, paws and barks when it was time to get up and go for a walk.

Asa is a very difficult dog to catch, so we’ve been leaving him free to roam in the dog yard. Monday the 16th, I went for a short 7 mile mush and Asa followed us, sometimes running behind us, sometimes in lead; he was having a great time. On our last stretch before home we encountered a neighbor who is known for having “alligator” dogs. An alligator dog is a dog who attacks a passing team.

As soon as we encountered the team, they pounced Asa. My neighbor managed to get his dogs off of Asa, I passed with my team and saw that Asa looked okay (no blood, he was running) and then stopped to see if his team was okay.  His responded, “your dogs passed on the wrong side! That’s why this happened.” I immediately took off and thought, “What a jerk! His dogs attacked mine, I stopped to help, and he’s yelling at me.”

When we got home, I couldn’t catch Asa to check him out, but he appeared to be happy and healthy. He may have had a slight limp.

—

The next night I took the “A” team out for a 12 mile run. I didn’t want to take Asa as a free runner because I wanted Chester to go, and I didn’t want to have two loose dogs. At the last moment, right before I was ready to leave the yard, I caught Asa. Greg put him on his chain.

I told Greg he should go ahead and have a party (meaning let the remaining dogs off), and I’d catch the ones he can’t catch (Simba and Rattles) when I came home. When I got home  and brought my team into the yard, I saw Simba and Rattles running around. Simba had a scratch on his snout and there was some blood in the snow.  I found Asa hiding in a private section of the dog yard and he had been beaten up quite badly, but not as bad as we have seen. We brought him inside, and decided that he didn’t have to go to the ER vet and we’d bring him for stitches in the morning.

The next morning, we dropped Asa off at our vet. I mentioned that Asa was Higgs’ brother, and it would be interesting to see if Asa had the same heart condition as his Higgs. One of the docs listened to his heart and said, “Nope. Asa’s heart is steady and strong. It’s nothing like Higgs’ rhythm.”

Around 1pm I got a call from the vet. “Hi, this is Dr. xxxxxx.”
I said, “Hi. How’s Asa?”
He said, “We lost him.”
I responded, “Okay.”
He said, “No, it’s not okay.”
He started to explain what happened and I was in too much shock to listen, so I told him I’d call him back. I tracked Greg down at work, and we drove to the vet’s office.

None of us know what really happened. The vet himself was surprised. They had given Asa some anesthesia. He began to wake up. They gave him a different type of anesethia…the gas kind. He was on a heart monitor. Everything was fine and the doc was almost finished, “two stitches from being done,” and Asa’s heart stopped. They couldn’t revive him.

Asa, we miss and love you!

Asa (left) and his brother Higgs

I’m writing this because Scully is in bad shape again (and Dutchess just started yelping).  Two weeks ago Scully started to crash. Greg brought her to Mt. McKinley on a Sunday (McKinley is the only open vet on the weekend). The vet wasn’t sure why Greg brought her in, but told us to give her the antibiotic amoxicillian for infection.  Not wanting to be a hypochondriac momma, I waited around five days to see if the amoxi had any effect. Nope. I brought her to Aurora a few days early for her biweekly hematocrit check– which was 20%. The vet tookex-rays to see what was going on in her gastrointestinal track. The ex-rays were inconclusive. I brought her back the next day for an ultrasound. The ultrasound told us that there was something either on her spleen or intestines. I brought her back the next day (Friday, Dec. 11) for surgery (note to self– never have major surgery on a Friday, when the vet is closed on the weekend), with the understanding that if it was a tumor on her intestines, we wouldn’t wake her up. If it was on her spleen, she’d get a splenectomy.

I was quite happy to hear that he had splenectomy and didn’t have to die. Scully had a 5″ tumor on her spleen. Apparently one theory of hemolymic anemia is that it is caused by a failing spleen.

Scully isn’t doing to well, she’s eating very little, can’t walk, and looks miserable.  Greg keeps reminding me that she’s in post-operative mode and she just had major surgery.  She has a vet appt. tomorrow to check her Hematocrit.

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Duchess has been yelping all weekend.  She’s the girl who has had two tumors removed from her neck, as well as mammary cancer removed a year ago.

I’m preparing for Scully and Duchess, by practicing singing Silent Night.  I hope it doesn’t  come to that, but it’s always good to be prepared.

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.

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.

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.

We’ve had Bosco since 1996. He’s been a very good friend. I think Bosco has been lonely ever since his best friend, Nonny Newby died. I remember when he was a youngster, he liked to play with snakes and jump over streams. I wanted to name him “Jumper,” but Greg came up with the name Bosco and it kind of stuck. Because of his name, we stayed at a fantastic hotel in Venice– the name of the hotel was Boscolo de Dogi, and we picked the hotel because it sounded like it was Bosco’s hotel! When Bosco was younger, he was fond of the squeaky furry little-men toys, hence his nick name, “little-man.”

