Sunday, February 01, 2009
I can't believe it has been a year since I have been on this blog site. We are currently working on a new blog site for SCL. Seems that all of our bloggers have forgotten their user names and passwords so no one is able to get on the site.
I won't blog much here since we will be having a new site soon.
The year whizzed by. SCL has been very successful in placing a few dogs through the year. We always think "one dog at a time." We are not a group that bails out 100's of dogs just to let them languish on a chain somewhere. All of our members feel that finding the best home for a dog is more important than keeping a dog alive just to say that we "saved" it. To me death is not the end of a life but often the new beginning. So many dogs up here are living a life of "death" just here on earth. Abuse, starvation or being stuck at the end of a 4 foot chain seems more cruel to me than death at times.
Ah...I could rant on and on but the main focus of these blogs is our successes with the dogs that we have rescued.
As my dogs get older I realize the value of a full and happy life, maybe not even a long life....just a productive one while we are here. We have lost several dogs this last year due to old age or cancer. Life moves forward but always hard loosing those that you love.
I thank Don for being in my life. Not only is he my partner in life but also is the one that is computer literate to keep all the electronic aspects of SCL and my web site up to date.
Dogs have been great. All our SCL dogs are doing well. We've also gotten an SCL dog that went through too many hands before we promised her this would be her last stop. That is Lichen. Her name used to be Jenny but Don renamed her because we already had a Jenny (another SCL dog). More on Lichen when the new blogs get up and running. But she is probably the most feral dog that I have ever had.
So. I will end here. Fairbanks is having a fairly cold winter (compared to the last 3 or 4 years) and I am grateful that I have a dog barn to house the dogs that aren't staying warm in the house. And we have 15 dogs in the house!! FUN!
I won't blog much here since we will be having a new site soon.
The year whizzed by. SCL has been very successful in placing a few dogs through the year. We always think "one dog at a time." We are not a group that bails out 100's of dogs just to let them languish on a chain somewhere. All of our members feel that finding the best home for a dog is more important than keeping a dog alive just to say that we "saved" it. To me death is not the end of a life but often the new beginning. So many dogs up here are living a life of "death" just here on earth. Abuse, starvation or being stuck at the end of a 4 foot chain seems more cruel to me than death at times.
Ah...I could rant on and on but the main focus of these blogs is our successes with the dogs that we have rescued.
As my dogs get older I realize the value of a full and happy life, maybe not even a long life....just a productive one while we are here. We have lost several dogs this last year due to old age or cancer. Life moves forward but always hard loosing those that you love.
I thank Don for being in my life. Not only is he my partner in life but also is the one that is computer literate to keep all the electronic aspects of SCL and my web site up to date.
Dogs have been great. All our SCL dogs are doing well. We've also gotten an SCL dog that went through too many hands before we promised her this would be her last stop. That is Lichen. Her name used to be Jenny but Don renamed her because we already had a Jenny (another SCL dog). More on Lichen when the new blogs get up and running. But she is probably the most feral dog that I have ever had.
So. I will end here. Fairbanks is having a fairly cold winter (compared to the last 3 or 4 years) and I am grateful that I have a dog barn to house the dogs that aren't staying warm in the house. And we have 15 dogs in the house!! FUN!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Gosh. It has been a long time since I posted anything!
The winter has been pretty odd. First, not much snow and we did nothing but a lot of skijoring at the North Star Golf course that had just enough snow to cover the cart paths to make for some excellent skijoring early in the season. When we finally got enough snow it then turned colder for 2 weeks and I got sick and ended up missing 2 weeks of work.
As of today we have had 4 days of above freezing temperatures and since my dogs just fold in the heat we haven't been running them. BUT...we will get them out tomorrow as it is supposed to cool down so another skijor day will be added to the dogs lives.
The shelter has been very depressing lately with many dogs coming in. And a lot of the outside dogs really aren't even sled dogs!! We have been running them regularly and have found several adoptive homes and pulled several dogs into SCL in the last month.
All of our dogs are doing great. Getting older and that is hard to watch. Several more dogs retired this year but the SCL dogs that we have are still running great as they are mostly younger. Chance continues to be Don's mainstay leader on his 3 dog skijor team with Daikon as the other leader and Casper (shelter dog adopted 7 years ago) in the wheel position.
Misty and Blackberry are in my 3 dog team with Jazz an 11 year old rounding out this group. Blackberry is a nice little leader and is very fast. Misty has a thick white coat and she gets overheated if it is too warm but as long as it is nice and cold she does great and runs fast.
