Stuff Happening

Monday evening I received an Email from Tiffany telling me that Chinook had some sort of wound to his head.  That changed my plans for Tuesday a bit, as I needed to meet Tiffany and "the big guy" at the vet office.  It turns out he has an abscess that 'blew out' just behind his eye, just like last R&R.  So, the vet drained it and we have him on another course of antibiotics.  We'll just have to see how it goes from here with him.

The puppies are doing wonderfully well.  They've grown taller, but not heavier.  Most of the growth seems to be in their legs right now.

Chetan (left) and Animosh.

The perspective of the photo is a bit askew as Animosh was closer to the camera than was Chetan.  Chetan is actually larger than her sister by about 4 pounds - enough to be noticeable when they are playing together.

Yesterday was spent mostly clearing snow from the driveways to both the house and the handler's cabin, so today was my first chance to run the dogs.  I divided the 14 dogs into two equal teams (Mr.s Updike's class - what is 14 divided by 2 or 14/2?).  I planned to run Cassiopeia in the 2nd team, but she had other designs.  As we left the yard she escaped from her pen and decided to join in the fun.  Here's a video of me clipping her to a spare neckline beside Amazing Grace.  There wasn't any way to secure the team well enough to take her back home, and a loose dog on the trail can be very dangerous.



Both teams worked very well today.  Innoko was back into his game, keeping his tugline tight throughout his run.  He did destroy some equipment, though.  We do have some behavioral issues to work out, but I'm pretty sure we can work them out and he'll become one of the better wheel dogs in the team.

I won't be able to run dogs tomorrow because I have an appointment with my accountant in town.  I need to buy some dog food and some groceries, so it's not a big deal and since all of the dogs had a nice little run today I'm sure they'll be good until Saturday.

Of course Saturday is the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.  We should know later tonight the start order of the race, as their start banquet will be happening in just a couple of hours.  I'm expecting it to be a very interesting race with lots of surprises.  I hope you join me in following the race as the mushers and their dogs run from Anchorage to Nome.