An Alaskan Husky Christmas Story

written by Simon McLoughlin
[I decided to take the day off and post Simon's letter about naughty doggies...]

Thought you might all appreciate this story.

Got home from town last night about 5p.m. it was pitch black being day after winter solstice. Had come from Freddies w/ Christmas day groceries. Whilst shopping spied some reindeer sausage meat and thought -oh a treat for dogs!

 When home I divide the 4 sausages into 11 equal amounts under interior light of truck then walk over to dogyard in the dark as headlamp elsewhere. I reach blindly into the opening of each kennel waiting for the dogs teeth to gently differentiate between my fingers and the reindeer meat. All going well until I am at far end of dogyard. I reach into Brownies kennel and long delay before I expect the wet muzzle to extricate the goodie from my hand w/ fingers intact. Over 30 seconds go by normally it'd be .3 secs and goodie would have vanished.

I feel deeper into kennel and all I can feel is empty space. Brownie is not home he has vamoosed w/ 6 feet of chain and 4 foot of 1/2" diameter rebar w/ a 1 foot 90 degree angle on end.

I walk over to give Polar his goodie  but no goodie for him as he is not a goodie and has blasted off too.

I immediately think of you Joanne and your summer experiences w/ the same two reprobates.

I find headlamp and begin wandering trails nearby calling and whistling into the black night. When I return to dogyard 20 minutes later here comes Polar running seemingly innocently to his kennel dragging 6 foot of chain.

I remove Polar's chain and then let the indomitable Porky off to help w/ search for Brownie.

With snomachine running we set off looking for Brownie. Polar runs immediately to cabin door and clueless to plan at hand. He wants to be on the couch next to the blazing woodstove in a warm cabin.

No sign of Brownie after searching nearby loop trail over the frozen Goldstream Creek.

So we  return to yard empty handed. I decide to clip Porky and Polar back to their kennels and drive snogo [translation: snowmobile] up towards road looking for the elusive Brownie.

I am now up at Goldstream store -still empty handed so go inside to ask store worker if anybody has come across a dog dragging chain and steel on his merry way. JACKPOT !!! I have a phone number for a woman who found Brownie down at peat ponds caught up in trees going nowhere fast! She extricates him w/ Polar onlooking then loads him in her truck w/ her other two dogs she was out walking trails with.

Polar declines offer for a ride and does what he does best...pisses off..!! [translation: takes off]

Sooo it's now 8 p.m. and I just arrive home with Brownie in the cab of truck and can finally give him his Christmas goodie and a happy ending to another unplanned winter adventure.

[NOTE: if you wanna see pictures of these reprobates, click Lassie's picture on right]