Second Chance League

Welcome to Summer
Solstice is upon us. Into the full swing of summer. Let us rejoice that the days are getting shorter. Of course, only a skijorer, dog musher, ice fisher-person, snowmobiler would say this. But as a winter loving person included amongst thousands up here I realize that summer is wonderful but winter is the special time.

The shelter did not see the spring husky dump this year. We are very grateful!! We have had several dogs adopted out of the shelter lately and that is always nice to see them go to good homes.

Another good message is that the Second Chance League was one of the charities that participated in the Walk for Charity. Don attended the ceremony to pick up the SCL check. What a generous community we live in.

Hope that everyone is keeping their dogs exercised and happy this summer. It is a time for training and bonding. Bring out the balls and the doggie pools!

Happy Summer--Almost!
Now that winter is over we can "relax" and enjoy the summertime with our dogs. We hope that everyone can get their dogs out, continually learning and getting exercise all summer long.

Don and I like to take long walks with small groups of dogs. We also do a lot of hours having all the dogs together in a large pack during the day. It is good for socialization and good for lots of play time. Our plan is to do some bikejoring also.

The Alaska Skijor and Pulk Association is having a free dryland clinic for bikejoring and canicross and running with your dog on May 23rd at Musher's Hall at 3 pm. We hope to see a lot of people come out. You can get more information here.

The shelter has filled up. We encourage people to look at the dogs at the shelter and adopt one over the summer. It is an ideal time to adopt a dog: You have several months to work with that new dog and socialize them into your group. Then when fall and winter come, the dog is used to you and its kennel mates and the transition to mushing or skijoring is easy.

The SCL board will be taking a hiatus from meeting over the summer as its members scatter far and wide across the tundra.

Have a great spring.

Springing into Summer
Wow.....did this winter ever end quickly here in Fairbanks! What a difference from the beginning of March to the end of March. We were thinking that we would be skijoring well into April like we usually do, but alas, mom nature had a different plan.

The animal shelter so far has been reasonably quiet as far as sled dogs. Maybe this year we won't be calling April the "husky dump month" like we usually do.

We did pull Sammy from the shelter and she now has a new name (Tansy) and a new home. We were all grateful that the shelter kept this sweet girl for nearly 2 months. There are a lot of sprinty dogs there right now. It is a good time to adopt a dog for you can work with them and bond with them all summer. Please let us know if you are interested in adopting any of the borough shelter dogs or giving one of the SCL foster dogs a forever home.

Our next board meeting is Tuesday April 6th at Sipping Streams Tea House (under Wok and Roll near Gulliver's Books on College Road). Time is 6 pm.

SCL wins from Del Monte
We want to send out a huge thank you to Del Monte and Snausages for including the Second Chance League in their Alaska benefactor program. On Tuesday March 2 in Anchorage a fun "race" was held with dogs as drivers and humans as the sled pullers. It was a 3 team race to benefit several non profits in Alaska devoted to shelter animals. The Seavey's recommended SCL and also provided the teams for this race. Del Monte representatives were on hand for filming and PR. SCL was the lucky winner of the grand prize. We are thrilled to accept this donation for the continuation of helping the Fairbanks Borough Shelter dogs.

Our next board meeting is Tuesday March 9th at 6 pm. It will be at Taco King on the Old Steese Highway.