Chiclet (SCL) never has taken to being a sled dog. She and Kiche (SCL) are always loose in a freedom pen now (with 2-3 other dogs). Kiche has run a few times in a team but prefers not to. She has very short legs and what I think is some pretty bad eyesight. She is a funny little dog. Barks a lot but when loose will follow us around the yard. She is more accepting of pets and comes to us when we need to chain her back up at feeding time. She likes being a part of the pack and loves playing with Shaman (shelter dog) and Ivy (shelter dog).
Raja (shelter dog) is still quite thin but that dogs loves to go. She is always in a team with Don's dog Izzi and my dog Loon. She is all business when working and would never think of bothering another dog but at home when she is loose she doesn't like other dogs to approach her. She is never chained up and loves living in the heated dog barn all the time.
Pippi (my first shelter dog) is retired. She has some back issues and I figure she is around 9 or 10 years old. But she is one of the best dogs to take on long loose walks as she never runs off.
Robin and Loon continue to be the main leaders for all the shelter teams. Robin will be 12 this spring and still loves to go and is a great command leader. Loon is 8 and she is a great little leader too and they are both such nice dogs that it is fun to have them change out their lead when we are running shelter dogs. They are never aggressive and take everything in stride even though they meet and run with many different dogs each week. What a pair.
Happy trails.
The winter has been pretty odd. First, not much snow and we did nothing but a lot of skijoring at the North Star Golf course that had just enough snow to cover the cart paths to make for some excellent skijoring early in the season. When we finally got enough snow it then turned colder for 2 weeks and I got sick and ended up missing 2 weeks of work.
As of today we have had 4 days of above freezing temperatures and since my dogs just fold in the heat we haven't been running them. BUT...we will get them out tomorrow as it is supposed to cool down so another skijor day will be added to the dogs lives.
The shelter has been very depressing lately with many dogs coming in. And a lot of the outside dogs really aren't even sled dogs!! We have been running them regularly and have found several adoptive homes and pulled several dogs into SCL in the last month.
All of our dogs are doing great. Getting older and that is hard to watch. Several more dogs retired this year but the SCL dogs that we have are still running great as they are mostly younger. Chance continues to be Don's mainstay leader on his 3 dog skijor team with Daikon as the other leader and Casper (shelter dog adopted 7 years ago) in the wheel position.
Misty and Blackberry are in my 3 dog team with Jazz an 11 year old rounding out this group. Blackberry is a nice little leader and is very fast. Misty has a thick white coat and she gets overheated if it is too warm but as long as it is nice and cold she does great and runs fast.
Chiclet (SCL) never has taken to being a sled dog. She and Kiche (SCL) are always loose in a freedom pen now (with 2-3 other dogs). Kiche has run a few times in a team but prefers not to. She has very short legs and what I think is some pretty bad eyesight. She is a funny little dog. Barks a lot but when loose will follow us around the yard. She is more accepting of pets and comes to us when we need to chain her back up at feeding time. She likes being a part of the pack and loves playing with Shaman (shelter dog) and Ivy (shelter dog).
Raja (shelter dog) is still quite thin but that dogs loves to go. She is always in a team with Don's dog Izzi and my dog Loon. She is all business when working and would never think of bothering another dog but at home when she is loose she doesn't like other dogs to approach her. She is never chained up and loves living in the heated dog barn all the time.
Pippi (my first shelter dog) is retired. She has some back issues and I figure she is around 9 or 10 years old. But she is one of the best dogs to take on long loose walks as she never runs off.
Robin and Loon continue to be the main leaders for all the shelter teams. Robin will be 12 this spring and still loves to go and is a great command leader. Loon is 8 and she is a great little leader too and they are both such nice dogs that it is fun to have them change out their lead when we are running shelter dogs. They are never aggressive and take everything in stride even though they meet and run with many different dogs each week. What a pair.
Happy trails.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Winter has settled in and it is another winter with very little snow so far. Luckily we have a wonderful venue at the North Star Golf Course that is groomed for skijoring so we have been going there several times a week to run the dogs. At the last skijor race I was noticing how many shelter dogs were there. It warmed my heart to see them all running and in really good homes. I ran a team with Jazz who is nearly 11 and Blackberry (SCL) who is just a driven maniac (yet is the calmest house dog that disappears in a cushy dog bed and rarely wants to go out!!) and Misty(SCL) who I used to think didn't have top speed but has come into her own this year and can drive hard and fast with all of my dogs! She too is a house dog yet doesn't mind going and laying in the snow chewing an old bone at 10 below. She has a thick white coat that is so soft.
Don skijored with Daikon, Casper (shelter rescue) and Chance (SCL) on Sunday. I loved looking down the list of dogs. The 1st place in the 3 dog skijor race (I was 2nd) had 3 shelter dogs! GO PUPS!
