It was nearly -20F and snowing when Blaze looked outside his house to see a dog bowl shimmering in the cold winter moonlight. It was hours until the next feeding and already, just minutes after he’d licked it clean and marked it as his, not Tango, Clyde, Nibbs or Lager’s, the remains were frozen solid. He sighed, his food bowl was dear to him and if it would only take his advice and remain close to the house, all would be well…
Blaze rose up to the challenge, shook himself off and prepared to put himself in peril for the beloved bowl. At great discomfort, he emerged into the night, being sure to keep his tongue well away from the nasty, frozen chain.
At last…at last, he reached it – at the far ends of his chain. Unable to kick it into place, as he’d seen Remy do so many times before, he did the unthinkable and clamped his teeth ever so gently around the bowl. After all, he thought, Ozzie does it all the time.
But the bowl bit him! Cut to the quick at the bowl’s ungratefulness, Blaze tried to set it down. But it wouldn’t go! He decided it was the bowls way of telling him it wanted indoors after all. With a sigh and a shake of his head, he turned to trek back to the comfortable, warm straw. By the time he reached the house, all anger at the bowl was forgotten The last thought through his mind, before he settled down, back to back with the bowl, was how glad he was to have a friend watching his back as he dreamed of running so fast that Mambo couldn’t keep up with him…
Ok, so maybe that’s a little too dramatic, but many of the dogs here are in love with their bowls. Many nights Scott and I have searched for bowls in the snow, only to end up having to crawl into houses to dig them out. Some dogs collect as many as they can and curl up with them. I have no idea why, since they must be very cold!
Remy plays “soccer” with his bowl for hours, unless it flies out of reach and then he looks at it (and then at you) with such sad eyes that you feel compelled to toss it back to him. Razz does the same thing, but usually he succeeds in sending his bow halfway across the yard. Noah is perhaps the kindest to his bowl. At feeding time he will pace around his circle with the bowl in his mouth and when you come up to him he drops it (or sets it down – depending on how you look at it) and 50% of the time it lands right side up.
But Ozzie, Scott’s energetic Golden Retriever, is the most enthusiastic about his bowl. He and I will play “Bowl” – when I have time, because he’d play it all day! (Bowl, for those of you who don’t know is basically fetch with a bowl)
Now, to real news…
Last night Leila woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me the Northern Lights were out. I dressed quickly and joined her to see them. When she’d been coming over they were dancing, she said, but by the time I got out there they were moving very slowly. They cast an eerie green/blue light over everything. It was awesome! We were laughing because none of the locals (Scott, Bill or the Burmeister’s) were out to see them – actually, since we could only see them from the dog yard, Scott poked his head out of his cabin and told us, laughing, to get out of his front yard! (His cabin is on one side of the dog yard)
I guess it’s just exciting for those of us who haven’t seen them before! I hope I can see more, maybe when I’m out on a night run later this year.
Other than that, not a whole lot happened today because it was my day off running and Scott and Aaron are still out (probably will be back between ) running. Yesterday I ran the yearlings 16 miles and tried some new dogs in lead, which is always an adventure. It was beautiful out on the swamps, with blue sky and sunshine. I wish I could get a picture for you – it was so pretty.
I realize that in the above story you have no idea who these dogs are that I’m writing about, so I’ll start introducing them to you in groups. Hopefully I can get pictures eventually so you can see them as well!
We’ll start out with the house dogs and retired dogs:
Ozzie – a 3yr old Golden Retriever that belongs to Scott. In Scott’s words, “He’s 3yrs going on 3wks.” A very playful, energetic dog that actually will retrieve birds for you! The day after I got here Scott and Aaron went to scout out some trails and took Ozzie with them, and their guns, and came back with three or four grouse (which tasted awesome).
Riley – I don’t have much to say about this dog. She belongs to the Burmeisters and barks constantly. I believe she’s a Blue Heeler.
Banshe – Mother of three of the younger puppies. Completed every race she ever started with Aaron. She’s 12 now and has diabetes so I have to give her shots twice a day, which she takes very patiently. Banshe’s a gray dog and, to tell you the truth, she’s not a pretty dog at all. If you’ve ever seen Bessie (one of my dogs) then you can get an idea of what she looks like, minus the big feet!
Garcia & Pinoit – Scott’s old retired leaders, both are big, yellow-white dogs. Pinoit is the father of two of Scott’s good leaders, Lager and Porter. They still get excited every time a team goes out, but they never get to run.
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