Thursday Miscellaneous

Just as I monitor the health of my dogs under the tutelage of our team veterinarian, Dr. Mark May, my own health needs to be monitored.  I've been seeing Dr. Elizabeth Kohnen for several years now and she has done me well.  I've been delighted that I've been able to maintain my weight and no re-gain that which I worked so hard to lose, and she seems equally delighted.

After my check up and lab draw, it was off to a delayed breakfast at the Bakery Restaurant.  While I was digging in to a really nice reindeer sausage skillet, I enjoyed a most surprising and delightful interlude.  A barbershop quartet in the restaurant sang out their rendition of "Wild Irish Rose."  I can't recall ever hearing it in four-part harmony before, and it was truly an amazing bright point in the day.

I had to do some shopping in town, which is always expensive.  Most expensive was picking up the remainder of the ton of dog food from last month.

I was glad to get back to the house.  Once everything was unloaded and put away it was time for my evening kennel chores.

When feeding Friday, I always ask him for a "sit", reinforcing the lessons he learned as a wee little house puppy.  He does a really nice one, but almost every time 'argues' the point, expressing his opinion in a sort of crooning tone, similar to that of his neighbor Innoko.

Apparently young Dozer has been watching this the past two nights.  Usually he's been bounding over, trying to tip over the feed bucket and generally attacking his chow with boistrous enthusiasm.  This evening he was as enthusiastic as ever, but instead of sticking his head in the bucket, he offered me a beautiful sit, which of course I rewarded just as quickly and enthusiastically as I could.  Apparently he is one of those rather rare dogs that can learn through imitation, and THAT is very cool.

Dozer at 7 months of age

Friday trying to stare down Innoko.  Dozer can be seen to the right of Friday.

The most photogenic dog of the evening was 1 year old Animosh, who gave me two very nice poses.

Animosh offers her profile to the camera

Most of my dogs are trained to jump up on their houses for handling, which makes it much easier on my back when doing nose to tail health examinations.  Ani decided the perch on her house was a good spot from which to observe my poop-scooping activities, and I decided it was a good opportunity to take a break and snap a shot.

Out on the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race trail, only 1 musher remains.  Ed Hopkins, Dave Dalton, Crispin Studer and Cody Strathe all finished 'in the money', as the Quest pays down to 15th place.  Darrin Lee, Brian Wilmshurst, Rob Cooke and Matthew Failor have all arrived in Fairbanks.  Tonight Bergin is 'doing her 8' at Two Rivers checkpoint.  She will be eligible to leave at 2:13 tomorrow morning, and will likely be in town some time tomorrow afternoon.  Certainly soon enough to get some rest before Saturday evening's finish and awards banquet, for which I have tickets and a date.

My day started a bit earlier than I would have preferred, so I'm going to call it an early night.  Tomorrow will just have to take care of itself.