We have sent 4 SCL dogs to towns south of Anchorage where they are fitting into their new homes. Gage and Frisk (both SCL) joined Silver (SCL) in a sprint home.
We had Ammon and Shep here for almost 2 weeks and I got quite attached to them but it was nice to know they were going to a free running kennel and their first report of their run in a team came back glowing.
It is cold enough that all the dogs (well except for the 11-12 we have in the house) now are sleeping in the dog barn at night. They sure do like that. No one can convince me that a dog would prefer to sleep outside at 20 below rather than in a warmer environment. They all push for the door when we let them loose to run to the barn.
The rest of our SCL dogs are doing well. Kiche still doesn't want to be a sled dog but she loves other dogs and she always comes when we call her when she is loose. At first I used to walk her up to the barn on a leash but for the past couple of years it hasn't been a problem getting her to come to us or to go right to the barn. She has come a long way although she will always have that shy streak in her.
Chiclet is just a wonderful dog. She too doesn't want to be a sled dog but she is very affectionate, likes other dogs and is one of the dogs that is always in one of our "freedom"yards where dogs aren't chained up all day and night.
Chance of course is consistently skijoring. She is an excellent leader and a very driven dog.
Raja (shelter rescue) loves to run. But she is showing her age (which we aren't sure what it is!) and is thin and eats like a mouse. We will continue to run her as long as she is screaming to go and is healthy enough.
Most of our "spare" time is spent caring for the dogs. There is rarely a day goes by that every dog doesn't get at least an hour of free time in the yard. And even when we run them, they get to romp around the yard before we chain them back up. We only have 11 chained dogs right now but those change throughout the day as we keep groups in the freedom yards off the chains. My goal next summer is for 2 more freedom yards then everyone will be off a chain and the groups that get along well together can be in these pens. We do have to make sure to bring all the dogs back together though every day. One thing I wouldn't want is a bunch of sub-packs.
It is time consuming but oh so rewarding for both us and the dogs. The biggest chore is probably scooping poop in all the yards. And I'm obsessive about it. I find it interesting in the freedom pens. The dogs poop as far away from their houses as they can. This just reinforces my thoughts about dogs living on chains and the need to keep their spots extremely clean. These dogs don't want to live where they are going to the bathroom, but when they are on a chain they don't have a choice.
We are praying for more snow. Sledding is rough and the first sprint races have been postponed because there isn't enough snow to groom the trails! A terrible winter for sledding so far.
Happy holidays to all and may you hold your dogs closely in your heart as they will reward you with their love and devotion many times over.
Don skijored with Daikon, Casper (shelter rescue) and Chance (SCL) on Sunday. I loved looking down the list of dogs. The 1st place in the 3 dog skijor race (I was 2nd) had 3 shelter dogs! GO PUPS!
We have sent 4 SCL dogs to towns south of Anchorage where they are fitting into their new homes. Gage and Frisk (both SCL) joined Silver (SCL) in a sprint home.
We had Ammon and Shep here for almost 2 weeks and I got quite attached to them but it was nice to know they were going to a free running kennel and their first report of their run in a team came back glowing.
It is cold enough that all the dogs (well except for the 11-12 we have in the house) now are sleeping in the dog barn at night. They sure do like that. No one can convince me that a dog would prefer to sleep outside at 20 below rather than in a warmer environment. They all push for the door when we let them loose to run to the barn.
The rest of our SCL dogs are doing well. Kiche still doesn't want to be a sled dog but she loves other dogs and she always comes when we call her when she is loose. At first I used to walk her up to the barn on a leash but for the past couple of years it hasn't been a problem getting her to come to us or to go right to the barn. She has come a long way although she will always have that shy streak in her.
Chiclet is just a wonderful dog. She too doesn't want to be a sled dog but she is very affectionate, likes other dogs and is one of the dogs that is always in one of our "freedom"yards where dogs aren't chained up all day and night.
Chance of course is consistently skijoring. She is an excellent leader and a very driven dog.
Raja (shelter rescue) loves to run. But she is showing her age (which we aren't sure what it is!) and is thin and eats like a mouse. We will continue to run her as long as she is screaming to go and is healthy enough.
Most of our "spare" time is spent caring for the dogs. There is rarely a day goes by that every dog doesn't get at least an hour of free time in the yard. And even when we run them, they get to romp around the yard before we chain them back up. We only have 11 chained dogs right now but those change throughout the day as we keep groups in the freedom yards off the chains. My goal next summer is for 2 more freedom yards then everyone will be off a chain and the groups that get along well together can be in these pens. We do have to make sure to bring all the dogs back together though every day. One thing I wouldn't want is a bunch of sub-packs.
