Open Thread – Mush!
It’s here! They call it The Last Great Race. This morning, at the ceremonial start of Iditarod XXXVIII, seventy one teams of dogs, and the humans that tag along for the ride, will head down 4th Avenue in Anchorage flanked by cheering crowds in furry things and mittens, sipping coffee and consulting their racing guides, stomping their feet to keep warm. And they will wave goodbye to the teams of 12-16 dogs and one human who will head out on a journey of 1150 miles across the Alaskan wilderness to Nome, on the coast of the Bering Sea. This will take about 10 days for the fastest team.
As I did last year, I’ve changed our color scheme a bit and will change it back once the race is done.
I remember back in 1991 when I’d been in Alaska only two weeks, I drove to Wasilla to watch the Iditarod “restart.” I was quite shocked when I found out that all the hubbub in Anchorage really wasn’t the beginning of the race. The teams set out for a little run, but then they were packed up and driven up the highway to the “restart” in Wasilla where the race really began in earnest. I didn’t quite “get” why anyone would go to the first one, instead of the “real” one, but I’ve come to like the ceremonial start. It has charm and pageantry. And I don’t have to drive to Wasilla, or in this year’s case, all the way to Willow.
Here are some links if you want to follow along:
The Official Iditarod Site where you can see an appalling video of our ex-half-term governor talk about how the Iditarod is her second favorite Alaskan event after the Iron Dog. Gee. It feels so special now.
The site includes:
The Musher Listing - There will be 49 veterans, 22 rookies, 15 women and 56 men. 46 mushers are Alaskan, 13 are from the Lower 48 and 12 are from other countries. One musher is from Jamaica. I hope he brought a sweater. You can have lots of fun learning about the mushers by clicking on their name.
The Race Route and Checkpoints – There are two routes used in alternating years. This year, as in all even numbered years, mushers will take the northern route.
Some of the greatest names of Alaskan places can be found on the Iditarod route. My personal favorite is the Yentna to Squentna segment. It’s like a Dr. Seuss poem. Although Unalakleet to Shaktoolik has its charm..
The Weather at Various Checkpoints - Looks like the coldest spot right now is at the race’s end in Nome where it’s a brisk 4 degrees.
There’s also:
The Scholastic Site for Teachers - with activities, reading lists, information about the Jr. Iditarod and stories.
So get ready to cheer on your favorite team, and if you don’t have one, get busy picking one out!
With some of our Regular MudPuppies who have friends in the Race I am sure we will be able to get some regular Updates and also ‘ learn ‘ a little bit more about the race and it’s history.
I was just checking Huffpo. With ‘ everything sarah ‘ today she seemed to be hoarding the News ( as well as those FREEbies ) headlines and generally being a ‘pig ‘ about it… with lipstick,.. of course.
I just saw this story. McGrumpy asked Scott Brown to come to AZ to help campaign for him today. Uh….Oooo.. new more popular ‘ shiny object ‘.
Did someone get kicked to the curb and THEY are not going to help him campaign….. now..? No longer BFF’s..? Have to wait and see. Can’t ask Meg.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/scott-brown-campaigns-for-john-mccain_n_486970.html
Go doggies!
Mudflats is beyond-excellent! Keep up the great work! Thank you every day, AKM and comment authors for fun, detailed, and intelligent reading. You have 1,000′s of fans here in the lower 48.
I tried to post my comment to the “Sarah’s Socialist Snowmachine” article, where it rightfully belongs instead of here, but it doesn’t appear to be accepting comments at the moment (?)
I’ve just sent our 5-paragraph strongly worded opinion about $arah’s “ad” for the Iditarod to the following: (And thank you for the links)
shooley@iditarod.com
jpotts@iditarod.com
cstgeorge@iditarod.com
How in the world can there be a snowmobile in the video background for a dog race ad? Absolutely everything about the Palins is ludicrous and unfathomable, disgusting, lurid, self-aggrandizing, and, well… “etc.”
Best to all in the race, safety above all. Godspeed, from all of us here in California.
I love the Iditerod!! Aliy Zirkle is a friend of my daughter-in-law, and I got to meet her last year. Gracious lady, and I wish her lots of luck!
YIKES! I got a pollster type call yesterday. I usually just hang up, but I had been hearing about these, and curiosity got the best of me, so I started answering questions. Do you support the Tea Party movement? “No” (very politely) Do you support Sarah Palin? “No” (again, very politely, no screaming and using profanity, like I wanted to.) Do you donate? “To what?” (I thought that a reasonable question.) Click went the phone – guess I won’t be included in that poll!
OK… I was just about to sign off.
There was some talk of this in the Chat room tonight. I guess you can call it Official now.
( There were NO comments posted at this time. Maybe a little note of support .. or a call to His Office saying ” Thanks ” )
————–
Begich Open To Using Reconciliation To Pass Health Care Bill
Senator Mark Begich (D-AK) said Friday that he was open to using reconciliation to pass health care reform, according to Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore.
Begich told Moore that he would wait to see wording of the reconciliation before voting:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/06/begich-open-to-using-reco_n_488512.html
Six dogs died during the 2009 Iditarod. (No wonder Palin loves this race!)
How do many you think will die this year?
5 honestyinGov Says:
March 6th, 2010 at 2:27 AM
Moreover WILL he sign on for the public option????
As of today……35 senators and…..no word from Begich about the P.O.
See story below:
Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) became the 35th senator to commit to voting for a public health insurance option if it comes to a vote on the floor under the rules of reconciliation. That leaves advocates of the option 15 votes short with no official whip action from either the White House or Senate leadership.
Senate leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) have expressed support for the movement, but the White House has concluded, according to press secretary Robert Gibbs, that the public option doesn’t have “political support.”
The steady climb in named supporters undermines the White House’s conclusion.
huffingtonpost.com%2F2010%2F03%2F04%2Fpublic-option-picks-up-35_n_485369.html
#1 HonestyinGov – “New shiny object”? Woo-hoo! Wonder if it has anything to do with my daily email bombardments lobbed at McCain. I keep telling him that Palin will be the death-knell for his campaign. Actually, that would be a very good thing, but I was trying to fill his head with the idea that Palin is a political toxin at this point. BUT, I’m hoping that $arah ends up playing NO part in the campaigning, because we all know she’ll attempt to gather the accolades for her “help” if McCain does, in fact, win.
GO, beautiful dogs – GO! Run like you love to!
I’m sure they love running the first 100 or 200 miles. But 1,161 miles? Come on!
The 1925 serum run to Nome was a relay, ya know.
Good morning! Today is supposed to be over 55* which is about danged time. The paper tells us it has been 95 days since this has happened. That number is amazing. We have broken so many records! Sheesh, already.
I have been reading that site. Fascinating backstories on the mushers. The history is well worth the read, too. Have fun watching the start – real or otherwise!
Cheers to the beautiful dogs who will run their hearts out for the love of running. Cheers to to those humans who look at what seems like an insurmountable challenge and do it anyway.
In purely elemental terms the pitting of the mushers and their dogs against nature is the stuff of dreams and poetry – a primal testing that can never be experienced or attained on a machine.
Tues, while waiting for my father to come out of surgery, my sister saw 3 therapy dogs come past the area. They were a big and little poodle and a malamute. We’re cat people, but she got our attention when she said, “Wow, what a beautiful dog!” It was truly stunning. Gorgeous.
Good luck, doggies! Stay safe, humans! If you see any Palins, a pride of grifters or otherwise, run the other way!
In a previous chapter of my life, I interviewed Martin Buser, Rick Swenson, Lance Mackey, Joe Runyan, DeeDee Jonrowe, Libby Riddles, Susan Butcher, and Joe Redington Sr.. I spent time at Redington and Runyan’s dog yard, and was one of the dog handlers at the ceremonial start. I had a cynic’s eye to the sport as well, it was during the time of the controversy when outsiders were suggesting the sport was animal cruelty. After hanging out with the mushers, I came away thinking how both humans and animals live and love racing in the elements. The training itself is very intense and disciplined. Everyday conditioning for both the musher and dogs. There is strategy as well, which stops to take, contingency plans, types of foods to eat, how to sleep, etc. Redington said one of his criteria for his dogs was good paws. If you have 15 dogs with four paws, that’s a total of 60 paws. The less you had to change dog booties, it saved time. What impressed me the most was the love of the musher for their dogs and visa versa. Interestingly, left on their own, these dogs would run forever anyway. They really do love to run. I’ve come away thinking there is danger in most sports and “nature” activities. The person and animal already know the risks.. As in mountain climbing, surfing, or horse racing and bull-riding… Golf isn’t too deadly unless the golf ball hits you in the head just right or you get sunstroke.
Oh I forgot, I interviewed Colonel Norman Vaughan too. Did you know he dropped out of Harvard to live a life of mushing dogs? When he was a kid he had a collie. He taught his collie to pull a sled, and they had a great time.
..Brown isn’t getting all that great a reception in AZ…. people there are resenting his sticking his nose in their business, and sending letters to him to butt out..including some of the local county RNC officials.. He’s viewed as a Liberal Repub, and they are quite conservative…which is why McCain’s in trouble to start with…
Skip Alert: posted about this late on the previos thread…
Yon Dung’s talking about monkeys while HE is the one flinging poo.
This episode really struck a nerve. It bothered me all night and I woke up weeping. My heart is breaking. Deep despair.
“Love is but a song we sing
Fear’s the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why
Come on people now…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4fWN6VvgKQ
When will we ever learn?
….
It’s a beautiful morning in the forest, so I think I’ll make like an Iditarod dog and spend the day in the fresh air and sunshine. I won’t be running, but I can usually find shalom while puttering in the gardens. Good medicine for these Nordic Blues.
Wishing you all Shalom Bayit, Peace in our Homes….and our gardens and our trails and all of what we find in front of us, also. Too.
