Bait

All right already – somebody shut off the faucet up there!! It has been raining pretty much non-stop for the last week. And it rained pretty much all the week prior to that, and the week prior to that was pretty damp too. Mark has a little rain gauge sitting on our deck, but it has been registering the same amount for the last week or so. I think the sensor has drowned.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’d way rather it was too wet then too dry – the fires around here three or four years ago drove that lesson home hard, but I’d also like to get out and get some yard work done.

Our lawn, or the batch of weeds that we usually keep trim and call a ‘lawn’, usually only needs to get mowed two or three times a year – one of the pluses of living in a heavily treed pine forest, but we have already mowed it twice this year and it is way over due for another mowing.

The weather forecaster (one I trust, not young Josh who tried to kill us a few years back) said today was going to be sunny and dry. I was excited and I had all sort of projects planned for outside today. It is completely overcast and raining hard right now. Oh well, not much I can do about it – and eventually it should stop. After all, even during the Great Flood it only rained for 40 days and 40 nights…

So, we had a new addition to the melee on Thursday. All of us were sick of listening to Gristle screeching and wailing over the loss of her buddy, Take Out. We all sympathize, and are mourning him too, but she was really taking it to a whole ‘nother level. Every time anyone looked at her she would start wailing.

So on Thursday Anna brought us out a new kitten. He is an adorable little black and white thing. No bigger then a bug right now but filled with attitude. He doesn’t seem to like dogs, in fact when Anna went to hand him to me Fly was right there. The kitten took one look at Fly and turned into a hissing, spitting ball. He leapt out of Anna’s arms and landed in front of Fly fuzzed up to a ferocious 6 inches tall. We are doing nothing to change his opinion on dogs and are not letting him meet Kara, as we don’t want him to make his impressions of Siberians based on her.

We have named him Bait. Gristle hates him and spends a great deal of time spitting and snarling at him (he’s oblivious and bounces around the garage paying no attention to her attitude) I’m sure she will grow to love him in time – and it gives her something else to worry about rather then Take Out in the meantime.

I brought Bait to the house today to try and get a picture of him for the website. Basically, I was unsuccessful. I tried to wait until he tired himself out - but I got tired of him, before he got tired of me. So back to the garage he went! 

Everything else is going pretty well here right now. The Firecrackers are the cutest things on earth at the moment. They are spunky and adventurous. Their kennel is a time warp – it’s easy to walk in there and just lose an hour or so. I think Rocket has got to be my favorite right now. First off, she looks EXACTLY like her Daddy did at that age and she is very, very outgoing. Mark seems to be very fond of Comet, but he hasn’t really said yet whether or not he actually has a favorite.

Hilda is an excellent Mother, but I know she is ready for it to be over soon. Without fuss or stress, she has gotten the whole bunch weaned. It is really amazing how different Moms deal with that. Breezy (Kara’s Mom) was rotten at weaning and was still allowing her babies to nurse at about 8 weeks of age. Libby (our first Siberian) was like Hilda and would have the whole bunch whipped into shape, weaned and well mannered well before 6 weeks of age. I’ve not seen much difference in the manners of the adults depending on the way their Moms weaned them, but we always leave the Moms with the pups until they are about 7 or 8 weeks, regardless of when they stop nursing.

I took the month of May off of running dogs. It was actually the first month I had not hooked up a team in over 2 years. The dogs and I are pretty keen to get back at it now, but the overcast, humid mornings have not been conducive to running for the last few weeks. Soon though, I’m sure.

It seems EVERYONE in the yard is shedding right now. If the weather would smarten up, I’d like to get caught up on the grooming. The pen that Bingo and Bongo are in looks like a rabbit exploded in it.

Well, I think that is about it for news this morning. Entries for the big races start opening soon and Mark and I are already making plans for the winter, so I’m sure there will be news on that front soon!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Karen