Bosco/Dudley: We came home a few weeks ago to find a big gash on Bosco’s back. At first we thought that Wild, the evil-creature-dog-from-hell, fought with Bosco. I scolded her and told her how evil she was. But then I noticed that Dudley had a small scratch and blood spot on the area surrounding his right eye. Could Bosco and Dudley have been fighting? It’s possible, Dudley is afraid of Bosco and Bosco growls at Dudley, however, Dudley doesn’t have any teeth.

We decided that we’d tend to Bosco’s wounds ourselves– clean the wound and give him some antibiotics. This was a bad move. Bosco’s cut got totally infected. Green oozing gobs of pus were leaking from his wound and the infection burrowed through at least two inches of skin. We took Bosco to the vet and he was put on very strong antibiotics and the vet cut out the infection– which was a good chunk of his back. He’ll be okay.

Scully: Scully got her ass kicked by Monkey and the Monkey Gang (Pumpkin, Chez, and whoever else). It was a horrible fight. For the last year we’ve been having puppy parties where everyone runs around and gets along– but not this night. Monkey was trying to fight with everyone and eventually Scully was her target. Scully ended up with a 5 inch skin avulsion on her neck, a ripped anus, and miscellaneous punctures and tears all over her body. We’ve been keeping her inside for her recovery and she is working out to be a great pet.

Magic: Magic got beat up by Chez and some other StinkyPups. He’s okay, but he got to spend a couple of days inside due to an injured leg.

Buckwheat: Bucky is an old pup– around 12. He hasn’t been pulling that well this year, but that’s okay because I’ve been taking the geriatric team out for short 4 – 7 mile runs, 1 – 2 times a week. We were on a 7 mile run and Bucky collapsed. We were just trotting along and he fell on his side. I stopped the sled and helped him up. He seemed okay. I knew he didn’t want to ride in the sled so I left him hooked up and we went home at an extremely slow pace. Buckwheat is now officially a retired sled dogs and has taken up residence with us. His status has changed to “Pet” dog– which is fine by us, however, he is extremely stinky and pees on everything in the house.

Besides all of the fighting (I didn’t mention all of the little fights), mushing has been going well. It’s finally getting cool enough to run.

This has been a difficult year because we have lost the “original gang.” The original gang included the three animals we got when we were first married and lived in Urbana, IL. Joey the cat died in March; Precious died May 7; and Nonny died exactly 6 months after Precious on November 7. We love and miss them all.

Precious is still recovering from her fall the other day– she may be sick too.

Ilana went for a 4 mile skijour with Storm and Wild. She didn’t have to ski because Storm was very fast. Even Wild was loping for a while.

Greg is out on the trails with a 9 dog team.