All the Junior and Rodney pups are healthy and happy. Two of these cuties are future SP Kennel sled dogs: Dr Bill and Wu. The two brothers are peas in a pod – they play constantly, tug ‘o war everything, eat together, sleep together and are never far from the other’s side.
The duo add just the right amount of puppy energy to keep SP Kennel fun and entertaining for all of us humans who try to “keep up” with the youngsters. Bill and Wu have the dogged determination of their Father and only sleep when they can literally, no longer keep their eye lids ajar. They often go to the local Kindergarten: Wes and Wendy’s house for a half a day. Wendy’s comments were “they don’t sleep as much as normal puppies.” Thanks to Rodney!
Visually the two pups are different: Bill has blue eyes and black eye circles and a white forehead from his Mother’s side of the family and Wu has brown eyes, white eye brows and a thin stripe on his forehead. They were somewhat cooperative for Portrait Day and Jeanne was able to capture them on film.
Okay, truth be told, the youngsters weren’t really very cooperative at all. Who would be at 8 weeks? Our phottag assistants were able to run the youngsters around for quite a while (which really just got them warmed up… Thanks again Rodney) and they settled in for the mere seconds Jeanne needed for several magnificent shots. Of course this was only after they chewed her camera, her nose, her hair and all the noise maker squeaky toys. “Oh… Portrait Day is FUN!”
The other six Junior pups went to new homes at 8 weeks of age. Three groups of two siblings live in forever homes in Alaska. Two sisters went to a home where they will be future skijor dogs and loving companions, a boy and boy and girl went to a family full of adventure and fun and the last boy and girl went to one of the Veterinarians from North Pole Vet Hospital who helped with Junior’s c-section. Apparently after only 10 seconds post birth… it was destiny!
It is new and different to breed SP Kennel dogs, only keep a few and share the rest with the world. It is not an easy change in our kennel philosophy but it would not be prudent to keep all eight puppies here at our kennel. This process was tolerable because of the fantastic new and caring puppy owners that we selected. We will be in the same situation when Izzy’s puppies reach the age of 8 weeks.
So last week we rented a tractor, Allen fell back into his country Arkansas roots and jumped on board for a day plus of dozing, box blading and refilling holes. At the same time we had some hired muscle show up at the kennel. From Upstate New York, ‘Adirondack Arms’ moved nearly 50 dog houses over to the ‘Patriot Fan’ pressure wash area. All the houses were cleaned of this summer’s dirt and grim. We fixed all of the houses in need of repair and will paint a few more this coming week. Older or chewed on dogs’ name plates will be replaced and rotten dog dishes were removed. Then every house was wheeled back into the yard, filled with this season’s fresh straw.