*previous*
ROBIN ALERT. It’s official – Spring has come to New York. There is a big Robin Redbreast -oops make that TWO robins bobbing in my neighbors yard across the street. Oh frabjous day!
I’ll be checking for crocusses (croci?) in my garden later this morning.
I’ll be dog sledding in Jim Thorpe, PA on Friday this week. I’m very excited about this. My own mini-Iditarod! If there’s no snow, the dogs will be pulling a dog cart with wheels, but Jim Thorpe is called the Little Switzerland of America, so I have high hopes for snow. It’s so beautiful there.
Just a note to those who would like to hear Shannyn’s show, but have to use podcasts- iTunes has all the podcasts available now. (Apparently there was a problem with the previous podcast service.) I sure enjoy listening to her show on my walks. I load up my iPod with GOOD talk radio and any Rachel and KO I may have missed.
If you haven’t read the Oyster post from yesterday, please do so. Linda is w/in $60 of her goal of $500 to donate to St. Baldric’s! Her head is due to be shorn today. What a great heart she has to do this. Thank you.
crowwoman: “Yon Dung’s talking about monkeys while HE is the one flinging poo….This episode really struck a nerve. It bothered me all night and I woke up weeping. My heart is breaking. Deep despair.”
OT:
I read something just last night that gives me hope. I’d not heard of The Coffee Party ’til then. http://coffeepartyusa.com
“MISSION: The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.”
Please take a look, thatcrowwoman, and see if maybe the news about this growing movement of civility and accountability in government will lift your sad heart.
“We demand a government that responds to the needs of the majority of its citizens as expressed by our votes and by our voices; NOT corporate interests as expressed by misleading advertisements and campaign contributions.
“We want a society in which democracy is treated as sacrosanct and ordinary citizens participate out of a sense of civic duty, civic pride, and a desire to contribute to society. The Coffee Party is a call to action. Our Founding Fathers and Mothers gave us an enduring gift — Democracy — and we must use it to meet the challenges that we face as a nation.”
I hope Linda donates her long locks to the cancer foundation that collects such hair. I wish her luck.
And to the doggies and their humans: Mush on! Take care of each other and be careful.
Looks like McCain is between a rock and a hard place– Brown vs Palin. Could it be that Cindy is in the mix?
who thinks this is palin’s end of days? …all the controversy surrounding her seems to becoming more and more mainstream…I see her popularity in an about face…ya think?
Meanwhile, bad news for the dogs’ wild cousins the wolves:
http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/6590694/article-Board-of-Game-rejects-wolf-buffer-zone–gives-the-OK-to-trapping-near-Denali?instance=home_lead_story
More background on the wolves thing:
Denali’s wolves: a history of loss
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/030410/opi_570700918.shtml
I was just over at Gyrphen’s site and braved a listen of Palin’s Ohio Right to Life speech. OMG! Admittedly, I only lasted a few seconds but I heard enough to scratch my head about her popularity since, instead of addressing the subject at hand, she was defending herself against the media meanies for making fun of her for writing on her hand. And what pray tell does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Can you imagine her addressing the UN General Assembly?
If people are stupid enough to pay $100,000 to hear her say the same old garbage and play the media victim (that has made her a multi-millionaire) then I’m afraid there is no hope for a large section of the population.
Let’s get comments on the Mystik story over at HP. It needs to move up so that the story gets seen.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/akmuckraker/the-palins-socialist-snow_b_488015.html
Have popcorn at hand and shields for exploding bot heads.
Too bad they had to take an awesome part of Alaskan history and turn it into a cash cow.
Sorry, but I can’t get enthused about this. The suffering of those dogs, with gastric distress, ulcers, hemmorhaging, enlarged hearts, even hypothermia and pneumonia, just seems like cruel punishment–and some of them die.
I just don’t think humans should “have fun” at the expense of animals.
Ditto Grandma68. I won’t watch it nor support any company involved in it. Ever.
Went to the Iditarod site yesterday and registered my displeasure about quitty panties involvement. Hope they understand.
Does anyone know what happened to Bree Palin? I noticed on Immoral Minority that her blog was “Bye from Bree” but when I went over to see what was up – got “this blog cannot be found”.
#23 Lainey, agreed. She’s becoming overexposed. The more the main stream sees of her the more they realize what a shallow husk of a person she is.
#26 OMG, did you notice what a pronounced lisp she has on that clip? I’ve noticed a slight lisp in the past but never like that….
Just a question that’s been on my mind since yesterday. Kind of a mini shake- up going on regarding a story. I tend to try to stay away from that type of thing. However a comment was made about “mudpups” and “newbies” or something to that effect. For oldtimers here, what exactly qualifies someone as a “mudpup”? Is it based on length of time one has come here and if so how long is that? Or is it something totally different? I’ve visited this site practically since the beginning but didn’t start commenting untilI don’t know maybe a year ago. Does that make me a mudpup or a newbie?
mudpuppiness is in the heart.
so say i.
“Ich bin ein Mudpuppy” and we are all Mudpuppies when we spread our essential human goodness around.
I will forever be grateful to my Dad, rest his soul, for being an avid 8mm movie buff and his casually (but conscientiously) filming the people, scenes, and events he encountered. Because of that, our home movies are an absolute treasure.
My folks lived up in the Yukon Territory (that’d be in Canada; Whitehorse, eh?), lo, these 70-some-odd years ago. Dad worked for the Provincial Police and had to travel ‘into the bush’ on a regular basis (‘the bush’ being anywhere outside the immediate confines of a town – where the ‘paved’ road ended, the town did). Among the many duties he had, was the charge to check on ‘his’ widely-scattered miners and trappers to see they were doing okay during the long winter months (and sometimes, to get information to them and/or take them supplies) — the only way to get to them was by dog sled.
Not only did Dad film ‘his’ trappers and miners (and their bounty and operations,) the ‘Indians’ (and their every day way of life and celebrations,) and other scenes of the North, he also 8mm-ed his dog team: their feeding, their harnessing, their training, their rompings — their individual personalities. He truly could not have done his job without them.
Mom would often accompany my Dad when he rode his ‘route’ (out in the frozen, two people in a pre-gortex/man-made fiber-filled sleeping bag was much warmer than a single person in one!) Some of my all time favorite winter-scene movies were taken by her: he’d mush the team across miles snow and then come to a goodly-sized hill – the dogs would pull the passenger-less sled up it, and then promptly lay down to rest once they’d reached the top…leaving Dad to wrestle the fully goods-loaded sled up the steep incline. He wasn’t a man to cuss, but… Another of my favorites is of Mom putting the canvas booties she’d made (with red-yarn pompoms on them!) on the dogs before they went out. Oh, such wonderful images captured for posterity!
The only regret us ‘kids’ have about the kodachrome films is that we didn’t record Dad’s voice over the years as he narrated them. I’m sure that if we (the 5 of us ‘kids’) all got together, we’d be able to recall his words and sync them with the movies, though. The home movies of the times (over 15-years, in all) the family lived in — and travelled around, from — Whitehorse and, later, Fairbanks, are really quite wonderful. Dad’s dogs and sled are a marvelous part of them. beth.
@ Grandma68
There is risk in any intense physical and emotional quest such as the race! It was a sad year last year with so many fatalities, but this is unusual and it is certainly not cruel punishment! There are tragedies, too, such as the year where Susan Butcher’s team was stomped by an angry moose. Libby Riddles went on to win that year as the first woman to do so because luck and smarts were just running with her that year, and not Susan. If you want a good read, pick up Race Across Alaska by Libby and she, and her dogs, will steal your heart. This isn’t a race to be judged without knowing more about it – it just isn’t. There is nothing else in the world quite like race mushing.
The race isn’t about having fun for the musher – I could go on for hours, as well could many other Alaskan mudpups who have been involved in mushing, about how the joy is for the dogs. You don’t see the mushers out there, jumping around, expressing their glee and excitement at the top of their lungs – no, they are kind of the straight guys to the dogs. The dogs are the stars and almost every single musher knows that.
Watch closely when you see folks holding (handling) the dog teams for the mushers when the dogs are excited. Sometimes it’s all you can do to hang on to those happy, ready dogs, and you know if you let go, all he11 is going to break loose so you just clench your teeth, contract your muscles, and hope for the best. It gets easier of course, but it’s not for the weak of arm!
I had a husky for almost 20 years who had been cut from my neighbor’s team because her legs were too short for deep snow. This husky is responsible for stories that would fill a book, maybe two, but the bottom line is that dog lived to run behind a sled. It’s all she wanted to do in her dog life.
When I moved back to Southeast Alaska, I felt as though I had torn her heart out. When it snowed, she got this goofy grin and danced in the flakes. You put a leash on her, which she thought was a harness, and she’d drag you to China. When she listened to the excited dogs on TV while watching the ceremonial start, she’d watch the TV, bark and run around in excitement in the living room. She never reacted to any other TV sounds whatsoever.
It was in the very core of her being, and I could not distract her away from her mushing days and memories. I always felt guilty that I took her away from mushing – her one true love til her death at the ripe old age of 18.
It is an amazing sport, harder than most, much harder than it looks. You aren’t just training yourself, or training with other adults, you are training 15-30 dogs who need to be cared for individually like the incredible athletes they are. Most people just could never do it – it’s so intense, and you are responsible for so many others – their comfort, health, happiness, training and strength are all key to a good team.
I am a musher at heart who never had the team or kennel. My life took a different path, but if I had it to do over, I might just go down the fork of the road that led to the most beautiful dogs on the planet and their sleds.
I won’t be following this year for a different reason, one that is very sad to me. The Committee sold out to Sarah Palin. There are many of us who are just sitting this one out.
#34 & #35 thank you.
