Recent Retirees

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed a few dogs missing from the Team Cards / Fan Club page so we thought we would get everyone up to date with all the recent retirees. (Click on the red links on their names to take you to stories we already have published.)

It is bittersweet to retire one of our friends from the kennel but our philosophy always has and always will be “the right home for the right dog at the right time”. We agonise over these decisions and a few tears are shed but the decision is made in the best interest of the dogs… and after all – it should always be about the dogs!

You know about Sissy and Scooter who moved to Ohio to live with Tim, Holly and Noodle. They are very happy and Noodle is loving having them around.

Mac is just down the road at Wes and Wendy’s peony farm. We will get to see his lovely mug often!

Wedgy is continuing her new role as personal trainer and companion for Melissa and Mike in Oregon. Here is the latest from Melissa:

“My Princess Wedgy is doing great. Wedgy is actually omnivorous and spent the summer eating all our cucumbers from the garden and the raspberries from our berry plants.  Now that it is fall she picks apples that hang down low on our apple trees and munches them down core and all.  No, she’s not starving; I’m feeding her plenty of food and treats!

Here’s a pic of her on this morning where we ended up at the pet store and she is always amazed at the vast riches of open tubs of biscuits. We had just left and she sat very nicely outside the door while I dug out one of her treats.  Now that she knows this place is here, she tries to direct all our walks so that they end up at this door.” 

Hotshot has a new love in his life in Nome. After a rather stressful start, Scruggs is now living up large in Anchorage with Barbara and Molly.

Chemo is loving life with Mary Beth, Elizabeth and his two German Shepherd siblings in the Adirondacks.

Torch and Waylon have also retired from SP Kennel and are about to embark on a rather large and excellent adventure. We will tell you all about that soon!

Brothers Pepe and Nelson have gone just down the road to long-time good kennel friends who have a commercial kennel where they will get to be big fish! The visitors to the kennel love them and being Iditarod dogs they attract quite a lot of attention. They are very happy hanging out with each other and will enjoy showing visitors to the Fairbanks area the local mushing trails.

Pepe was always such fun to have around and took after his uncle Tatfish in so many ways. His race history included the Iditarod, Copper Basin 300, Yukon Quest 300, Two Rivers 200, 100 and 50. He was probably the most honest dog in the yard. He tried harder and more enthusiastically than anyone. His four footed leap in the air upon seeing a harness was amusing until you try to put a harness on him. We never claimed that Pepe was the smartest fellah, bless him.

Nelson is a whirling dervish with non stop energy. He twirled like a top whenever he stood in one place. He added energy to every situation – whether it was wanted or not! Nelson is addicted to running and we will miss his sweet and enthusiastic manner.

Nelson’s race history included the Iditarod, three Copper Basin 300 and Yukon Quest 300 starts, Sheep Mountin 300 plus the Two Rivers 100 and 50.

Sincere thanks to all their sponsors Tim and Holly, Jeanne, Macgellan, Barb, Mary Beth and Elizabeth, Lori, Barbara, Heidi, Sheryll, Nick and Joy, Jenn, and Melissa and all of you that joined their fan clubs. We appreciate your personal connection with them and hope you are not too disappointed they are not on the roster this year. They are all having a blast in their new and different lives and we couldn’t be more happy for them all!