Stella’s Long Lost Brother?

Howdy!… Macgellan here…

I’m in Seattle, rushing around to check the last few items off my list before heading north and… well… a funny thing happened on the way to getting my hair cut…

I looked up the street and saw a loose dog, grinning from ear to ear and doing a little “I’m up to no good” dance. I whistled and called to it, and this long-legged, happy yellow dog came trotting right up to me. We greeted each other and I said, “So, what are you doing running loose around the city?” The look I got in response was that universal dog expression we all know so well: “Uh oh… I am sooooo busted!”

He was a very sweet dog and obviously not in any distress, so I figured he mush have just escaped from his yard somewhere nearby. He had a kind of sled-dog-ish look about him, but his legs were so long and his coat was so thin that I knew he couldn’t be “the real thing.” In fact, he immediately reminded me of Stella, and I’m sure you can see why:

I called the phone number on his tag and left a message that I had him, that he was fine, etc. A few minutes later I got a call back from a woman who thanked me for finding him and calling her. She explained that they’d just moved to the area and it was his first escape. We arranged to meet at a nearby coffee shop to do the hand over.

The funny part is that it turns out they’d only recently moved down from Homer, Alaska. It also turns out that she got him from a local sled dog kennel there and that they had no idea what genes besides sled dog he has in him. All of this, plus his sweet but not too bright personality really got me wondering if I might just have found Stella’s long lost brother!

Anyway, the woman graciously offered to pay me for my trouble, but I told her I couldn’t possibly accept. I explained that there’s no way a real dog person could ever take money for returning somebody’s dog… That’s just wrong. I told her that I was happy just to be able to help reunite them.

The truth is, though, that I was secretly holding a little hope that I wouldn’t get a call back. I’ve missed the dogs so much over these past few months that I would have welcomed such a great dog showing up in my life, especially just in time to share the long, long road trip north.

Speaking of which, Thursday morning bright and early I will be hitting the road. Depending on conditions, it should take me 7-10 days to make the drive. So, I’ve set my sights on arriving at SP Kennel on or about November 1st. As soon as I get there I intent to hug every dog in the yard, then put on my harness and start pulling.

I’m very excited about picking up where we left off last season and making our coverage of this season even better. I’ve got three new cameras and a brand new powerhouse Mac which I intend to really put through their paces. As Aliy recently wrote, we intend to make the SPKDogLog the most educational and entertaining internet source on sled dog sports.

I’ll drive as fast as I can, but please be patient just a little longer. And, as we always say, “Stay tuned!”