The Bree Palin blog appears to be down, but Google captured the final entry (Friday March 5) in its “cache” feature:
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:gi_SG4pWG6YJ:breepalin.blogspot.com/+bree+palin&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
** waving to fawnskin! **
I’ve been lucky enugh to be able to visit musher’s kennels several times, and saw how excited the dogs became when the sled was brought out. You could almost hear them yelling, “Pick me, pick me!!”. The sheer joy on the faces of the dogs as they were harnessed made me believe that there is something special in the heart of a sled dog that we mere humans will never completely understand.
I understand the concern for their health and safety but I’ve seen how the vast majority of the mushers value their dogs and care for them as members of the family. As in anything, there will always be a few who do not care for the dogs as they should, but the rules and structure of the race seem designed to insure that these people are weeded out, the rules are adhered to and the dogs are protected from harm as much as possible.
I wish the mushers and all of the dogs a safe and happy journey to Nome.
I’m not sure the Iditarod, as it is today, can be considered an Alaskan “tradition”. The race from Anchorage to Nome only started up in 1973. It was “modeled” on an incident in the late 20′s when dog mushers stepped in to get diptheria vaccine serum to Nome. However, that incident involved relay teams of mushers running from Nenana to Nome. No dog team had to run more than 50 miles at most. The idea of making dog teams run the 1,000 miles from Willow to Nome in a breakneck race is new and to my mind, cruel.
Dog handling practices during the race itself have greatly improved. However, the untold story is that team owners end up with a lot of surplus puppies on their hands every year. As I understand it, spaying or neutering sled dogs makes them less inclined to run. Some of the puppies can be traded or given away, but every year I was in Alaska (all 26) there were terrible stories of dog team owners shooting, gassing, or disposing of unwanted puppies in cruel ways. When dogs arent’ running, they are usually staked out in dog yeards on very short chains, which makes them even more willing to run when finally given a chance. Dog yards can be filthy, noisy, and must be very stressful for the dogs. (They are to non-musing neighbors.) Finally, the whole Iditarod mystique, and the professional dog racing community in general attracts a lot of hangers-on who cannot really afford to support 20 or more dogs in optimal conditions, and who really shouldn’t be mushing to begin with. Again, every year there are terrible stories about dogs who are found to be living in unhealthy, even inhumane conditions, because their owners got caught up in the “tradition” of dog mushing and couldn’t afford to take care of their teams.
Dog mushing is picturesque, but has never really been that much of an Alaskan tradition, except among some Native peoples. What you see in events like the Iditarod is the cream of the crop in dog mushing. Those mushers are at the top of the heap. The rest of the heap, all too often, is filled with bodies of dead dogs and culled puppies, products of ignorant owners too caught up in the romantic notion of being a “real Alaskan.”
Using any animal for sport is just plain wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Sorry, I cannot support or condone this ‘sport.’ Regardless of its tradition, we should have evolved from that place.
Years ago, before the era of overwhelming standardized testing, my sister did an annual Iditarod project with her first graders. Each of them chose one musher and followed them throughout the race.
The practiced their reading by checking the race updates, wrote biographies of their musher, learned how to read maps, did math as they followed the race stats, talked about weather and climate and history. They drew pictures of the mushers and their dogs and listened to native music. It was a fantastic project that brought together every subject in an incredibly fun and exciting way. When the younger siblings of her former students got to her class, they would start asking her in September when they were going to do the ‘dog race’ project.
Unfortunately, she can no longer afford to take time out of the established curriculum to do this wonderful project. Such a great loss for her and her students, but she has some great memories.
36@ Beth..love that story, wow~ the memories..
Make sure you watch the clip posted on Gryphens blog this morning of the RTL Speech in Ohio that ” The Swagmeister ” made last night. It’s creepy… , but just plain ‘ childish ‘ as well. She’s like a Jr High school student who got called into the Principals Office for ‘ cheating ‘. She is trying to rationalize the Palm-reading episode…. AGAIN.
Sarah…now speaking now in a childish voice….. ” they can’t argue about the CONTENT of what I wrote down…. “W o W !!! Poooooor victim….
Now Channeling Shannyn Moores voice in that special way that only Shannyn can do it…” Gooood Lorrrrddd ”
She is REALLLY amped up as well. Must have gone back to the Red Bull Menu.
The clip is only about 1:36… but at about the 1:20 mark listen closely.
Did she get some extra ‘ lip plumping ‘ done recently…. in Hollywood maybe ?
She seems to really have a problems with here ” S’s “..? Sort of a slurring of them like when you are trying to talk after coming from the Dentists Office and the side of your mouth is still half-asleep. No control. Rather like a cartoon character. In the manner that Elmer Fudd would replace the ” R’s ” with “W’s”
Maybe it is just the audio quality….but about 3 times at the end….she has a problem with those ” S’s “. I just listened again… she slurred those S’s about 6 times or More. Maybe it was more noticeable when she slowed down.
Listen to the words ” is , speech, cauSe and signs ” when she says dollar ‘Signs’. Signs turns into sort of ‘ shines ‘. It’s just WEIRD… she never had this problem with other speeches.
She talked wayyyy too fast at the start maybe that is why it is not as pronounced there.
Is Ramy Brooks racing this year?
http://www.inhumane.org/data/RBrooks.htm
I remember seeing footage of a team that didn’t want to run anymore. The musher drug them into the below zero night, yelling.
Money is a big motivator! Sarah understands.
Mush!
38 JC, your welcome. I think our faith in the goodness of all creatures is what makes us share so many wonderful things on this site.
I haven’t read GR but looked at a few pages in a store and one thing really stuck out to me. In the last chapter, it attempts to get all philosophical. She believes that humans are all created with some sort of “sin”. Our lives are trying to get beyond this imperfect beginning. It is like we all have some inherent evil in us. Yuck!
I just don’t buy this. I was raised on Catholic school and we heard lots about “original sin”. By the end of grammar school I had rejected this whole idea. It just doesn’t seem logical to me. I believe we are all born innocent and good. It is our personal choice to react to circumstances in either good and harmful ways. That is the journey of life. The most important thing I can do is to nurture and encourage a positive society in my little patch of the world. A smile, a kind word are easy to give. So are letters to Congress and WH. That is what we do to make this a better world for all.
And to Martha and others. Please don’t let “her” ruin your race. Her posing as a spokesmodel for the Mystik (Hugo Chavez) brand is going to make some bot heads “explode” and just maybe they will begin to understand what $he is. A tool of the petrodollar kings. She will be remembered like Pia Zadora down the road as a footnote of pop culture.
Re: Sarah’s lisp in the clip from the Ohio RTL. She may be wearing Invisiligns (sp). They cause you to lisp until you get used to them. When I wear my night guard (similar set-up) I lisp, too. Of course it looks like she’s had the lips done, too. Probably got a touch up while in Cali.
Bad News for Wolves in Alaska:
“Despite opposition from the superintendent of Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska’s Board of Game voted Friday to eliminate a “buffer zone” and allow hunting and trapping just outside park boundaries.
The board voted 4-3 in favor of the wolf kill, which was sought by the state’s powerful hunting and trapping interests. The park’s management had favored creation of a larger buffer zone…”
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/archives/196806.asp
[clamshell77 @ 46 ~ you might want to read through the entire "Sarah’s Socialist Snowmachine" thread - it's only 88 posts long. Along with AKMs posts and comments [made in bold] in response to postings, you might be interested in reading, in particular, this post of that thread: http://www.themudflats.net/?p=10382#comment-177048. Just suggestin’… beth.]
My friend Colleen is running in the Iditarod for the first time this year. She ran the Yukon Quest last year and I handled for her all along the way. I did the same for Lance Mackey the first year that he won. I helped Lance train his puppies before he moved to Fairbanks. I have sled dogs. We mush just for fun. Right now I have a dog that was given to me by Lance because he had Parvo as a pup and his heart couldn’t handle the long miles. His heart, however, is big enough to handle the world in terms of love. I have another dog given to me by another big name musher who has chronic shoulder problems. She also cannot handle the miles anymore. So she is now a part of our family. She has been to Nome twice and is an incredibly enthusiastic and loving little girl.
Colleen does not mistreat her dogs. She will drop one if she even thinks there might be something wrong. I watched her go through the highs and lows of sleep deprivation last year and her concern was ALWAYS for her dogs. She would forgo her own sleep and needs to massage muscles, walk out stiffness, be sure that every one of her little family on the trail was taken care of like the elite athletes that they are.
I know that the argument is “but the dogs don’t have a choice…they cannot say they want to do this”. They do have a choice. They are not dragged out and put into a harness against their will. If that happened, they wouldn’t be put on the team. If your dogs balk (sp?) you are done. One dog not running can sour the entire team. Lance says he breeds for appetite and attitude. Nearly every musher considers it a better thing to finish with a happy, healthy dog team than to finish first. It would be far more cruel to leave these dogs on a chain or in a yard without running them than to race them.
My Malamute who passed in December was not a racing dog. However, I used to say that her happiest death would be to die on the trail running. I know, it sounds horrible, but that is how much she loved to run. It is what gave her quality of life. She didn’t play fetch or do tricks or play with toys. She wanted to run. Running my 2 with colleen’s old man team (retired racing dogs) was one of her favorite things to do as she aged and she lived 3 years past her expected life span (partially due to the exercise that she got in front of a sled).
The dogs eat better than their humans and are in much better shape (cardiovascularly and otherwise) than most humans. I see overfed (with crappy food), underexercised dogs weekly that are spoiled to death (literally) on a weekly basis. Some of these dogs are on insulin because their owners have contributed to the development of diabetes in their animals. I have read stories of dogs that have been taken out, tied to a tree and shot (but not mortally wounded) and left to die.
Sled dogs, like any dogs, are a reflection of their owners care and love. When a dog dies on the trail it is not taken lightly. It can crush the musher. Yes, they get ulcers but the mushers do everything in their power to prevent this. would it have happened if they weren’t racing? Hard to say. It always incredibly sad. But it ia also incredibly sad to visit shelters and see perfectly good dogs that are put down every day because people won’t spay and neuter their animals.
