Oooh a brush with fame!

The Head Cheese Human at Sirius has been gone on a road trip this week. She had sent out one of her resident dogs* to British Columbia to be a stud, and now the puppies were all born and weaned and she went down to reclaim him, as well as some of the puppies. The homestead was left in the care of us volunteers. In her absence, she mentioned that some researcher in canine genetics had asked to visit and examine some of the resident Sirius dogs, because they are from heritage lines of working dogs. Unlike my girls, who were bred for racing, the Sirius dogs are all freight dogs from ancient lines. In fact, the Alaskans are related to the Denali sled dogs. I agreed to meet this person, who showed up with grad students and totes of kits. Turns out... we were in the presence of fame! This was Heather Huson of Cornell, who had led the study on the genetics of the Serum Run Dogs.

I was very honored to introduce the Sirius Dogs to her. She took DNA samples of almost all of the heritage dogs (both Siberians and Alaskans). Most were via blood, but for the twitchier ones she did mouth swabs. She also wanted to take physical measurements from several dogs, who could be considered exemplars of their breed. She also took a portrait of each one, with their name on a white board. I thought that was adorable. Here is Burl getting his portrait:

And here is Oban getting his. Even the sweetest, most well-trained dogs are not super cooperative with this. They want to sniff the white board, then they want to kiss the researchers. It's very distracting!

I have a nicer photo of Oban, but of course I have no sign! I took it to go with the one I took of his sister Igraine. Very pretty dogs and very pretty fireweed!

Since Burl is so sweet, I also offered him to be measured. He was cooperative, but not pleased! After they left, I went back to him and told him I appreciated his sweetness. He gave me kisses, so I think he forgave me. Anyway, they measured his chin.

And the spacing between his EYEBOLLS.

And the length of his EARS!

And his clavicle!

And his neck!

And his shoulders!

And his paw!

Another sweet one I thought would tolerate this is Avett. Avett will do aaaaaaanything for attention, and sure enough, he ate it up. Avett is daddy to Levon, the Sweetest Boy in the World. Clearly sweetness is inheritable! Lookie as she ponders Avett's ear!

And then they measured his ear!

And his clavicle!

And the height of his shoulder!

And the length of his back!

And his wrist circumference!

Dear Avett, sweet Avett! Such a sweet, tolerant boy!

Here is a video clip of them taking Boo-Boo's blood sample. Boo-Boo is my personal favorite, although that's a tough thing to choose in this yard of giant Schweeties.

And here is one of them just trying to take Izzy's portrait! Izzy sweet? Yes, he iz! But izzy cooperative for a photo? No, he iz not! Izzy is Boo-Boo's son. And brother to Oban and Igraine, although from a different litter.

And here is a matriarch, long-retired Spook. Spook is Boo-Boo's mama (and thus grandma to Izzy, Oban, and Igraine). The researchers, of course, were super interested in samples from Spook, so they took blood, but I didn't let them measure her. We must Respect our Elders! (Well, Avett is also an elder, but he loves being manhandled, so it was fine for him!)

*Her resident dogs are distinct from the rescues. The residents are all purposefully bred and do tours to support the rescue. It's really a very lovely situation, the like of which I've never seen anywhere else. The residents are so sweet and well-behaved and contented that they provide comfort, ease, and good examples of behavior to the rescues, who are often from severe abuse cases. There are many rescues that are still so scared of people that we can't touch them for weeks, but they get playtime with the residents, which helps them relax and come out of their shells. And yet another benefit of this situation is that when rescues come in that are sled dogs, they can run with the touring team, which helps their confidence and sense of purpose.

Getting to Know you, Getting to Know All About you...

Raven has now been with us for three weeks. We have not had a moosey encounter yet, nor have we gone backpacking, but we have experienced many of the other Things that tell us what it's going to be like having her in our family. For starters, she likes to be with me All the Time, including following me up and down the stairs, even if it's just for me to change a shirt. She has not had a single accident in the house, although I have no idea how she signals that she needs to go since she just goes when Thistle and Cricket go. Although I am off contract for four weeks, I have been training her in Staying Home Unsupervised, and she has done well. We have gone as long as four hours now! I've asked MK to spy on her through the window while I'm gone, and it appears that she just naps by the door waiting for me. Also, like Miss Thistle, she really likes fruits and has come to expect her share of Melon Taxes!

