Spring Greetings

Yesterday was the Equinox, so Happy Equinox! Let us welcome the light! I apologize for being remiss in posting, again. Like almost everyone, I have been quite distressed about happenings around the country since January. Also, the very day after I posted my prior post, the UAF Board of Regents voted to cave to Trump's Executive Order to scrub all language referring to Diversity, Equity, or Inclusion from the website or print materials.

I have been calling, writing emails, and attending in-person events, but I'm not sure what else I can do. In the meantime, I have determined that in order not to spend my entire days as a ball of seething rage, I've got to carry on doing the business of living my life, and that includes teaching, research, and hanging out with my Fuzzy Family.

I've recently come to admit that I have not been running strong the past few years, and now I realize that that is to be expected as I've been hit by repeated traumatic events nearly annually since 2021, and 2020 if you count the Pandemic, which was pretty much an international traumatic event. I gauge my running fitness by how long it takes to do our morning 3-miler. At my fastest, it was 30 mins (I'm slow!). At my slowest, it was 1:15 (walking slowly). Now I am at about 50 mins. My Challenges started in 2021 when I broke my left fibula. I started running awkwardly again in about 6 months, but then in 2022 I got my leg punctured very deeply by a mean dog, so another 6 months of walking instead of running. In 2023 another calamity: I fell in love with Raven! 🤣🤣 I had never had a yearling dog and was back to walking instead of running until she learned some Manners. Then Queen Thistle's health started to fail, and we all quit running and switched to walking (and skijoring) exclusively until she left us. Then my heart was broken and I couldn't run for another six months. Now finally I'm trying to recover running-strength again. I'm a bit out of shape, still walking half the time, and huffing and puffing a lot. Also, Middle Age! At 47, I do not expect to build up fitness as quickly as I did 10 or 20 years ago. On the other hand, I'm not exactly in bad shape. I mean I still cover 40 miles a week, even if slowly!

I appreciate the patience of my two Goodest Best Friends, Princess Cricket and Ravey Gravy, being willing to do snail-pace walking with me for so long. I hope to be running again this summer.

And we've still been enjoying CARTZZZ!

YESH CARTZZZ!

And KALESTEMZZZ!

YESH KALESTEMZZZ!

And we clean our fangs!

And we are still snugglin'

Even young'un Ravey Gravy is so snuggly.

The ski season seems to be ending early this year, alas. There has not been fresh snow in weeks, and the old snow is hard and slick. The overflow on Rosie Creek is also creeping ever higher:

I'm lucky the girls are pretty chill.

They comfy.

We don't have enough happy stories, so let us talk about some rescue success stories. It seems that the problems of the world are so big, and the good things are so small. But to these people, this small good thing is a piece of their hearts, and to these dogs, this small good thing is their whole world.

Here is Timber, the big sweet galoot! He was on death row at the shelter when he got sprung into the rescue system. Turned into a foster fail. Back for a visit while his parents are travelling. He remembers me and gave me some alarmingly violent hugs. So I squoze him back. :D

And here is Miss Ivalu, formerly known as Jill. Severely abused and dumped in a gravel pit with half a dozen or so others. Then rescued and became a foster fail. 🥰 She's back for temporary boarding while her family is travelling, and she is full of life and joy and silliness!

And finally here is my own Raven. A foster fail before her foster even started. 🥰

I hope all 14 of my loyal readers are having a lovely spring. Apologies for the poor photo resolution today. Uploading photos has become a bit of a process, and I took the easy way today.