I could go on and on. Sorry-I probably won’t change anyone’s mind. We are all entightled to our opinion and I respect that. Some things go on in the mushing world that should be changed. Same goes for the world of show dogs, agility dogs, etc.
My friend is running with the message that dogs should be adopted. Some of the dogs on her team are adopted (many of those in her yard are and nearly all of those in her house). Her dogs are her life and the loss of every one is a crushing blow just as it is for anyone who loves dogs. Every waking hour is spent with all of her attention on her dogs (except when she is at work-when she would rather be with her dogs).
Please do not judge all mushers by the same standard. There are good and bad mushers. Some of the people in the sport are working really hard to weed out the bad ones.
I do, however, agree that it is a pity that the Iditarod has been turned into the “cash cow” that it seems to be.
The ceremonial start is a trip though. I got to ride on Lance’s whip sled (no-not carrying a whip-it is the sled behind the musher’s sled-put there to add extra drag) through Anchorage one year. There are things they don’t show on TV. At one point we went down an alley where there were people cheering from the hot tubs in their backyards. There were banners with musher’s names draped from telephone poles and a group of ladies threw muffins at us (they call it “Muffin Alley”). I guess we were supposed to try to catch them. The you come to signs on the side of the trail that say “Pit stop ahead”. Pit stop??? Then suddenly we stop at a high rise and there are a bunch of guys with BBQs in the back of their pick-ups parked by the side of the trail handing out hotdogs to the mushers and their riders. Hilarious!
So-that’s a little taste for you. More as the race goes on.
Thanks to you all for sharing your stories about dogs and mushing.
@ Anon in Palmer
I, too was involved in handling for a friend in the Copper Basin 300 race years ago where there was a musher DQ’d for abusing his dogs. He was a mean person, had met him at some checkpoints and he made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I thought to myself (before he was caught and DQ’d), “What is this fellow doing in mushing? He has no rapport with his dogs or anyone else!”
Fellow mushers who observed him on the trail are the ones who turned him in. Everyone was very upset about it, but the action was swift and you could just feel the anger in the air as everyone heard about it. I know his “career” was over after that race. Turns out, go figure, that he was yelling at his dogs and pushing them in between checkpoints because they didn’t seem to have any interest in performing for him. He was a sorry excuse for a musher to say the least. The dogs knew it and said “forget it Buster, you suck”.
It’s a very small community, even though they are spread out over Alaska during most of the year. Mushers borrow and lease dogs from each other. A big kennel can often afford to run a second team in training on these races to give their dogs experience, while not trying to win. Other training teams are made up from more than one musher or kennel, cooperating to give the “new” dogs experience. They are very intertwined, yet very independent.
Luckily these kind of jerks are far and few in between. An abusive musher will never make the cut in racing as he/she will get ratted out and shunned. A jerk here and there in the Iditarod will never keep me from loving the race, mushing, and all they stand for. The joy of the dogs is too great!
Money, money, MONEY!
MUSH!
ok…this is just plain fun:
man pulls dog
http://www.pawnation.com/2010/03/05/dogs-get-in-the-drivers-seat-for-snausages-man-sled-race/?icid=main|welcome|dl9|link7|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pawnation.com%2F2010%2F03%2F05%2Fdogs-get-in-the-drivers-seat-for-snausages-man-sled-race%2F
@ lovemydogs 51
Oh I am green with envy, just as green as I could possibly be! I got to meet the “big guys” over a few races, Rick Swenson, Susan Butcher, Libby Riddles, Joe Redington, Martin Buser, the Mackey family, Mr. Vaughn and others. I was swooning with respect and awe. I got autographs after I worked up my courage. Swenson of course is a crusty blow hard, but I discovered also that he had a brusque, crude sense of humor which was actually darn funny.
At one checkpoint on the road system there was a restaurant with very limited seating and Swenson ended up coming in, looking around, and sat down by himself at an empty table for six. He looked as though he had no intention of sharing, and he just put out vibes of “Ha, you just try and sit at my table and I’ll eat you for my lunch!” Handlers, other mushers and spectators were all milling around waiting for a place to sit but no one would look at Rick Swenson or call him out on his little snarky action.
The gal I was handling for had a mother who was around 4’9″ and she was with us for the whole race. Spunky little thing – what a character! We were inside waiting for her, ignoring Rick’s rudeness like everyone else, and she came in, scoped out the situation and marched right over to his table and sat down. She told him that she thought our group had six people, but maybe only five would come in for lunch so that he could sit there unless that last person came in. Or he could find an extra chair if our group got too big for the ones at the table.
His face! It was hilarious! He turned bright red, started to sputter and bluster, then looking at Ellie’s kind, twinkly eyes which brooked no crap from anyone, he gave a big smile and stood up to give her the whole table. He’s really not a sociable guy, and I don’t think he wanted to be overwhelmed by our group if we were anything like Ellie!
We saw him later at another check point, and he actually sat with us for a short time and showed off his extra special cooler than he had made mostly out of duct tape. He had these one liners that just cracked you up!
You are so lucky! You are so lucky! Please let me come visit and meet your musher friends!
Martha: Anytime.
OK, on a different topic, I thought this was funny:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10463132-71.html
but my favorite comments were:
by ddhboy March 3, 2010 2:55 PM PST
Good luck with that. Try being 30, have an IQ of say 116, just above the range of average. To compensate you need to find a 25 year old girl with an IQ of 147 or a genius. This girl is at the top .2% of human intelligence, making her very difficult to find, especially when you factor in the strict age group and location. So according to this scientist, most of us will never actually find your perfect the perfect wife, and for you women, keep in mind that the average IQ of 100 means that your dream husband will be 5 years older than you and have an IQ of 73, or to put it another way, borderline retarded.
Like this Reply to this comment 4 people like this comment
by baconstang March 3, 2010 5:15 PM PST
He can always run for governor in Alaska.
Sorry AK’ns, but to me, that was funny.
Sorry to all for all of the typos. My typing sucks (I took Art instead). And I know that “entitlement” is spelled this way. Not enough coffee….
Here is another comment from that posting I linked to above:
Married almost 25 years (to the same woman). My advice:
Your wife has a perfect right to be jealous– IF you give her any reason. So toss all the photos, letters, and phone numbers of your old girlfriends, and never spend time alone with any other woman (other than your mother, sister, etc.). Note that this includes colleagues from work or school. Expect the same from your wife. (In fact, if either one of you is unwilling to do this at some point during the engagement, then call off the wedding. You’re not ready to commit for life.)
1) Get one a year or two older, if you can. You’re going to die younger anyway.
2) Don’t get one right at the boundary of your “fatness tolerance,” unless you’re not going to have children. Women get fatter with every pregnancy. Guaranteed.
3) Don’t stress out about #2. Your standards will deteriorate as you get older. By the time you’re 50, almost everything with two X chromosomes will look good.
4) Work at the marriage. Don’t stop, even for a month. Keep at it until one of you is dead. Good marriages don’t just happen.
5) Don’t worry about IQ. If she’s agreeing to marry you, how smart can she be? And vice versa. Just be thankful that you two knuckleheads found each other.
6) In the beginning of your marriage, spend money and time like they’re oxygen and water, and you’re astronauts on a deep-space mission. Give up every vice you can without going nuts, and save the money. Give up every time-wasting activity you can without going nuts, and spend it with your wife (and kids, if applicable).
7) Your wife is now your best friend. Period. If your former best friend can’t deal with that, dump him like a bowl of radioactive strychnine. Expect the same from your wife.
9) It IS ok for you to spend SOME time with old GUY friends. You don’t have to spend ALL your time with your wife. After the first few months, you’ll both appreciate some regular “apart time” — provided that you’re not using that “time with the boys” to engage in behavior destructive to your marriage. If you think stuff really does stay in Vegas, then you’re an idiot.
When I first moved here I was fascinated w/the Iditarod, then very quickly became less enamored after moving to the Valley and witnessing some of the “poorly run” kennels out here.
Some of the professional mushers have the means to care for the number of dogs required to run this race; some don’t. The mere existence of the sport and the race encourages others to create dog kennels and attempt to be mushers, often with disastrous results.
Many of these newbies don’t realize how much money is necessary to run a first rate kennel with first rate dog care. They will get too many dogs and be unable to either feed or exercise them and often end up culling not only puppies but adult dogs that are malnourished.
The shelters in Alaska are full of abandoned huskies that once belonged to someone who had a dream of being a musher. Unfortunately man cannot mush alone and must include another living breathing creature in this activity. An extremely small percentage have great success with both their careers and the health of their kennel. A much larger percentage experiences mediocre results both in the sport itself and regarding the health and happiness of their kennel.
Martha
~word
I hadn’t seen anybody comment about Kathy Griffin being in Anchorage last night..?
Therefore I tried the Googles. This story said she was attending some of the Iditarod activities going on as well. Levi escorted her onto the stage.
A few quotes from this story… you can read the rest.
———————-
“Of Palin’s comedy monologue this week on “The Tonight Show,” Griffin only promised the audience she would never try to be a mayor.
Griffin also claimed Palin is a “gift that keeps on giving.”
Griffin welcomed news that Palin is trying to shop a reality show or docudrama about Alaska. She called that a “gift from God.” ”
http://bostonherald.com/track/celebrity/view.bg?articleid=1237655&srvc=track&position=2
I am not an advocate of having any kennel that is too large for one’s means. I do not chain my dogs. They have a big fenced yard to play in. I harbor the same anger towards those who have too many dogs, can’t care for them, don’t care for them, let their dogs live in filth or starve. Every one of those people should be required to live in those same conditions. I don’t like the “culling” aspect of anything. However, there are people who choose to participate and don’t do any of these things. Colleen had a whole litter of puppies and 60% of them cannot race because they ended up having hip dysplasia. She was told by the vet that they could run anyway and she would know when it was too much when they came up lame (this from one of the top vets in the state). She chose not to do this. They go for fun runs and are not racing. She never culls, never takes a dog to the pound. Every dog that they have is theirs for life and treated as an honored member of the family. She is probably an exception. I know that the pounds are full of sled dogs. It is very sad. Luckily there are a lot of people up here trying to do the right thing (The Second Chance League in Fairbanks and those who foster sled dogs). It is also sad the number of people giving away puppies at the grocery store because they don’t neuter their animals. Some people breed dogs responsibly, others do not. It is not particular to sled dogs. Don’t think that people who breed purebloods for money don’t do the same thing. There are good people and bad people in this world. What more can I say?
