Happy Brrrrrrr-cember!

I have been quiet for a while because life has been pretty mundane. I have finished grading final exams and input grades for another semester, and we are into another brrrrr-tackular winter! A solid week of -30s to -40 temps to greet Christmas! But we are warm, have plenty of firewood, and plenty of warm clothes. We are fortunate and blessed!

Hmmmm... year-end looking back... Did I tell all 14 of my loyal readers that I got promotion and tenure this year? And DL and I have remained healthy and just got our bivalent boosters. (touch wood!)

Today I decided to take a break from reporting the mundanities of our food and lovely walks in the woods (although those remain!) to show you some other dog photos. :) I have been doing a weekly walk with a local dog rescue organization, Sirius Sled Dogs, and wanted to share some photos of my friends. :) I did promise my girls that their own walks would never be shortened due to this. I roll my eyes really hard at those people who go out to Save the World while they neglect their own families. So on rescue walk days, I get up super early and run my girls first, and those are high-mileage days. :)

This all started at the beginning of summer when MS, a friend of mine from work, and I were texting back and forth and she happened to mention that she'd been tracking a large dog rescue operation: A hoarder just outside of town had been shut down by Animal Control, and all of his dogs--purebred Siberians from good, working lines--were at the Fairbanks Animal Control shelter. They had gradually been getting adopted out, and our Animal Shelter has a high adoption rate, but it's NOT a no-kill shelter, and sometimes when numbers get high, animals do get put down. :( MS was very worried because several Sibes were lingering. A few days later a friend of mine who is a musher who takes in rescues mentioned (in what I had not realized was a related incident) that she was expanding her dog yard and needed help spreading mulch. I said, sure! I'd come up the following weekend and shovel mulch! As I was there shoveling (with a small group of volunteers), she said that this new space would be for "those Siberians". I probed and realized that she was springing those same Sibes. These were:

Bertha:

Bo:

Connor:

and Magnus!

Magnus was the oldest, at 8ish, and MS adopted him immediately. Like me, she likes middle-aged dogs. Connor was extremely friendly--almost lab-like--with a big smile and constantly wagging tail, and he got adopted next by a local musher couple who now runs him in a team of all other Alaskan huskies. He is the only Sibe, but a very beloved Sibe! He got renamed Tok. After that, Bo was the next to go. He went to a pet home, but as it turns out, his new home is neighbors with another volunteer, who is a musher, so she takes him out for regular runs with her team. It is so great for him that he gets the best of both worlds! He got renamed Twiggy, and I have photos of him snuggling with his new family on a couch! As for Bertha, MS took her home to "foster" with her old buddy Magnus. She says she is still looking for a permanent home for her, but I think she may be a foster fail. What do you think?

I really suspect she will be a foster fail! Plus, she is kind of shy and introverted, and I suspect nobody else will love her as much as MS and Magnus do.

We also helped place Lucky! Lucky is extremely attentive, people-oriented, and people-pleasing. He was sprung by the Anchorage Animial Control from his original owner for neglect. But now he has an extremely loving home with a young woman grad student who adores him. She and Lucky join us on our rescue walks! Look how he looks at her!

I have to say my favorite placement so far--the one that has given me the most delight--is Timber! Timber is a lot of dog--he's big and goofy and ridiculous and derpy and wants to give hugs, even when his paws are very muddy!

But gosh, he is the sweeeeeeetest boy, and he wants only to love you!

He also gives the gentlest hugs, placing his paws on your shoulders without applying any force, and being oh-so-careful not to punch you in the face, which is more than I can say for a lot of big, overly-ebullient dogs! Sometimes I took him running solo, since he wants so much to play with other dogs at the rescue that he drove me crazy at the group walks.

Gentle boy even waited patiently while I peed. He would never yank me off my feet.

A work colleague of mine expressed interest in "fostering" him. Hahahahaha you already know where this story is going, right? She even ordered him a bright orange vest that said "adopt me", but she and her husband fell in love, and Timber now officially lives with them. And I am sososososo happy for my big derpy friend. He was on death row at the shelter due to overcrowdering, and he was loud and rambunctious and shedding like crazy, and he was known not to run well in a team, so nobody wanted him as a working dog, and he seemed too rambunctious to be a pet. But this young, active couple loves him and takes him running every day, and they say that his indoor behavior is just fine?

Best of all, they love his hugs and let him sleep on top of them. :)

(all watermarked photos courtesy of my friend MSM at The Aurora Chasers)