In early December I took a birthday weekend trip up to Seattle to see some missed 4-legged and 2-legged friends. The visit was just what I needed, but I do wish I could have stayed in the fair state of Washington. Waylon felt the same way, as evidenced by his texts the day after I left… D’awww I’ll be there next weekend! I’ll cancel Christmas with my family! Sigh. Thanks…
I feel like I always mention how I’m not a fan of change, but I’ve given myself a lifestyle centered on change. I was reminded of that once again the night before last as I slept in a much-loved place: Waylon’s kennel at Pack Forest. After staying with a good two-legged friend in northern Seattle for a week and a half**, it was time to venture south to visit last…
What do you mean I have to say goodbye to this face? And this face? And this one? Pardon me, but this sucks! Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved dogs. I was about 2 years old when my family got our first Shetland Sheepdog. Pixie and I were always best buds. Although she was a family dog, we were the closest – maybe because I was the closest to…
As a resident of Alaska, it can sometimes be easy to forget how few people have the chance to see the Northern Lights. Some of my best college memories come from 1AM phone calls from Teri at the other end screeching, “Go outside! The Lights are dancing!!!” Other times our intramural broomball game would end at 12:00AM and rather than heading to bed like responsible students, we’d bundle up in…
In curling, it’s the last end of the game or the “hammer rock in the tenth.” In hockey, we’re deep in the third period. Or for you American goofs, we’re in the fourth quarter or the bottom of the 9th inning. Get the picture? Time is running out, and every second, sweep, shot, interception, fumble, single, and strikeout matters. I guess every scat sample, broken part on the snowmachine, hole…
Oddly enough, I don’t quite know what to write about! I’m not going to start daily updates of my work up here, so I almost feel like I’ve reached a standstill on my usual topics. Historically – except for my last entry – my blog has been about my adventures. Most days here are adventures in some way, but nothing I can go into terrible detail about like I generally…
Ahh how familiar winter in Alberta feels to me. Dry air, dry snow, generally little wind, and southerly sunshine. It’s similar to winter in Fairbanks but with many more hours of daylight. Personally I’d prefer to have less daylight; the sun is too bright on my sensitive eyes! Our trip up here proved to go without incident, for the mostpart. We ended up with multiple nights of late drives for…
As training rolled along, it started to become clear who would be dog handlers or orienteers. Some dogs seemed to get stressed with having a different handler each day, so the bosses decided to try figuring out which people and dogs worked well together sooner rather than later. I think most of us entered the program in the hopes of being handlers, but we knew from the start that there…
And so, after all of that, I found myself entering a month of CK-9 training in Pack Forest in late October. By a month I mean 1.5 months, which of course means almost 2… or something like that. Not long after arriving for training, I learned that Washington contains a micro time zone – namely, Pack Forest Time. The CK-9 program doesn’t necessarily run on normal time; during training we…
“I’m going on an adventure!” In Peter Jackson’s latest film, that’s what Bilbo shouts as he hastily leaves Hobbiton, paper flapping in hand and backpack barely packed. I know exactly where Bilbo was coming from with his last minute decision to leave home and take off to unknown trails. When I left Fairbanks in late September, there were 3 possibilities for my short-term future, as I saw it. Job with…