I don’t doubt that there are many mushers who have healthy, happy, well-cared-for teams, and who practice under the highest ethics. But many don’t, and therein lies the problem. I also don’t doubt that sled dogs want to run. It’s in their breeding and temperment. Fine. But I strongly doubt that racing these dogs in extrmely stressful conditions, for very prolonged periods, is in their best interests and is something they “want” to do. The dog racing culture in Alaska is very insular, very self-referential, and encourages a strange form of self-indulgence. Another writer previously mentioned Rick Swenson’s well-known grouchiness and cantankerous behavior. But this anti-social behavior is encouraged and even lauded. I’ve seen him being a rude, obnoxious jerk, and sorry – that’s not what I look to in my role models.
The “specialness” of dog mushers and of mushing has lead to some really questionable behavior. Many years back, some famous mushers (Norman Vaughan, Susan Butcher, and Rick Swenson among them) drove a team to the summit of Denali. There was absolutely no reason to do so, as muching up the slopes of the continent’s highest mountain has never been a tradition, but they were celebrated across alaska for doing so. They put a lot of great dogs at risk only to feed their own egos, all in service of this stupid Alaska myth about how dog mushers are an integral part of the state and can do anything. Several years later, Norm Vaughan wanted to go back to Antarctica and wanted to bring dogs with him, since after all, the Byrd expedition in the 20′s (on which he served) had dogs. All his supporters were all for it, as Vaughan was some kind of hero and had every right (in their minds) to bring dogs. The plane carrying the dogs made a very rough, emergency landing in Antarctica, the dogs got loose and had to be left there, to ultimately freeze or starve to death. It was a very ignonimous ending to a “hero’s return”, and another good example of how this self-indulgant hman behavior is not in the dogs’ best interest.
Granted, these incidents have nothing to do with the Iditarod itself, but I think they speak a lot to the hype and glamorization of a lifestyle that: 1) is not now and never has been a part of mainstream life in Alaska, and that: 2) has been founded on a lot of abuse and maltreatment of animals.
I have no problem at all with short-distance sprint races, or with dog-mushing done as a hobby. But when money and human egos get involved, it can’t work out well for animals. Look at the captive orcas at Sea World. Lots of people would say the whales are well-cared-for and “like” performing. Poor old Tilicum has shown us (repeatedly) what HE thinks of it.
Mag the Mick: I agree with you, whenever egos and money get involved things can really messed up. That goes for all professional sports in my mind.
That should have been “get really messed up”. ARGH.
#36 @beth
Wow. What a treasure. Beth, you can have those movies restored and edited and transferred onto a CD. We did that recently with reels and reels of home movies of my DH and his family. What a treat to see his beautiful mom and dad while they were courting and then to watch his many siblings and cousins growing up.
for a hypocritical woman who’s vehimately against elites (media or Hollywood)…she certainly likes to avail herself of all the “benefits”, be it TV exposure or employment, expensive swag (thief), free fashion (thief), or cosmetic glamour and procedures.
Bill Maher had a lot to say about her on his show last night…funny stuff. Ceeement pond was mentioned and he also warned the Fundies to stop criticizing the upcoming Oscars b/c movies are one of the few ‘products’ still made in the U.S. and Hollywood never asks Washington to come to the aid of their corn fields…the truth hurts.
#46 @clamshell77
Thank you so much for your concern. If you’ve been keeping up with the blogs (haven’t seen your name before), you would know that AKM received an anonymous post about this and responded several threads back while Palingates has put it behind them. There’s no need to continue beating a dead horse which has already been buried. Again, thanks for your concern.
LiladyNY: If I could be so PC, I would have said just that
But probably, I would have left off the first and last sentences… just because I’m me, I guess!
Moving on… nothing to see here.
lovemydogs
I agree 100%. If folks think all purebred breeders are golden, then they know not of what they speak. Almost all of my friends who have purchased dogs over the last twenty years from breeders have found that the process can be very difficult if you care about what really goes on behind the scenes. I would never purchase a dog (not that I would anyway – I like mutts) from a breeder whose compound or home I had not visited. Many lie about birth dates, health problems, etc. It’s big business, and there are really creepy people out there doing this.
I have been very involved in pet nutrition for almost twenty years, and it was a combination of the mushers I knew, and a wonderful, out of place book in the Seward library which I checked out when I discovered the stray I adopted had bone spurs and could not do a stair of any type without pain or buckling of his legs. Of course I was advised to put him down, he would never heal or recover – much less run in a team which I wanted, but that black dog was my best friend on Earth and I was determined to bring him back to full health. My friends for years have joked that if they ate as well as my mutts, we’d all live forever or at least over a hundred years.
One friend who visited a lot to play cards with hubby seemed to always time his visits when I was cooking / preparing food for the dogs. I would absent mindedly put down snacks in front of them while they were playing, cut fruit, crackers & cheese, other simple stuff while I was making my dog meals. Our friend would ask for samples, then helpings of what I was making for the dogs – it just cracked me up! His favorite I believe was roasted red baby potatoes drizzled with olive oil and chipotle pomegranate dressing.
It was mushers who taught me the magic of great food and nutrition for my mutts! And it is magic, to see the results of your labors in having the shiniest, healthiest, longest living dogs in the neighborhood! Go Mushers!
@ Mag the Mick
Yep, Swenson can be a first class jerk! But after our incident at the checkpoint, I saw a different guy. One who is not socially ept (is that a word?) and had a hard time not just being a blowhard and braggart – but from what I observed he had a beautiful, immaculately cared for team and he loved each and every one of them. Yep, he had (has) a big ego, but I think he’s the type who gets along with critters much better than people. Susan Butcher was just as obnoxious – they were a lot a like – but she also had amazing dogs who loved her to their bones and would do anything for her.
Then you get a Martin Buser, Jeff King, Lance Mackey or Dee Dee Jonrowe who are great on camera with wonderful smiles and smart things to say. They are more social, more civilized types. They are great advocates and representatives of the race – esp. for folks who don’t understand the loner types. I lived in the same town as the Seavey family, and they are the same sharp, personable musher types who give the race a great name. We are a state of individualists, of loners, of misfits, and folk of amazing accomplishments. In mushing, I take the little bit of bad with all the good, and the great mushers and dogs win hands down!
Iditarod is also a sport I can’t deal with (along with horse-racing). I guess some of us are just wired a bit “softer” than others and don’t like to watch sports involving animals. But I’m also not a big fan of aquariums using whales and dolphins in shows. Maybe because they are so beautiful and enjoyable in their natural environment.
But I do understand that it’s a tradition, and good luck to all who participate. May your teams be healthy and strong. May your race be fun.
Unlike the critters at Sea World, etc – dogs living in the wild in Alaska is not comparable for obvious reasons. Dogs are social critters, and it is definitely a symbiotic relationship unlike housing wild animals, whether born in the wild or captivity, in zoos or marine worlds. There is no comparison here.
http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/dogs.htm
“Evidence of a “Real” Domestication Partnership
A burial site in Germany called Bonn-Oberkassel has joint human and dog interments dated to 14,000 years ago. The earliest domesticated dog found in China is at the early Neolithic (7000-5800 BC) Jiahu site in Henan Province. European Mesolithic sites like Skateholm (5250-3700 BC) in Sweden have dog burials, proving the value of the furry beasts to hunter-gatherer settlements. Danger Cave in Utah is the earliest case of dog burial in the Americas, at about 11,000 years ago.
Dog History: When Were Dogs Domesticated?
It seems clear that dog domestication was a long process, which started far longer ago than was believed even as recently as 2008. Based on evidence from Goyet and Chauvet caves in Europe, the dog domestication process probably began as long ago as 30,000 years, although the oldest evidence for a broader relationship, a working relationship, is the the Bonn-Oberkassel site, 14,000 years ago. The story of dog domestication is still in transition itself. “
“What’s the dif between a hockey mom & a sled dog?”
“A sled dog doesn’t have to write “bark” on its paw in order to remember what it’s to say.”
posted by “drainflake” at daily kos
I have seen horse racing from behind the scenes. Believe me, mushing is nothing like it. For one thing, the money isn’t the same and for another, in general, the dogs are owned by the musher, not by some corporation or incredibly rich person for whom it is simply an investment of money. I could go on but I won’t because my ‘Black Beauty’, ‘Man O’ War’ reading heart was broken by my experiences at a race track. The best book written about mushing is Paulson’s ‘Winterdance’. Of course, his Iditarod experiences were before it became the corporate, money affair that it is now.
I actually find myself feeling sorry for the folks who don’t see the joy of the dogs, nor do some reading of first hand accounts and accomplishments on this subject. For many, they only tune in on this once a year for the Iditarod, and that’s not enough to understand this amazing sport.
Really, truly, take a read of Libby Riddle’s Race Across Alaska if you have a few hours. It will infuse you with wonder, excitement, the fickleness of fate and luck, and you will find yourself cheering for her out loud while she’s hunkered down in the snow with her team just out of Shaktoolik, invisible to the rest of the racers, scared out of her head but believing in the crafty and wise advice of Gabe Takak in the village. He sent her on, he told her to go, he told her….
It’s a wonderful book! I had the immense pleasure of meeting Mr. Takak’s grandson years later and was able to give back something to Grandfather Takak – companionship for his grandson who was stuck in kind of a hard place when I met him. What a great kid he was!
