From Suzie-Snow-Nose
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Silver Update
Silver, the retired sled dog, has graduated to indoor dog. He passed crate training with flying colors, and is, quite simply, a perfect house dog. He loves everyone, doesn’t get into mischief, and is quiet most of the time. Silver loves free-running in the yard and bounds across the ground like a deer.
Old Man Silver, who is aged 12 years, easily stays ahead of 4 year old Jack:
Hangin’ with his buddy Kyle:
Waiting for Snow
Joey
Fat Daniel
Pilot
Magic
Fall Fun
Fall in Fairbanks means you had better get outside and enjoy the sunshine while you can — in between the sudden rain showers. Good time for the dogs to burn off some energy. Here’s the gang looking for trouble: 
Bunny sights her target:
An unexpected crash involving Bunny, Sirius and Evo:
Bunny pursues Sirius again. Look at that stride!
The chase is on:
A happy Bunny:
A happy Evo:
Lookit the fur fly! Quite literally!
Evo is back in the game, in hot pursuit of Sirius:
A goofy-looking Sirius:
Boo Boo Bear takes a break:
Sunset in North Pole
This was the view from our porch at 10pm last night. This photo is not retouched.
Silver
Meet our newest addition. Silver is a 12 year old sled dog who was left at the Fairbanks animal shelter, along with another dog from the same home. His owner was moving.
Silver is originally from a kennel in Two Rivers, and he has no dew claws. Surely he has been mushing, but more recently he has been a skijor dog.
He is the sweetest, friendliest thing and LOVES to cuddle. He can be mouthy, but he is really just grabby with my hands because he wants attention. His coat is wonderful and thick, and I’ve noticed that he doesn’t handle heat/sun very well.
He’s a bit weak in the hips, but has a lot of energy. He needed help getting into the car, but knew exactly what was going on and rode beautifully, no fuss at all. His teeth are excellent and give no indication that Silver is a 12 year old dog.
This is a very happy boy with a personality that just sparkles.
Hunting Coyotes with Greyhounds
Here is a frightening story from Oklahoma, where it is legal to hunt coyotes with dogs. The “hunter” profiled in this story has been doing this for many years. Sometimes the dogs don’t return from the hunt. They are frequently wounded or bitten from fighting with the coyotes, or are cut from barbed wire. And the coyote has to fight to the death.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/sports/26greyhounds.html?src=me
German Shepherds are Heroes
There’s a great story in today’s Anchorage Daily News. A fire occurred at a homeowner’s shed in Caswell Lakes (near Talkeetna). The man himself briefly caught on fire, and he told Buddy his German Shepherd to go get help. And Buddy did.
A neighbor had spotted the fire and telephoned for help. A state trooper responded but couldn’t find the house (it was dark, his GPS was not functioning, all the roads are dirt and unlit, plus they are twisting and heavily wooded). The trooper spotted Buddy, and on a hunch, followed him. Buddy led him straight to the fire, and the trooper was able to verbally describe the route to firefighters. The shed was lost, but the house was saved. Even better, there is video footage of Buddy courtesy of the dashboard cam:
http://community.adn.com/adn/node/151322
Buddy is receiving a medal tomorrow from the state troopers for being a hero dog.
German Shepherds are hard-wired for this sort of thing. They don’t just want a job to do, they want a mission. They thrive on action and think on their feet. They will patrol the yard looking for trouble, watch everyone and everything, and check out any sound.
Our GSD Pumpkin is cut from the same cloth. We’ve gone out on numerous walks in the woods, and, unfortunately, I’ve managed to get lost a few times. Twice in fact. Fortunately, Pumpkin saved the day each time.
Once we were walking along the old Haines Pipeline; we diverged off the main trail onto a feeder that looped around and around into dozens of trails. Getting tired and frustrated, I told Pumpkin to “Go Home”. And he dragged me by the leash. Somehow he made a beeline back to where we had started, and it only took him a few minutes. Relieved, I said “OK, we can slow down now”. But Pumpkin had been given a mission, and he was not done yet. He dragged me another 2 miles, through familiar streets and our subdivision, and did not stop dragging me until we got through our front door. Mission complete.
On another occasion, we took the car to a trail head and then proceeded on foot. We lost the trail and wandered into an area with towering trees, and I could not see any of the familiar hillsides to orient our direction. We even walked near a snare trap, so I was concerned that we were not in a good place. I told Pumpkin “Go to the car”, and he dragged me over rough ground and into a dry creek bed. He continued, staying in the creek bed. I stopped him, told him this can’t be right. But Pumpkin whirled and jumped and pulled me along, so I didn’t have much choice. Within 10 minutes, (and going through a lot of brush) the creek bed intersected the road where my car was parked. In fact, it was about 30 feet from the car. I had been on this road many times, but never noticed the dry creek bed. What an amazing dog! German Shepherds are heroes.
Winter just won’t let go
The nights have been cold here, but the days are quite pleasant. Yesterday it was finally 60 degrees and sunny. But this morning we woke up to 28 degrees and frost! Winter, go away! At least the mosquito population may suffer a setback. The migrating birds are arriving, but nothing near our house yet. Usually the cranes have a noisy arrival, circling high in the sky. Only the woodpeckers are around…tap tap tap.
Bunnies
I’m not talking about Bunny the dog this time. We have wonderful Arctic Hares who brazenly hop around the yard. One would think they would not want to venture into the midst of a bunch of dogs. But these bunnies are smart, and they seem to enjoy teasing the dogs on the opposite side of the fence!
We have a pile of 30 foot logs out in the yard. They are about 20 feet from the dogyard fence. There is a bunny who decided to move in. I think it is a female, because every Spring I also see a young bunny emerge from under the logs.
There is still plenty of snow here, and the bunnies are still white. As the weather warms, they will start to show some black and brown points, and eventually turn all brown. They are very difficult to see against the snow while they are still white.
I’m sorry that I don’t have any pictures of the bunnies in their white phase, but they are hard to spot! Sometimes you can only see their ears sticking up. But here are some that show the beginnings of their color change:
However, the dogs always know when a bunny is hopping around. Nutak goes ballistic. Many of the dogs could not care less about the rabbits, and just lazily watch them while basking in the sun.
Nutak usually sounds the first alarm, and a few of the other dogs will join in.
The bunny likes to bounce around on top of the logs…then she will follow one of her established trails straight across the yard and over to the barn. She will snoop around in the barn for a while, then her tracks proceed down the driveway.
