Kennel friend and fantastic photographer, Jeanne Schnackenberg, came to the kennel recently to take “studio portraits” of all the dogs. This is one of many steps we are currently lining up to bring you a brand new updated website later this month.
Needless to say, the pictures are awesome. Here are just a few samples.
I do not want to share this particular kennel news. I would much rather sit in a corner in my house, wondering why and keep this to all to myself. In no way will sharing this make me feel better or make anyone else feel good. I simply feel obligated to share this news in order to remain open and honest about our dog family.
Bonnie died. She was one year and three days. There was no trauma. She died peacefully laying in front of her house after a morning run and then breakfast.
We had an autopsy done right away. There was no obvious signs of trauma. However, the most likely cause was cardiac arrhythmia (or abnormal electric activity in the heart.) We have sent heart tissue samples to a lab for further investigation. It is unknown whether we will learn any more details.
Bonnie was ChaCha’s last female puppy (fathered by Paul Gebhart’s Lieutenant). Her brothers are Clyde and Outlaw.
Please, no sympathies or comments.
Snorre Naess picked us up at the airport and showed us around. He was raised in Olso and has a kennel in the forest area to the north west of the city. He is also a renowned sled builder and shared many design ideas. We wouldn’t be surprised to see Snorre’s sleds up and down the Iditarod trail soon.
Our hosts for the weekend were Elisabeth Edland and Per Olav Gausereide. We stayed at a moose hunting cabin just up the valley from their home and champion mid-distance racing kennel (www.flyinghuskies.com). Their house was the meeting place Friday night before the seminar. Mushers continued to arrive and we were up until after midnight talking about dogs and our beloved sport.
We were lucky to be welcomed by such passionate and talented mushers (and their dogs!) The mushing dedication that Elisabeth and Per Olav have was obvious each morning when the dogs were run loose in their pen, harnessed, trained by cart or quad and then run loose afterward. This system of training allowed them to monitor each dog individually – before, during and after training.
Iditarod musher, Sigrid Ekran met us at Robert’s and we drove north together the next morning. She suggested that we stop for lunch at mushing legend Stein Havard Fjestad’s home. While talking to Stein Havard we could feel the enthusiasm that he has for sled dogs. He raced the Iditarod in 1977 and has been consumed with the “sled dog addiction” since. He has kept semen straws gathered from the top Alaska sled dogs for over 20 years. His breeding program is obviously purposeful and he continues to try and bred the best possible canine athlete.
We then traveled further north past Lillihamer (site of the 1994 Winter Olympics). We were delighted to see the enormous ski jumps along the mountain sides. We drove through small villages, over snowy mountain passes and to Sigrid’s kennel near the small village of Folldal.
Sigrid’s kennel was a treat. We saw here unique “two-dog” condominium houses. They keep dogs warmer and save on materials.
Sigrid has fenced in a tremendous amount of space so that her dogs can run free. There are literally countless sheep in the area, so dogs are not allowed to roam outside of pens. (Actually that evening Sigrid woke to barking dogs and found a fox fighting a sheep just outside her fencing. The fox was throwing the sheep into the fence. She chased off the fox and went to rescue the sheep but, all it did was butt her in the legs – so she gave up. However, there was no sheep or fox to be found come daylight!)
While in the area we visited Swiss native, Emil Inauen. His racing success in the Grand Odyssee and mid-distance races is notable. His dog yard was great to visit and Aliy had a hard time not stealing his, now retired “Superdog”, Leda. (Do you think ChaCha would share the couch?) The puppy pen was a delight. The pups played just outside of the house!
We were very intrigued by the sled building throughout Norway. We were welcomed into Emil’s sled building shop. Allen has been toying around with new sled improvements for his Yukon Quest sled, so this really got his mind reeling. Emil’s sled company is Bewe Sleds (www.bewesleds.com).
In Norway, we are sure that the fjords are gorgeous and the history is rich. But for us, this country was fantastic because of the welcoming and genuinely adventurous people. (Not too mention the amazing dogs, a few pretty cool cows and two rather bold cats that accompanied us on a morning hike – that’s never happened in Two Rivers!)
The SP Kennel ‘Family’ members are dedicated to the the pure adventure of an Alaskan lifestyle. It’s amazing to see folks venture to the far north for ‘a few months’ or ‘one racing season’ or ‘just a year’. They get drawn into the arctic rhythm and Alaska becomes home! It’s that sense of adventure calling us to Alaska that undoubtedly encourages us to explore far afield. Example: This summer of 2012 has become SP’s Season of International Adventure.
To those of you living ‘outside’ (Alaska jargon for ‘not in Alaska’), it probably seems that life in rural Alaska, in a self built home, at the end of a two-track, caring for more than 50 canine athletes and anticipating -50 degrees Farenheit in a few months, is pretty exotic and adventuresome. Well, at least it’s extreme!
But our ‘family’ pushed the boundaries this year. Ryne spent the beginning of her summer in Ecuador, visiting her brother and volunteering at a local non-profit. She is now back in Two Rivers, building her own kennel and attending college. As you know Wes accepted a job in Afghanistan helping to keep community development projects on budget. He’ll be there for a year. Last Thursday, Aliy and Allen hopped a flight to Norway! Yup, Norway. There they are featured speakers at an annual symposium in Hakadal, near Oslo, that draws hundreds of mushers from Scandanavian countries. Then on Saturday morning, we put Wendy on a flight to Bangladesh. As an international Red Cross/Red Crescent professional, she will be part of a team administering emergency aide to populations effected by severe flooding. She and Wes plan to meet in Australia in November. She promises to be back in Alaska for the first race of the season in mid December.
This sounds like pure fiction, but it’s all true!
To top it off Doug and I (Aliy’s parents) are closing up our cottage in the woods, just down the two-track from SP Kennel. On Saturday we fly back to our winter digs in Florida. Southern Florida is exotic and international in its own unique way. And it is a long, long way from our summer place in Two Rivers, Alaska.
So what do all these international adventurers have in common? A special home in Two Rivers, AK named SP Kennel.
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| The nucleus of our SP Family, Aliy and Allen |
Mickey’s Musings is signing off for 2012. You’ll hear more from me next year.
A little bit of puppy fun in the sun.
There is a little secret lurking in the puppy pen at SP Kennel. Four new canine athletes joined the kennel just 6 weeks ago. Their parents Olivia, SP rockstar, and Nacho, SP jester, have some pretty nifty genes to pass on. The two boys and two girls from this litter are healthy, spunky and already sporting very unique personalities.
In the photos below Aliy introduces Junior, the spitting image of her mom, Lydia, named after a friend, Kodiak and Dutch, named for Horizon Lines’ ports of call in Alaska.
I guess Kennel Mom has just named them the Secret Litter.
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| Junior is Olivia’s little clone |
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| Lydia is a little girl with a big attitude |
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| Kodiak is talkative and friendly |
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| Dutch is a mellow version of daddy, Nacho |