I left out part of the sentence
“she’s hunkered down in the snow with her team just out of Shaktoolik, invisible to the rest of the racers, “due to a very nasty storm”.
As I sit here having a cocktail, I have a 6 month old orange cat on my lap, and I wonder what it would be like to try and hitch up a bunch of cats to a sled and have them pull it.
“like herding cats” comes to mind!
)
MarthaU: It isn’t the sport, it’s me. I have no problem stopping at accidents, rendering first aid to humans, or working in an ER. I don’t cringe and blood isn’t a turnoff. I just don’t have the human “ick” factor. But I could never be a vet … long ago I discovered animals are my “trigger”. Since I find animal sports to be upsetting to me personally, I just don’t “go” there. I escort scorpions out of my house in a jar for heaven’s sake (told you !!!). I save baby squirrels drowning in my pool, and rescue baby rabbits in my yard. It’s just how I’m hardwired.
Believe it or not, my daughter is even WORSE!!!
I’m sure it’s wonderful and exciting. It just isn’t for me. I am sure there are loving and caring people participating – I just don’t have the heart for that sport.
MarthaU: One last thing, last summer I caught a snake under my refrigerator and put him outside! (and yes I have rattlesnakes).
Some of us just find it impossible to deal with animal issues. I cannot watch my cats get vaccinations! Never mind drawing blood! But I can deal with human accidents and injuries without blinking. We are all different in our own ways.
(((Martha)))
We are all willing to admit that there is a beautiful side and an ugly side to all things. Unfortunately, with the popularization (is that a word?) and corporatization of all things that start out simple, it gets complicated. It will always be hard to understand for anyone not involved. I abhor the ugly side. But I also abhor groups that want to make it something that it is not (animal cruelty). I find it equally as cruel that many people just let their dogs run loose, don’t have them fixed, etc. (letting them “be dogs”), and they breed, get hit by cars, etc. Then they just put them down when they become inconvenient or too expensive. Or worse yet, have surgery and then just let them run loose again. I am honest enough to acknowledge that there are horrible people out there mushing dogs. I do not romanticize it. I (and you) know how much work it is to do it right. The important thing is to stay on the people doing it wrong and support those who do it right. Alaska is still a wild place in terms of the people who live here and the things that we do. Mushing was once a way of travelling from place to place. Now it is snowmachines. I had a native fellow walk up to me once when I was out with one of my malamutes and say “that is a beautiful dog…would make a good dog if you knocked all her teeth out”. I freaked! I wondered if all people in the bush felt that way (there I go profiling). Then I thought about where this might have come from. Is that how dogs were domesticated? Take away their ability to hunt for food and make them dependent? Or maybe a way to keep them from fighting? Or maybe just to keep them from chewing on lines that were made from some kind of sinew? Or maybe the guy was just a jerk. Who knows? I’m sure that it wasn’t pretty in the early times when hunting for food was the only way to feed yourself and your family. None of it excuses bad behavior from people now. All I know is I love my dogs beyond belief and they run because they love it. If they don’t want to go we don’t go. And although the mushing lifestyle is insane (in my opinion) I have respect for those who do it right. No one is perfect.
Ripley: LOL
(((Basheert))) You are a bigger person than I. I lived in NM for awhile and couldn’t stand all of those creepy poisonous things on the ground.
@ Basheert
We are more alike than you think! If I’m watching or reading any media, and there is an injured or abused animal involved, I can’t read or watch. I get much more upset when it comes to “helpless” creatures who don’t have control to what happens to them, such as animals and children. I either clap my hands over my face and eyes, yell at hubby to change the channel, or cry if I catch too much. I yell at my kitties when they catch and drag home birds, moles or other critters I won’t mention. I know it’s in their genes – it’s what they do! I’ve called hubby home from work to help me catch an escapee before the cats find it again. Then I cry if we can’t save it.
Yet I watch almost all of the gory criminal shows and somehow can manage to separate reality from fiction while I’m watching these awful, violent scenarios. But put an animal in the show, who might get hurt or killed – and off the TV goes and on goes something like Mary Poppins so I can clear my head.
@ Ripley
Please take my cat and hitch her to your sled. She’s an evil b*tch.
You probably won’t get far, though, since she’s a spoiled layabout. In fact, you’ll probably end up pulling the sled with one hand and feeding her treats with other while she basks like Cleopatra on her barge. Better yet….throw her a treat now and then since she’ll bite you if you get too close.
@ lovemydogs
Go Colleen! Go Colleen’s dogs! And I love the way you describe your own dogs, and your devotion to them. It’s all there in your blog name.
Martha – a question. When you are reading a NOVEL and there is a dog or a cat in it, and you KNOW something is going to happen … or the author talks about it a lot in the beginning and NEVER finishes it up, does it not irritate you?
Or worse, on some of the TV shows where someone is murdered or a pet is left alone, do you find yourself worrying through the whole show about the animal?
Our minds are tricky – and they do contribute to who we are.
My cats are totally 100% indoor cats (due to the fact that we have many creatures who think of them as a hot lunch). Lately (yesterday in fact) our peregrines have taken up smashing pigeons into our house to kill them. This is the 4th time in a month they have done it. Now I have no love for pigeons, but listening to a falcon hit a pigeon into my house at 123mph and hearing the BAM is upsetting my CATS!! (as well as me).
I do love my peregrines though – they are so small and just lovely.
Although I live in a big city, I back into a preserve. When I open my back door and look out, I can see all sorts of wild creatures and you know what, very few are what you would call friendly. But I’m in their world – I do draw a line at the snake in the house though. It was my 2nd one…and my cats really wanted to play with him.
@Basheert
I have a canine rehabilitation business where I help rehabilitate dogs that have had surgery, are overweight, elderly with arthritis, etc. I put my life savings into it. I see many things. Including the grief of owners who have to make final decisions when things have gone too far. I weep with them and for them, as well as for their animals. I have many pictures on my walls of my clients and their beloved animals. I wouldn’t give it up for the world.
I worked as an EMT before I became a PT for humans. The dogs were, in some convoluted way, a natural progression for me as I tend to like dogs more than most humans.
We have much in common- except the scorpions.
@Lee323: You and Ripley crack me up!
Speaking of dogs- I have a puppy that I need to go see now.
And then I have to do my taxes–yuk
Later all.
@ Basheert
“Or worse, on some of the TV shows where someone is murdered or a pet is left alone, do you find yourself worrying through the whole show about the animal?”
I’m a complete wreck if that happens! And I can’t ever get to the end of books when I feel there is loss in the animal world somewhere in there. I’m an emotional wimp when it comes to critters. If I personally ever met the author who wrote Old Yeller, or ran into the teacher who made me read it, I would have to punch them, or trip them face first into dog poo. I hate that book! I hate the Red Pony. I would punch that author, too but he’s long dead.
OK, this Iditarod defender is taking off to do some work. Thanks for putting up with my passion, or not…
Basheert: the exact reason I went to College to get my Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science was to help them. However, in my senior year, I refused to take the classes that dealt with the livestock as “products” and was told that I would be missing out on something. I didn’t, and actually won a “meats judging” contest, not having taken “meats” class (there was slaughter and processing involved, and I just couldn’t)! I then became a certified Veterinary Technician, skilled in surgery specifically. It is about the helping. I got over the blood thing quickly and was determined to be able to actually draw blood on anything! ( I am the best cat blood drawer you ever saw) I quit my last Tech job because the vet told me I had to do all the euthanasias. Sometimes that’s a gift we give. Other times, it is a selfish decision on the owner’s part. I could not commit to it and left. Well, to be fair, I also left because of his declawing policies. *(aside: never do this to your cat. They cut off the last knuckle of the digit.. not just the claw).
Anyway, seeing an animal in need brings out the best in me. It’s why I have a gaggle of cats… enough to start a basketball team. If cats played. Or cared to play. Or could work as a team…:)
And to Lee323, your cat would have to fight off my own for treats, who would not be pulling anything heavier than their own weight, never mind have anything around their bodies! OH the Catmanity!
Eh, I love ‘em. I miss my dog, but I’m making this orange one into the best dog I can. He’s coming along
Martha Unalaska Yard Sign : Find a copy of “Beautiful Joe”. Usually, I can’t watch animal movies, even animated ones. I get choked up even thinking of “Homeward Bound”! Sheesh..
hey everybody…. lee and basheert and martha uys, ripley,love my dogs and just everybody. great conversation…pro and con for mushing but none the less, great love for animals… i too worry about t.v. stories where animals are seemingly left behind to starve to death. i guess we pups are just kindhearted folk who can’t stand tom even imagine cruelty to animals. i can’t endure circuses either.
We have a pet rescue group here called “Lost My Home” that kills me. These are animals where people MOVE and LEAVE their pet in their HOUSE. Amazing…and how do they do it?
Pets are not expendable to me. I have 4 purebreds and I “give back” by doing rescue work. I cannot foster due to my girls being undervaccinated, so I throw money at them We donated to the Horse Rescue in Galveston as well.
Cats are my personal trigger but I love them all…
(((((( bubbles ))))))))
Yep, I think we all agree that most of us here are unashamed animal advocates and lovers. All my dogs have been rescue, they are the best!
And just thought I’d mention, because I’m very proud of it, my black dog with bone spurs who was supposed to be put down at 8 mos old turned into my once in a lifetime dog. He found my husband for me. He stole the hearts of all who met him. I had people ask me if they could have him – what???? And best of all, the hubby he found for me clocked him going between 20-25 mph running down his favorite rural road in Juneau with a huge grin on his face! He hiked almost every trail in Juneau from muskeg to mountain peaks, many many times, and actually did get to run with a dog team!
