Hi Gang, Rivers here,
We sincerely hope that all of you had a nice Christmas. Ours was pretty much uneventful. Icy, her girls and I spend the better part of the day in the kennel loafing, while Lakota rested in the garage. The picture you see to the right was taken last year. The temperature was near 30 from what Stormy told me the thermometer in the kennel read. We had no snow.
Several of our friends stopped over for the Christmas gathering. Caitlyn and her mom, Karen, came Christmas Eve. Caitlyn was full of Christmas cheer or youthful energy by the way she bursting into the garage to give us all her “Christmas Kisses”.
June P, lead dog of the Idita-support group and our buddy Keith came by as well as Margie and her son Dan. Margie broke her ankle last week. Margie has her own dog lot and I am sure it will be a challenge for her to care for her dogs with a cast on her ankle.
Everyone left kind of early since Monday was a work day for many of our friends who visited us. Once the last car pulled out of the driveway, Mike came to the kennel and turned us free to run to the garage. Yes, I run to the garage also, then double back to get Mike. He lags behind cleaning up or walking with Lakota if he is out with Mike. Mike tells me he is just amazed how well I can find my way in the back yard.
The house was filled with the good smells of great chow and I will freely admit that I was drooling. We all checked on Lakota who told us he is feeling better and he did eat some food. Icy told me he is looking good and he came out to the kennel several times during the day to go to the bathroom. Since he has no fur on his tummy, he can only stay out for a few minutes. Icy told me that he is moving well.
Before we could settle down in the garage, Mary came out with our bowls full of good food. All I heard was the jiggling of our dog tags on the metal bowls as we shined the bowls clean. After a few tummy and ear rubs, we head back to the kennel for our after meal break. Lakota joined us for a few minutes but then headed back to the garage with Mike.
When we came back into garage, Mary gave us the presents that several of you send to us. Yummy!! Thank you. Mike was working on a few projects in the garage so we kept him company, getting in his way, and pestering him for ear and tummy rubs. Guess he does not mind since he stops what he is doing to give us the TLC we ask for.
To kind of shift runners here, our good friend Stan S, Iditarod 93 and 94 passed on this web site for the Alaska Blood Bank. They are holding a screening for Susan Butcher. There is a lot of good info on the site for you. It also provides links to Susan’s website and other sites related to bone marrow donation.
http://www.bloodbankofalaska.org/
Oh, before I forget, Thank you for your nice words about our Christmas Stories. We are very happy that you enjoyed them.
Mike is ready to take me for our walk so I must go.
Take care
Rivers
Http://home.gci.net/~sleddog
