It is
pouring rain here, so my outside chores are on hold for the
morning, as I’m hoping it will let up or give me a brief respite
sometime later in the day. Rather then tidy up my office, do
laundry, pay bills or one of the million other things I should
be doing, I thought I take some time to bring you all up to date
with a diary entry (okay, so I threw a load of laundry in the
machine before I started typing – as Mark will tell you, I’m
never happy doing one thing at a time – must multi task!)
Things
are actually going pretty well around here. Kluane seems pretty
much recovered from her emergency surgery earlier in the week.
Nursing seems somewhat uncomfortable for her and although she
does indulge the kids a few times a day, they are well on their
way to being weaned.
Klu and
the pups actually moved out into one of the Puppy Pens on
Friday. The girls took alittle while to get comfortable roaming
the pen, but Utin was out strutting the fence line, flirting
with his neighbors, Holly and Casey, in no time. He is quite the
puppy. I’m absolutely enchanted with his personality.
The
girls went from sparkly, shiny balls of white fluff to dirt
balls in a matter of minutes. That is the problem with white
puppies!
The
reason that the Cree litter moved outside was that Kara is
getting close to her whelping date and I cleaned and reset up
the pool in the back room for her. In contrast to Kluane’s sleek
physique right prior to having puppies, Kara looks a lot like a
beached whale. She is HUGE. This morning Mark was eating
breakfast and could see her puppies kicking and creating a fussy
inside her tightly stretched belly from across the room. I would
expect another litter of 7 or 8.
Also in
contrast to Klu’s independent nature, Kara is acting more and
more like a princess the bigger she gets. She nosed me awake
three times the other night because she wanted an ear scratch.
I’m sure that is only going to get worse in the next 2 days. *
yawn *
We also
have one more little surprise on the way. Well, it isn’t a
‘surprise’ so to speak, but it wasn’t really a planned litter.
Mom is Hilda and Dad is Nate. She is due alittle over a week
after Kara. It’s a tight pedigree, but a nice one.
Bait –
or B8, as he likes to be known – is enjoying his new playmates,
Tic and Tac. They discovered how to get out the cat door on the
garage the other day, but Bait seemed to have forgot to teach
them how to get back in! I figured they were just enjoying the
big, new world they had discovered and didn’t want to go back in
the garage, but the other day I opened the side door and they
about ran me over as they stampeded towards their food dish.
Now I
make sure to invite them back in the garage every time I see
them outside. Hope they figure out the door works two ways soon.
They
did find a small hole in the screen to our sliding door and have
broken into the house unnoticed a few times. I had to peel
myself off the ceiling of my office the other day as Tic came
unexpectedly barrelling into the room. A few more weeks of
growth should fix that problem – or maybe we will get around to
fixing the screen!! More likely they will grow.
Dasher,
Batdog and I headed across the valley the other morning to start
a new adventure – agility classes! No kidding! Lisa Wright, who
is a top-notch obedience and agility instructor moved into the
valley a few years back. At the time I approached her about
agility classes, but she vowed she was getting ‘out’ of dogs.
(Ah, I could have told her that is easier said then done. Maybe
they need to come up with a patch or a dog hair filled lozenge
to help folks quit dogs and dog sports!). Anyway, a few weeks
ago I drove by her place and saw a full set of agility equipment
in her front field, so I gave her a call.
Dasher,
Batdog and I did a private lesson last week and Dasher and I are
starting classes with a few friends on Wednesday! I’ll continue
to work with Batdog, but not in a class setting. My goal with
Batdog is just to help build his confidence, but I would like to
get Dasher out competing in a few agility trials! And NO,
Stuffie will not be joining us on the agility field.
Our new
handler, Ronny, arrives from Spain on Wednesday. I’m very much
looking forward to having him here! Actually, the decision to
take the time to do some agility classes was based a lot on the
fact that Ronny was arriving and taking some of the workload off
me! Yeah!!
I’ve
been fielding a lot of emails lately about the drastic jump in
the Iditarod entry fee that was announced last week. It went
from $1850 US to $3000 US. Honestly, I am disappointed in ITC,
not for raising the entry fee (although I do have some issue
with that too), but for the ridiculously short notice. Entries
open June 30 and if you want to start in the front pack, you
need to enter the first day. However are mushers supposed to
budget and plan with this kind of behavior from the Board. Very
unprofessional in my mind.
It is
rumored that the entry fee will jump to $5000 for the ’09 Race.
Sadly, without a corporate sponsor coming on board here, that
will probably be the end of the NorthWapiti team running the
Iditarod Trail. Breaks my heart, but that much of a increase in
entry fee would just not allow me to prepare and care for my dog
team at a level I feel comfortable with, but that is still a way
down the road.
Well,
that is the news that is new in the kennel this week. I expect
you will all be hearing from me in the next few days when Kara
has her litter. Wish us ‘Happy Whelping!’.
Karen