What a great story! I think many of our pets are with us for a reason. My tortie is a “redhead” – extremely smart, highly social and very people oriented. While my other girls sleep, she wants me to play ball with her (she retrieves), or she drops her balls in water and bobs for them…or she wants to play “catch” and yes this is a CAT. My breeder/friend says that she is with us, because many other people would not understand her excessive need for stimulation due to her intelligence. She is an avid TV watcher (fond of Bull riding and animal planet – her big trigger is Meerkats and recently she has taken up their situp posture). She can track wildlife from window to window. This is not natural in animals…they will watch out a window..but to know which window to go to next and at what time of DAY to do it, is pretty amazing.
They all add to our lives. And we all have funny stories. And sad stories. And I speak only for myself. I worry about animals…it’s who I am. You may think I’m silly but when my husband is off traveling, or going to Haiti like he is in two weeks, they are with me and they comfort me. I am not alone.
All I will say is hmmm. I am not impressed by the Alaskan blogs today.
42@leenie17 – The 3rd grade teacher at my school has had her class follow the Iditarod every year, doing the same thing. The classes enjoy it every year. They’re all ready for it again this year.
I don’t know if any other Mudpups read Gary Paulsen; he writes for children and teens. He used to run dogs for fun, and some of his nonfiction books are all about the dogs; he makes it clear that the dogs love to run. He also gives his dogs credit for knowing what to do; he says some of them have saved his life more than once.
Ah, MUYS, that once in a lifetime dog of yours – He saved my life in a snow storm too…
And kept an eye on me the rest of his days- since I was obviously too dim to be out on trails by myself. ( A view shared my own once in a lifetime dog)
He was a special special dog-
It was fun being out on the town last night! Lots of activities, amazing and interesting people. The friday arts walk was awesome, I love this time of year here!
OK I’d do the party thing…
On the other side, here it is warm (75) and sunny and ALL the yellow (acacia, paloverde, etc) is in bloom so no one can breathe now until the temp hits 100 and everything stops blooming.
Desert critters are up and around…birds nesting all over the place…and a gazillion quail in the backyard begging for birdseed….
R’ipley in Conn- It’s nice to hear someone advocating against declawing. So many people, even in my own family, consider this practice necessary to save the destruction of furniture. We have a great retail “Cat Shoppe” here in Nashville where we found the ultimate cat scratching post. It is like a upright tree trunk on a heavy square base, covered with sisal carpet. The cats love it because they can reach way up to scratch, fully stretching and extending their legs. Rarely, if ever do they scratch my furniture. When they do, it is to get attention (very effective).
“Open Thread – Mush”
Sarah Palin – Hush.
Lee323 and R’ipley………
http://i.imgur.com/umu16.jpg
Laurie and Ripley,
I am so with you both against declawing! It is AMPUTATION! And if your furniture is more important to you than your pets, you have no business inviting them into your home.
Woe to those who enact unjust decrees and draft oppressive legislation to deprive the impoverished of justice and rob my people’s poor of their rights, looting widows and preying on orphans! What will you do on the day of punishment, when calamity comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth, so as not to squat among the prisoners or fall among the slain? Even after all this, his anger remains, his upraised hand still threatens. “Oh Ashur, the rod expressing my anger! The club in their hands is my fury! I am sending him against a hypocritical nation, ordering him to march against a people who enrage me, to take the spoil and the plunder and trample them down like mud in the street. (Isaiah 10:1-6)
The link has some interesting graphics. The symbolism is just too much.
austintx — <3
aww… nice pic there Austin… and *waving madly* HI PC!
Ah, snow dogs in action. I agree, dogs might not want to travel so far and so long, yet, on the other hand, it is truely beautiful to see a working dog do what they were bred (and love, and would die) to do. Too bad we humans are notas devoted…
Wow, I was shocked at all the “blogger” hysteria the past few days. Egads!!!
And if I might, here’s POTUS Obama and John Walsh chatting. My son was a pen pal to Walsh years and years ago, he’s a wonderful guy, we’ve met him, spent time w/ him, amazing story overcoming a violent crime (and that is as easy a description as one can make) and doing good rather than evil in such a crisis. The Walsh family rocks X2:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/06/obamas-americas-most-want_n_488731.html
@austintx — wait a sec. I’ve had (or, more aptly, served) those cats. How you get that picture, eh?
I’m having the best time today reading these posts. I always feel so at home here and I know it’s because like attracts like and we have our big wonderful family. I come from a large family and, we sat at table every single evening for our dinner. Conversation was always loud and lively. Then I moved away after I married and, as my family grew, so too did friends and my home rang with noise and music and talk. My children are grown and, though we speak often and have dinner occasionally, it’s that level of conversation I miss most of all. I love that we can have these discussions whether we agree or disagree. I’m so very pleased to be at the table with the Mudpuppies.
114
LiladyNY Says:
March 6th, 2010 at 5:54 PM
My children are grown and, though we speak often and have dinner occasionally, it’s that level of conversation I miss most of all. I love that we can have these discussions whether we agree or disagree. I’m so very pleased to be at the table with the Mudpuppies.
*********************************************************
me too. Lilady, me too.
A McLeans reporter is live blogging Palin in Calgary- it seems to be the identical talk she gave earlier about Isiah writing on her hand or whateve. Worst thing- she’s saying her accent is thought to be Canadian.
oh noes I can’t stand that.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/03/06/can-sarah-win-over-albertans-alaska/
The talk was put on by tinePublic, a couple of young Calgary men who promote speakers- Clinton, Powell Guilliani, etc. In Feb 2007 they tried to bring Alan Greenspan in to talk to 2000 buiness people at $400 plate lunch in Toronto and he couldn’t fly out of Washington due to a storm. So they had him do the talk by satellite and mounted the tv abouve an empty suit- so the pr story claims. And were forgiven for it. so the pr story claims.
@R’ipley: Many, many moons ago when I was much younger and way more stupid, I had my two cats declawed. I had no idea what the process involved, and one of my cats got an infection due to the declawing. I almost lost her, and I was devastated. Fast forward a few years and I kept finding little “scales” on the floor, and that cat kept having a bloody paw. When I took her in, the vet told me that the original job hadn’t been done right, and he had to correct it. Yeesh! I have never forgotten any of that, and I would never do anything like that to my cat again. I cannot have cats now because I discovered I’m too allergic to them to keep them in the house which is the only way I would have one. I’m too paranoid about what might happen to them on the outside. I feel the same about my dogs. When I’m at work, they are in the house. Most recently around here, someone has been throwing poisoned meatballs in peoples’ yards. A number of dogs have died.
I really relate to what has been posted today by all animal lovers. We have to take care of these critters.
67 LiladyNY Says:
March 6th, 2010 at 1:12 PM
#36 @beth
Wow. What a treasure. Beth, you can have those movies restored and edited and transferred onto a CD. We did that recently with reels and reels of home movies of my DH and his family. What a treat to see his beautiful mom and dad while they were courting and then to watch his many siblings and cousins growing up.
“““““““““
The movies, themselves, are in great shape…it’s just that there are over 50-year’s worth of them (video came in to replace the good old, trusty 8mm, don’cha’ know, and Dad picked up on that technology, too, like he’d been born to it). My youngest and eldest sibling have spent some time this past year going through all the home movies and ‘grouping’ them for transfer to DVD.** It’s proving to be a time-consuming process…mainly because there are so many of them and, mostly!, because my sibs get waaaay ‘side tracked’ laughing and talking about what they remember about the times when the reels were shot. They’ve made but a small dent in the stacks and stacks of film-captured memories.
I’ve had Dad particularly on my mind this glorious day – it’s been a day he would have reveled in; sun shining, brisk air, places to go, people to meet, projects to do, even more things to learn… He would’ve been 95 today. Dad died in ’01, but Alzheimer’s started to take him (noticeably) from us three years prior to that. Although our family’s ‘long good bye’ was mercifully short, his last six months were particularly rough on my Mother; as my youngest sibling kept reminding all of us, though: It doesn’t matter that *he* doesn’t remember us; what trumps everything is that *we* remember him! (I don’t, honestly, know how family and loved-ones who live with the ravages of Alzheimer’s for years and years on end, do it. I truly don’t. My heart goes out to them.)
All the zillion things he taught me, showed me, and shared with me; the places he took me, the people he introduced me to, even his ‘gentlemanly’ dying, I cherish. Most of all, that he loved my Mother and us kids beyond measure, was a way of full and fulfilled living that he modeled me — it was a gift by which I decided, early on, to live my life; his and my Mother’s steadfast loveship with –and for– each other was a joy to behold and to emulate. Oh Lord!, am I proud to be his daughter! beth.
**For my last ‘milestone’ birthday (in November), my darling Mom gifted me a disc with snippets of reels I don’t recall ever seeing before; the whole DVD ‘featured’ me from (about) the age of 1.5 to 2. What a hoot! I see my children as youngsters in the images of my elder siblings, throughout. And, not to brag, but I’m such a cute little booger that you just can’t help but “Awww” me, at every turn. ['course I realize any little tyke that age is 'awww-ably' cute and adorable, but when I watch it, I can continue to delude myself that I'm, without a single doubt, the most! and absolute! cream of the crop... Or something.
b.]
116 KateinCanada Says:
March 6th, 2010 at 6:12 PM
A McLeans reporter is live blogging Palin in Calgary-
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Thanks for the link KateinCanada. It was very interesting. Sort of ‘ shocked ‘ that she did ANY question & answer period at all. Her answers it appeared seemed to have been rather vague and lacked substance.
Based on the reporters blogging… I think I can safely say… He was NOT impressed. This was a nice zinger of his…..Quote:
6:37 pm: “Some leaders in Washington, D.C. aren’t listening to the people.” Some leaders? You got any names for us?
********
I wonder what the print Media will be reporting tomorrow..?
How true and messed up is this ??
http://i.imgur.com/XPogS.jpg
@ #27
I tried to post on AKM’s Huffpost Sarah Socialism last night (45 comments just now). It did not get through the monitoring:
This comment is pending approval and won’t be displayed until it is approved.
