February 12th Ace's day at the office

Today Ace came to work with me for some socialization and show off time. She was shy at first and scared, but warmed up after a time to greet people with tail wagging and husky smiles. To help socialize her, I asked my co-workers to give her treats and pet her which they were more than happy to do. She was quickly a star and got lots of compliments. All this excitement, though, tired her out and she was out cold by 10am when Jim came to collect her.

Getting prepared to head down to the Music City Dryland Challenge race tomorrow. Will probably just hang out and meet people, mostly because I ended up spending money on a new shed instead of a race-legal rig. The 6 dog drop did arrive, along with the new collars for demon and Yukon, but not in enough time to get in a lot of training. The bike I have is good for single dog training, but is probably unsafe for racing, so I'll have to skip this race, but I do want to watch at the very least, and possibly help out if needed.

The good news is that I have enough money saved up for a new bike at least for the next dryland race that happens to be close enough for me to get to.

February 10th 3am alarm!

I know now that none of us will ever sleep through the smoke alarm. If the sound of the alarm wasn't enough, 17 dogs howling and screaming is enough to wake the dead! Fortunately it was a false alarm, as one of our sensors seems to be malfunctioning. Goodness what a racket, though!

With the trip to NC and the sheer volume of work caring for puppies on top of a 40+ hour workweek I don't think I'll be racing this weekend, or if I do it will only be for fun. Too worn out and not enough training in. I do think, though, I'lll head down with a couple of puppies and day-trip it. Elvis and Xena will probably be my two candidates. Going to have to plan carefully and take food, water, samples, paperwork, treats, kennel, leashes, bowls, etc. Should be a blast, and hopefully make some new friends and find the two pups some good homes with mushers or people who want to get in to dog powered sports.

February 8th What an Adventure!

Ran into this blizzard on my way down to NC Friday. What a doozy! As you can see it left snow and ice all over the highway. It was rough going and I was delayed in my arrival time by about an hour and a half. That would have put me in to Raleigh at rush hour and I certainly did not want to drive up highway 1 with a trailer during rush hour, so I went straight to the house. Spent a cold night in my cozy sub-zero sleeping bag and was warm as long as I kept the zip in liner on top of me. I'm a restless sleeper

though and ended up cold a couple of times after rolling over.

Saturday started out at 430am for me, and I got up in the cold, dressed, and drove down to the IHOP next to the U-Haul. Had a nice big breakfast with extra pancakes and lots of coffee to fuel me up for the day. Ended up having to wait an hour for the U-Haul to open up, picked up the trailer, and headed back to the house.

Jeff, my former neighbor pitched in a good deal in helping me load all the heavy stuff, and I was very greatful for his assistance. He and Lynn have been great neighbors, and I'll miss them. We got everything out of the shed, and the house, and the pavillion I had stored under the house. All this before 6pm! I met my brother and his wife at the Ale House, and we had dinner. After a salad, steak and mashed potatoes, we went to my brothers house where we visited for a time while watching the Eukenuba dog show on TV. I really love my brother's house, it is built to resemble a Swiss Chalet with log cabin flavor inside, and it is beautiful. My brother let me sleep in the guest/grandkid bedroom, and I was off on the road by 715am back to Kentucky. One of the sights I drove by was Pilot Mountain in NC.

It was a gorgeous drive with lots of great scenery, but after 10 hours, I was ready to sleep again.

Got back just after 5pm and as soon as I walked in the door all the puppies began howling for my attention. G'Kar kept barking and barking. Samantha kept whining and pawing me to make sure I was really there and the boys and Freya were so excited to see me. I spent some time with each of dogs, the pups, the boys and Freya .

Princess yowled and yowled until I held her, Freya, Christmas and Elvis laid on my boots, Silver, Face, Cat, Buck, Xena, Moon, Brownie, Ace and Flakes rotated sitting in my lap. The boys kept trying to push puppies out of the way to see me fairly unsuccessfully until I stood up and went to give them hugs. I missed all my puppies, young and old. I pulled out a few choice tidbits from the truck, my suitcase, and pillow before collapsing on the couch with a beer... ahhhh....

This morning was business as usual and back to work.

February 4th Road Trip

Going to head down to NC tomorrow and clear out the last of our stuff from the house down there. This should be the last trip, and I'll kind of miss the old place with the beaver pond and the otter family. Had many many days of wandering through those woods, watching the otters play, the woodducks, the grey herons, mallards, raccoons, rabbits, foxes, deer and turkeys. We lived there from Sept 1996 until Jan 2009. It was a lovely hide-away in the RTP area, a rare find in that overgrown population. But the economy downturn and the looming bankruptcy of a corporation that had been in operation for almost 100 years made it impossible to stay. But I have to say, if it hadn't, I would not have been able to purchase this farm, nor obtain these wonderful dogs.

