Friday, July 3, 2015

Catching up on the Summer of 2014

   So after the races, we lost our snow by mid March (as usual) but not before I was able to get some 15 mile runs on the Mouse X Pepperjack puppies. They were good, no chewing and relatively easy to harness. I'm amazed how much the pups pick up from running with the adults. It always seems like they come back from a run with "the big dogs" and are so much more confident.
    I'm at the point where I really don't need to buy dogs, and had made a rule against it, but after the Iditarod Scott offered me Rowdy - Razz's sister - bred to Clyde (his best male after Pepperjack). I took some time to think about it, but at last decided to go for it. She's just so good! She completed the Iditarod with Rick Casillo and there's nothing to complain about with her (unless you don't like getting jumped on - she has this thing about being overly friendly...).

 Rowdy

 Clyde

    I must confess, I was nearly in tears when I picked her up. It was a good reunion (and the people at Spokane's Alaska Air Cargo are the best!) and she was, I think, very happy to see someone she knew. She settled in quickly; Rowdy isn't a dog to search for fights. Then it was just waiting for the July puppies, which came right on time:

L to R: Falcon, Owl, Bee and Eagle



Bee - the only female

 Owl and a young friend

Eagle - having fun under a chair

This litter rivaled the 2012 Mouse X Pepperjack litter in terms of niceness - no escape stories (like  the Mouse X Mambo and Sweetwater puppies!) and supper social. They are by far the biggest - a full harness size bigger than the other pups I've harness broken, despite being only 7 months (I prefer 8 months old) when I harness broke them. And, of course, I was thrilled to get a girl - Bee (or Princess Bea - depending on the day) is just like her mom and all of them have great confirmation.
Bee and Nestor (white face - out of Mouse X Mambo)

Eagle and (white) relative - Peppermint

Wheel - Odysseus (Nestor's brother) and Jingle (Mouse X Pepperjack). Falcon is next to Frost (Jingle's brother)

Owl - so serious at such a young age!

Falcon and Frost

    All in all, 2014 was a good summer - lots of dreaming as I watched Rowdy's puppies grow and realized the Mouse X Pepperjack puppies would be good additions to the race team. The weather was cool enough that I could keep running dogs except for a few weeks in June.

No comments:

Post a Comment