I guess when Ms. Palin stopped governating last July and demanded that the media stop making things up, what she really meant was that no one would have to make things up because the results of her hypocrisy is so blatant that you can’t make this stuff up it your life depended on it.
Poor Ms. Palin she and her crass money manipulating masters has determined that she’ll do anything for lots of hard cash. And Mr. Chavez contributes to the the subsistence living Alaskans by donating oil to help those US citizens during times of need.
IMO, it seems that the Palin tribe struck a deal with Citgo that in order to donate the oil to help Alaska, perhaps part of the deal included tacit understanding that the grifter Palins had to benefit $$$ for the imported Venezuelan oil. Other peoples’ money provides ‘socialized’ wealth to the arrogantly ignorant and conscientiously vapid Ms. Palin and her expanding brood.
Lord help us all.
nice link…sounds like her standard stump speech with a Canadian Shout out for the audience…. no details, no policy, and thanks for the speaking fee…
if Canada drinks her Kook-Aid…yes I meant to misspell…then we will have no where to run to…Canada don’t do it…nooooooooooooo
Wow – this explains a LOT about the way so many Talibangelicals ‘think’ (and would raise their children to ‘think’) now. When I read things like this, I truly fear for our country; I don’t think that fear is unjustified. Just WOW! beth.
““““““
Top home-school texts dismiss Darwin, evolution
[snip] The textbook publishers defend their books as well-rounded lessons on evolution and its shortcomings. One of the books doesn’t attempt to mask disdain for Darwin and evolutionary science.
“Those who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God will find many points in this book puzzling,” says the introduction to “Biology: Third Edition” from Bob Jones University Press. “This book was not written for them.”
The textbook delivers a religious ultimatum to young readers and parents, warning in its “History of Life” chapter that a “Christian worldview … is the only correct view of reality; anyone who rejects it will not only fail to reach heaven but also fail to see the world as it truly is.”
When the AP asked about that passage, university spokesman Brian Scoles said the sentence made it into the book because of an editing error and will be removed from future editions. [/snip]
Full Article, here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100306/ap_on_re/us_rel_home_school_evolution;_ylt=Aurh4Q7K8capbsIyEF.tOeEN97QF;_ylu=X3oDMTNoY3NsZ2swBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMzA2L3VzX3JlbF9ob21lX3NjaG9vbF9ldm9sdXRpb24EY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM1BHBvcwM1BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDdG9waG9tZS1zY2hv
Basheert _
She can track wildlife from window to window. This is not natural in animals…they will watch out a window..but to know which window to go to next and at what time of DAY to do it, is pretty amazing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had a cat years ago that was part feral and all cranky. She was also quite smart. For several summers, there was a muskrat that lived in our yard and my cat decided that it was ‘her’ muskrat. Not knowing if it was male or female, I named it Sam. My cat would do exactly what you described…tracking Sam from bedroom window to bedroom window to living room door and back again.
There was also a nasty orange tabby that would come around and spit at my cat through the screen door, which was not appreciated by me or my cat.
One day, my cat was going crazy and running back and forth between the bedroom and the sliding glass doors in the living room. I looked outside to see what the fuss was about and discovered that the orange tabby was stalking Sam, which was extremely upsetting to my cat. During one of her runs to the bedroom, I opened the door and ran off the tabby. Once my cat saw that her beloved Sam was safe, she calmed down, although she did keep checking on him/her from the windows for the next several hours!
She was one nutty cat!
Does anyone know when and why Bree Palin’s site DISAPPEARED? I knew she was stopping but I didn’t know the blog was never to be seen again!
Susan Butcher, R.I.P.
@ jennifer
You can check out the Immoral Minority post on this subject for some info.
@ # 107 austintx
Just got back from seeing the movie “Avatar”……and what do I see when I check out your link?
Yep. Tails.
Hahaha….Those cats aren’t blue but they’ve got a serious spiritual connection going on with their tails.
As far as “Avatar” goes…..I seriously crave one of those red flying dragon things to park in my garage.
@126 beth: I just read that one. How depressing.
We’re 9 hours ahead of Alaska so my friends don’t expect me to surface much during the day from now until the last team is home.
I don’t know why, but I’m addicted to following the Iditarod, it’s magnificent but crazy, or should that be crazy but magnificent? Fingers crossed every dog and musher gets home safely.
Declawing cats: it’s been illegal in Britain for years. I’ve had cats all my life and I’d never do that, it’s terribly cruel. My cats are my friends as well as my responsibility, they have equal rights.
Hi to all – I usually only post to AKM’s facebook page, but I’ve been a lurker here for a long time and I love this place. I just had to respond to Ripley re: ‘Beautiful Joe’ – I thought I was probably the only person who ever read that book, aside from my grandfather. I still have his copy, which is pretty ancient now, and will treasure it always. Beautiful story.
Am enjoying all the animal tales – I just rescued a neighborhood stray cat during the PA blizzards. He was in extremely dire straits when he crawled in my door – dehydrated and weak and so debilitated he could barely walk on 3 legs (he was just dragging the 4th). He was abandoned here years ago when his owners (I won’t say ‘people’) moved and left him to fend for himself…which he had done with lots of helping hands. Until this winter. Fast forward a month, and he doesn’t look like the same cat – he’s fattened up, has his strength back, has been neutered and given shots etc. and all except my resident alpha cat (who may be this guy’s daughter!) are hoping to be able to keep him inside. Might be tough, but he isn’t feral – just hoping the territorial urges continue to diminish before the weather warms up! And yes, he will absolutely keep his claws – it is possible to trim a cat’s nails if they can’t wear them down inside. His are very worn from pavement walking, and I’m not sure he will tolerate trimming, since he’s at least 5 years old and never had it done. But he’s a fairly mellow guy, so I’ll give it a try when necessary….
And what the heck – I don’t have any nice furniture anyway! I’d rather have nice cats
Hearing about everyones cats and dogs, makes me miss my Hanz sooooo much. He was a beautiful black Lab. I enjoyed having him in my pottery studio. He would lay on the floor near the wheel—-so content to keep an eye out for anything going on at the park across the street. I felt sooooo safe while working very late into the night. Having this dog for 16 years left a very large void in our family.
@ Lacy Lady
It sounds like it’s time to fill your life with a new companion! My “forever” dog, who was with me for 13 years, left a huge void also, too. I wasn’t ready for a new dog. I though I’d wait a few months. But did hubby wait? No! He came home with a new dog three weeks later (there was lots of sneakiness in how this all came about), and now we have one of the best dogs on the planet. There are stories in there, also too, about how this dog had to win my approval before he actually got to spend the night – but he did it with flying colors and stole my heart completely in several surprise moves.
Hubby knew he would. We think “forever dog #1″ went looking for “forever dog #2″ on our behalf. Forever dog #2 knew all the right buttons to push and the exactly right things to do to get under my skin, and it’s an awfully big coincidence all the way around! Ya gotta watch those dogs, they are crafty little buggers and I really wonder sometimes if there isn’t a dog network in place and we are none the wiser!
Martha@136
You could be right. Our older son almost got the job done recently , when he told us about some new lab puppies. We all talked about some of the fun times with Hanz. Sneaking a cookie from the Christmas tree and leaving little red ribbons around the house was one. OHHH my!!!! I am getting the bug!!
I don’t get the pack up and restart thing.
Either start the race and go or start from the place it really starts.
Is there someplace I can watch footage from this year online? Or a cable channel that covers it?
Beth at 37.
You can get those home movies converted to digital. Then using a program like iMovie, you can record a track and burn them to DVD. It would be a wonderful family project. And each one of the family can have a DVD to remember.
I did this with an old cassette tape I had of my Grandpa playing the according. Very bad and only 15 min. But I burned it on a CD and gave it to my Dad for Father’s day. Best present he ever got. He listened to it over and over. Still has it.
My favorite Paulsen book is My Life in Dog Years, but I like all of his dog books.
For those looking for open source textbooks, try CK12.org. Customizable and vetted for accuracy.
I have had cats for as long as I can remember. I brought my two Alaska cats down to Arizona with me five years ago. My 15-year-old girl Grania, who was a wonderful, smart, interactive feline, didn’t adjust well and died within our first year here. I swore then I would just make do with my remaining cat, and couldn’t bear the thought of replacing my beloved Grania. Two days later, a beautiful little yellow cat showed up at my door, and my remaining cat Biff really, really wanted me to take her in. She has grown into a wonderful companion I couldn’t do without, and has demonstrated, over the last three years, a lot of the same behaviors as Gran. We’ve had two additional cats join us since then, and I am learning that the best way to honor a beloved, departed pet is to offer their empty space to an animal who needs a home. It’s all love, and there’s always enough to go around!
They always find you when you need them the most…
And to think that we think that we pick them! Ha!
Someone I know through an Open University students’ forum here in UK, has invented a concept she calls ‘the Overcat’. When someone loses a cat the Overcat makes her own arrangements to fill the cat-shaped hole in someone’s life with a cat in need of a home and love. It seems to work.
Hi all, I am new to this kind of thing but I have heard from lovemydogs that it is a great place to find a friend. lovemydogs is a great friend, my dog loves her with a passion. My dog is Connor and he is 11 and will be 12 in April. I love my boy. He has degenerative spine problems and will be using a cart soon. He has been getting used to it, I just don’t know if I can get used to it. He is one of the smartest dogs I know and he loves lovemydogs here to for will now be best friend. I am a big fan of of the great race going on right now. I am the one that made the yellow coats for Colleen Robertia. What a great person this woman is. I only wish I too could adopt a truck load of dogs. Dogs unlike people love you what ever comes. Well I can only hope to become a part of this great community that I have heard so much about. Mud Flats…. You all are a great group of folks. Lovesmydogs is a great lady, I will always thank her for all she has done for my Connor. Thanks with all my heart.
Connorsmom.