Xena in the pic above is another wonderful pup for sale. She is a hefty girl who is apparently afraid of heights. She will love on you gently, and almost never jumps up, paws or nibbles. She loves attention, but isn't over exuberant in her return of affection like some of the other pups. She is a bit shy, but would be great for an experienced owner. She promises to be a pretty big girl, but she is very smart and picks things up quickly. She would do great in obedience and would probably be a strong puller. She's not quite as agile as Princess, but she makes up for it in sheer brawn.

She has a bit of a mischievous streak to her, but that is part of what makes her an unique personality. She doesn't seem as overly active as most husky pups, IE she isn't racing around the yard at top speed most of the time, but plays regularly with the other pups, so is very well socialized with our other huskies and our family. If you are interested in purchasing Xena, please contact me for further details.

February 3rd Panic

Last night, Moon was missing for several hours. We still have no idea where she was, but she showed up back in the puppy enclosure inside the house sometime around 10:30 pm. From the time I got home until I went to bed we searched for her, calling her name, canvassing the area with headlamps and flashlights. We thought we had lost her. Thank goodness she came back from wherever she was. She and Princess will be micro-chipped ASAP. She has learned how to wiggle under the fence after digging a slight indentation (thanks Samantha....) She's young enough not to cause any problems, but could easily be picked up since she is very friendly. So we had our big scare over losing her, but all is back to normal today (except that Jim took Moon with him when he took James to college and to the feed store. She was a big hit at the store and a bigger hit at the McD's he stopped at the drivethrough for breakfast).

February 2nd Meltdown (the snow that is)

This is a typical pose for Elvis. He is a very laid back, easy-going pup, even though he is the biggest of the litter. A gentle giant is he, and always up for a cuddle. Any time I sit in with the puppies, he is either in my lap or lying with his head on my lap. He is such a sweetheart! If he's feeling lonely, he will half yowl-howl (sounds sort of like "yawooool-uh", a long pause to listen and then again) until someone comes to pet him. If no one comes after a while, he'll jump out and look for someone to cuddle with. He gets along great with all the pups and has patience to spare, but when he wants to run, he can race the wind!

Elvis is a great pup, and it will be a sad day for us when he finds a new home and a lucky new owner. He would be good for nearly any home that can take care of a husky's needs. He has a 'soft' mouth when taking treats, and rarely paws or jumps up. Did I mention he loves to cuddle? He's such a handsome boy too, and he is showing one of the unusual traits of his line, freckles. Freckles, soulful blue eyes, charm and a good singer, yup, that's our Elvis.

The snow has once again melted away... sigh... This weather is getting crazy. -2 to 40 in 3 days. What is this world coming to?

February 1st Chill Factor!

We finally got some snow Saturday, but the front moved south and away from us too quickly and all we ended up with was just over an inch. :( What a terrible year for snow. Good thing we have another two months to get some. Temps sure have been cold enough though. Saturday night it was -2 F, and this morning it was 6.

The puppies have finally learned to go outside, and we have finally been able to pick up the training pads. The only time they have problems is when they get out of the enclosure and run around the house. We keep a few pads down for those times in their favorite areas to sniff. If Samantha wouldn't keep trying to get out, we could take down the enclosure during the day, but alas, she still has wonderlust, even though we've been taking her for long walks 3-4x every day.

Due to a mixup between Jim and I we still don't have our kennel site up, but I'll be working on it this week. There I'll have a profile of every dog and every puppy, pics and highlights for each.

A reminder we have 9 puppies up for sale, some very loving and loveable pups with excellent personalities, some with show, all with sledding potential.

Today I'll talk about Ace. She's the red and white in the above pic and has very pretty crystal blue eyes. She is one of the pups up for sale, and I'm sure it will be tough when she goes to a new home. She is all energy, but loves to cuddle too. Ace is the one that loves to greet me at the door when I come home from work. She also loves to jump in my lap and lick my face when I spend time with the pups. She and Christmas spend a lot of time defending me from all comers as queen of the hill. Last night, she came in to my room and slept on the floor by my bed for an hour (she snuck out of the enclosure while James was sleeping).

She is usually out in the yard racing the big dogs, and man can she run! She's energetic in play, but calms down rather quickly when getting her lovin's. She can be a bit boisterous trying to get your attention, but once she has it, she cuddles up next to you or in your lap. Ace is very smart, but also a bit independant and is happy playing out in the yard for hours. She is equally happy having her belly rubbed for hours though, so an all around great dog for sledding or for an active owner who wants a friend as well. She is probably a little too active (might knock over toddlers in her enthusiasm) for very small children, but would be great with older kids and other dogs. I plan on taking Ace out to other places to socialize her with other people and other dogs. She has all her shots and wormings up to date with AKC papers and vet book.

Since our pups have not been raised around cats or other small animals, it would be best to be cautious introducing them to other animals and teaching the pups to live with them. All of our pups are cuddled and played with most of the day, and have been socialized with our other dogs.