"Hello, we see you are eating melon. We, too, like melon."

She also has gotten the courage to try the big dog bed.

Although she often still prefers the hardwood floor as it's been so warm.

Ohhh! Then that day Thistle joined her! Such progress!

Then she tried the couch!

A-hah! Now we are fully integrated! We can do both the couch...

... and the dog beds! (And every permutation in between.)

She's not the most dignified dog on earth, but she's also only a little over a year old.

And she's become a very relaxed eater! No more wolfing down food like it's her last meal on earth.

And she likes gai-lan-stemz!

Mmmm gai-lan-stemz!

Gai-lan-stemz? FOR ME?? Holy crap! GAI-LAN-STEM!!!

I am not ready to try her off-leash trustworthiness, so I took her to a dog park a few times to give her some running-around-free time. She did great with recall, and she's not reallly super playful. She is mildly interested in this ball, but much more so in exploring. Only one time we met another dog, and they had great fun playing together! I guess not a lot of people go to the dog park early in the morning.

I brought her down to the Tanana to see if she'd like to dip to cool off. Nope. Would not even set one paw in there. In fact, she actively avoided it, dancing with great agility along the narrow bank to avoid getting her paws wet. So clearly she is 0% lab!

I mean, look how hot it's been! Ugh

Now I have four! Four fuzzy things! Ah, ah, ah! Vahnderful!

Poor hot dogs. They all go flat.

Another test is Reaction To Thunder. Sweet, loving Miss Raven, her reaction is to run to the door and Bark Very Loudly at that Noise! Then she remains by the door to protect her family against whatever it could be!

So many silly photos of her flopped around in various poses, I had to make her pose for a portrait for her microchip records. See, she's not boneless! She does a nice SIT.

This morning I noticed that she was (almost) cuddling with Thistle. That was something! Thistle won't even let Cricket, DL, or me sit that close to her! I guess she has reached some sort of agreement with Raven!

Well anyway now that we have two squeezy dogs, Queen Thistle is officially absolved of being squozen against her will. Her responsibilities are now limited to what she gives willingly: Wisdom, beauty, guidance, judgement, temperance, and grace. Happy second retirement, Your Royal Highness!

Photos from here and there

Summer is proceeding apace. Thistle and I are quite uncomfortably warm, but... seeing as our weather is cooler than just about anyone else's in the Northern hemisphere, I ought not to complain. On the whole, it's been a lovely summer, with enough intermittent rain to prevent big wildfires and smoke.

Anyway, since the adoption of Raven, these are our grandpuppies! They are very nice and very diverse... It is almost certain that they are the product of more than one dad. These photos are from 2 weeks ago, at age 6 weeks. They are huge!

There were two of these pandas, one boy and one girl, but the girl did not survive early infancy. Here is the boy.

One boy brown bear cub!

And one girl brown bear cub!

And one giant Kodiak bear cub boy! I love to squeeze this one most of all!

And here is one black bear cub boy! He went home yesterday. His new parents are over the moon to have this sweet pup.

And here is one black bear cub girl!

The fireweed has come late, but it is as lovely as ever. I took this photo on our walk last weekend.

And look how pretty lovely Igraine looks with the fireweed! Igraine is a resident working dog at Sirius, taking tourists for sled rides to support the rescue.

My Lazy Person's Garden™ is very pretty, too! It's all annuals and lightly managed endemic flowers. These purple and white columbines were a splitting from a friend.

This red and gold one, I started myself from seed! I saw this gorgeous thing on UAF campus and tied a string around the stem. When it went to seed that fall, I gathered the seeds. Three years later, I had my beauty.

I learned that columbines, like labrador retreivers, cross color genes easily and so you can't be guaranteed that your babies will have the color of the parent. Sure enough, I also got this pretty yellow one.

And this pink and white one!

I also got lily bulbs from a friend, and now have these beauties:

My perennials are all complemented by the wild delphinium:

Guess what? Miss Raven also likes BROCCYSTEMZ!!

MMMMMM BROCCYSTEMZ!!

YAAAAY BROCCYSTEMZ!!

The girls are all aligned when it comes to Observing SKWERLZ.

And as a final photo for my 14 loyal readers, I would like to share a squeezie selfie with gentle Levon, another Sirius resident and known (accurately) as the Sweetest Boy in the World.