Happy 9th Birthday McKenzie

Happy 9th Birthday CH 'PR' Frontier Rain Dancer McKenzie. You have given me so much joy over the years.

2nd Birthday

4 months oldone year old
agility titlestwo litters of puppies

8 years old

We still have many more adventures to share.

Day 47 - Lots of Pictures

Today has been intermittent pouring rain and brilliant sun. The pups were in and out numerous times. Everything in their path became a play thing.

Notice the bucket handle. Takotna went right on over with Koyuk inside.

I took advantage of the break in weather to plant some herbs. The potting soil bag was an instant hit.

new surface and texture - the wood pile

McKenzie showing Mr Nome how to drink from the pond.

Ms Takotna

Ms Koyuk

Mr Kaltag

Ms Willow

everyone getting a drink at once resulted in...

Ms Elim being the first to swim.

Cedar cleaning off Kaltag

new surface and texture - rubber pallet - oops

The boys with a stick on the broad jump boards. Everyone in one place. It must be really interesting...

like a hole in the tree.

Day 46

It can't be day 46 already! That is much too close to the time when the little ones go off to their forever homes.

Today was dashing in and out between showers. At one point it started raining so hard, I had no option but to toss them all in the mud room to play and dry off while I changed the whelping box and sleep area bedding. The mud room was new to them. They had a great time checking out the muck boots and hiding places. The garbage bag containing the morning's bedding change became the object of their desire. What fun to climb and roll on a big bag full of crumpled newspaper. As a pack they even used it as a mass tug toy and drug it around the room.

Elim exploring stones in the woods.

Koyuk checking out the Jack pine.more stone exploration

a puppy size passage

Kaltag in contemplation

Takotna getting a drink off a wet backyard toy

no rain in here

Willow playing Chinook tag with a surprised Willy
good night

Day 45

The clatter of rain, sleet, hail and snow blowing horizontally onto the metal roof did not dull the piercing yelps of the pups confined inside. I had had quite enough by the time the weather calmed down to a light shower. The pups needed to experience rain anyway, so out we went.

Mr Nome is not impressed with his new environment.

The next downpour hit within minutes of us going outside. I still needed to clean the puppy condo and wanted to change the bedding without little ones under foot. I rounded up the pups (no easy task) and put them into the big dog's outside kennel. This was the first time they have been in the kennel. I waited until they were hopefully too big to squeeze under the walls.

When I came out with the garbage bag full of well used newspaper, I found Willow on top of the XL vari-crate. As much as I wanted a picture, her safety was priority. I picked her up and gently deposited her to the ground. How she got up there is still a mystery. She had to have gone up between the crate and the fence wall. Of course I should not be too surprised. McKenzie scaled the kennel walls at 5 months old. The kennel now has a roof.
After a few more hours indoors, it was way past time for more outside adventures. Even though it was lightly drizzling, we hit the agility obstacles.

The teeter goes down even faster with the weight of two.

Having mastered going up and over the broad jump boards, Kaltag works on walking along the skinny, angled plank.

I know dogs are not supposed to jump until they are 2 years old but I could not resist posting this picture. She could just as easily stepped over the hoop but no...she did a full tilt, hopping run and continued right on through.

New surface texture for the day - puddles
Bliss (and quiet)

Day 44

Today I realized "oh-oh", I need to start getting stuff ready for the little poopers to go to their forever homes. I have spent so much time in the care and feeding, socializing and challenging, and just plain having fun with the pups that I had blanked out how little time they have left here.

My plan for today was to move everything down to the mudroom and make a two room, huge pen area. The mud room has a cement floor making clean-up infinitely easier than the old wooden floors in the great room. The first problem was the whelping box. Being made out of oak with 2 foot high walls, it is heavy. I could not get it down the stairs by myself. Plan B became put the pups into the outside x-pen while I worked and just set up the other x-pen in the mud room without the whelping box. Not to be. I could not secure the x-pen and they would have quickly breached it. Plan C: move more furniture, bring in the outside x-pen and create a two room condo in the great room. Too much planning and moving. Since major storms are predicted for the rest of the week, I decided that running around outside was the best option. Then I could tackle the enclosure issue.

king of the hil

"check this out!"

Chinook tag gone awry. Kaltag was tagged a bit hard and rolled down the hill.

Think about it - this rock is about 3" taller than Nome. He did not take a running start. He is becoming one strong boy.

Willow pretty in pink.

About the time I got everyone rounded up and into the outside x-pen, it started storming so hard we lost electricity. I had taken down the x-pen around the whelping box in anticipation of the move so there was no place to confine pups indoors. It wasn't until I got their new digs built: the pups confined and electricity back that I realized the primary telephone jack had been a target of puppy curiosity. I had no telephone or Internet service. Off to Radio Shack where they told me that our type of jacks are so old, they don't even make replacements for them anymore. I came home with a tube of super glue and a modern wall jack in case the glue did not work. Thank heavens for super glue.

The idea behind the condo is that the pups start to be potty and crate trained. The whelping box area is for potty and the other side is for sleeping, eating and playing. That is the theory, now somehow I need to convey it to the pups. They had been doing so well only pottying on the newsprint and sleeping on the white paper, I thought I was on to something. Well, the crate worked. They are all asleep in it as I type. More potty training in the morrow. This storm is expected to last several days.

puppy condo 4'x 8' - not bad

Takotna from her threshold vantage point.

Day 43 - Week 6

A week of rain is expected so we made the most of the sun by working outside all day in the vegetable garden. Peas, lettuce and onions finally got into the ground. I know it's late but I have a pretty good excuse.

garden x-pen

The pups got to take multiple trips from the back of the house down to the garden and back to the back of the house. I just carried the x-pen as I herded them. They are getting pretty independent so travel is a bit time consuming. Whenever I went back to call stragglers, the forerunners would follow me. If the stragglers were doing something interesting, I had all pups needing to be distracted and redirected.

The up side is that they are getting strong and tired. Though not tired enough to sit still for the weekly pictures. Dave however is too tired to help take the pictures.

Today's company - Darlene could not talk Lloyd into adding a Chinook to the household. Even with special kisses from Kaltag, he is still a black lab guy.

river rock - today's new texture

The pups look asleep here but just try to pick one up for a weekly picture...