We’ll I’m going to go drag him inside so he can sleep his last night in the bedroom with us.

We got Wild (formerly known as Beaut) from Voyageur Outward Bound (OB) in Ely, Minnesota in around 2001. I remember Wild, before I brought her home, from when I was an OB instructor. She was quite beautiful, but very timid, and she didn’t let strangers, including me, into her circle. I had thought at the time that if I had her as a pet, I’d be able to work with her. A year or two later, we were adopting Dudley, and someone at OB said “Hey, why don’t you take Beaut.” I jumped at the chance.

When we brought Beaut home to North Carolina, we realized what a handful she was. Bosco and Wild had horrific fights; both Greg and I were bitten by both dogs, on different occasions, trying to break up the fights. We learned that we needed to tie Beaut up during dinner time because otherwise she’d eat everyone else’s food and fight with them. She was also quite interested in cats.

We were watching out house sitter’s cat, Squeakers, when the first cat indecent happened. I was at the firehouse, but Greg was home. Apparently, Beaut (and probably Dudley) attacked Squeakers. Greg brought the kitty to the emergency vet, and it turned out that she was going to be okay! I think she was in kitty ICU for a while.

The second cat incident was more traumatic. While we were on vacation, on the day of our anniversary, Freckles was killed by Beaut and probably Dudley. Even though I had Freckles for 7 years, and Beaut for 4 months, I couldn’t get rid of her. That’s what Huskys do– they kill things. After Wild ate Freckles, she gained 9 lives.

I don’t remember if I change Beaut’s name to Wild before or after Freckles died, but I had read that changing a dog’s name may help with behavioral problems. I chose the name Wild, not because I fully understood the extent of Beaut’s evilness, but because I was really into Shackleton at the time and Wild was Shackleton’s navigator. Wild was a dog of many names, besides Wild, we also called her Creature, Evil Creature, Creature from Hell, Wild Creature, and other variations of the evilest dog in the world. A Native American woman once told me that dogs with one blue eye and one brown eye are psycho; I believe this to be true based on my experience with Wild.

Eventually, the fighting between Wild and Bosco calmed down, but Wild still was “Wild.” She mellowed out a little bit in her old age, and she really enjoyed her time in Alaska. The first year we moved here, I took her and Dudley skijouring. Wild really loved the snow and she was great at breaking trails. After around two years in Alaska, Wild wasn’t able to skijour anymore, and enjoyed being mellow (for a Wild thing), and just went on morning and evening walks with us.

Wild went through many of her lives while in Alaska, and cost us a fortune in vet bills. There was the time she ate half a bag of energy pack and her girth increased instantaneously. Eating energy pack and drinking gallons of water is like creating a brick in your stomach. She needed enemas to get all of the stuff out. Note, this actually happened more than once. Wild was very good at breaking into the shed and eating piles of energy pack and dog food. When she did that, her body would always expand– it was pretty funny to look at.

Another life was when she ate a pound of grapes and I gave her IV fluid all night. Grapes are toxic to some dogs, apparently not to the Creature.

Wild had two episodes of Breast Cancer. She lost a lot of weight the first time. Once the lump was removed she gained it back. Her second lump was removed, and she seemed to be okay.

Less than a year ago, Wild was attacked by most of the sled dogs in the yard. She didn’t walk for three days. And in Dec. of 2007 she woke up pretty lame and wasn’t able to use her front paws.

So here are her 9 lives in a list.

1. Fighting with Bosco = 2 lives
2. Eating bags of Energy Pack/Sled Dog food = 2 lives
3. Eating a pound of grapes = 1 life
4. Getting beat up by all of the sled dogs = 1 life
5. Breast cancer (twice) = 2 lives
6. Waking up lame and unable to use front legs = 1 life

I guess since Wild didn’t have anymore lives, she wasn’t able to return home. I’ll surely miss her. In her old age we became good friends. Eventually she let me pet her, even snuggle with her on occasion, and she even slept on the bed at times. Everyone in the house, except for me and possibly Neptune, despised Wild. She’d growl at everyone, steal food from the counter and my lunch bag. I remember just recently I went to the store just to buy apples. I bought 10 organic apples and put them in the sink. I figured they didn’t smell, so I went outside, came back, and all of my apples were gone, except she saved me one. What a thoughtful creature! She really like her fruits and veggies, carrots were one of her favorite foods.

Well Wild creature, I don’t know what happened to you and I don’t understand how you got lost and why you didn’t come home. I miss you and love you.

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.