It is time consuming but oh so rewarding for both us and the dogs. The biggest chore is probably scooping poop in all the yards. And I'm obsessive about it. I find it interesting in the freedom pens. The dogs poop as far away from their houses as they can. This just reinforces my thoughts about dogs living on chains and the need to keep their spots extremely clean. These dogs don't want to live where they are going to the bathroom, but when they are on a chain they don't have a choice.
We are praying for more snow. Sledding is rough and the first sprint races have been postponed because there isn't enough snow to groom the trails! A terrible winter for sledding so far.
Happy holidays to all and may you hold your dogs closely in your heart as they will reward you with their love and devotion many times over.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
It has been quite awhile since I posted. The summer was wonderful. It was a rare day that Don and I did NOT let all the dogs loose. We got into a nice routine every day and it was a joy to be able to let all the dogs interact on a daily basis. I only worked one job this summer much to my relief and thus had some extra time to spend with the dogs. They are all doing well although I see the age creeping up in many of our dogs. So many of them are now 10 to 12 years old. But all are healthy and that is the important part.
Don and I built a couple of new "freedom" pens. These are huge areas where we can leave dogs loose all of the time. We now have more dogs off the chain than we do on the chain. But we always bring everyone back into the main yard when it is time to let everyone loose. I never want to create more than one pack so it is important that they all interact every day.
All the SCL dogs are doing great. Shaman (shelter dog) is becoming more bold and often comes in the house now. He is still terribly shy but loves to play and doesn't have a mean bone in his body.
We also have another dog and looks like she will stay here for life. I was firm on not getting another dog as 30 is quite enough to look after and care for them physically and mentally.
But Raja is now a part of our group. She was at the shelter for a very long time. At one point there was a person in Germany who was going to adopt her and another dog named Foxy. It dragged out for a week and in the meantime a person from CT who had adopted another shelter dog had emailed me saying she would take Raja. At the time Raja was already spoken for so I told the person in CT that she was already adopted. Well, when the German adoption fell through we went and picked up Raja and brought her home much to the joy of the person in CT.
BUT.....she was terribly thin and a picky eater when we got her. Found out that she is a much older dog than we thought. Since she has perfect teeth we thought she was a fairly young dog....but....she is probably over 10 years of age. She had 2 large mammary tumors which were removed when she was spayed. Luckily they were benign.
So she is not going to travel to CT and will live out her life with us. She is still very thin but her coat is gorgeous now (it was so ratty when we got her) and she IS eating much better.
We also think she is deaf or very hard of hearing. She doesn't like other dogs surprising her and will lash out at them. So we have kept her in a large pen and let her loose with just a couple of dogs each day. She loves people and comes if we can get her attention to see us. She loves cuddles and pets. We will run her with the older group this winter and just take a day at a time with her.
We are anxious to start running the dogs but at the moment the 4 wheel drive is broken on my truck so I can't haul the 4 wheeler anywhere. And until we get more snow I can't run the 4 wheeler out of my house.
Luckily the shelter has very few huskies right now. SCL pulled 5 dogs into the group over the last 5 weeks (North Pole, Kodiak, Raz, Vicki (now Nicki) and Alma). Alma will be going to Michigan to her new home by the end of the month. Chalupa got adopted into a great home recently so that made us all quite happy.
We are praying for a good snow winter this year. Lots of skijoring on our agenda!
Don and I built a couple of new "freedom" pens. These are huge areas where we can leave dogs loose all of the time. We now have more dogs off the chain than we do on the chain. But we always bring everyone back into the main yard when it is time to let everyone loose. I never want to create more than one pack so it is important that they all interact every day.
All the SCL dogs are doing great. Shaman (shelter dog) is becoming more bold and often comes in the house now. He is still terribly shy but loves to play and doesn't have a mean bone in his body.
We also have another dog and looks like she will stay here for life. I was firm on not getting another dog as 30 is quite enough to look after and care for them physically and mentally.
But Raja is now a part of our group. She was at the shelter for a very long time. At one point there was a person in Germany who was going to adopt her and another dog named Foxy. It dragged out for a week and in the meantime a person from CT who had adopted another shelter dog had emailed me saying she would take Raja. At the time Raja was already spoken for so I told the person in CT that she was already adopted. Well, when the German adoption fell through we went and picked up Raja and brought her home much to the joy of the person in CT.
BUT.....she was terribly thin and a picky eater when we got her. Found out that she is a much older dog than we thought. Since she has perfect teeth we thought she was a fairly young dog....but....she is probably over 10 years of age. She had 2 large mammary tumors which were removed when she was spayed. Luckily they were benign.
So she is not going to travel to CT and will live out her life with us. She is still very thin but her coat is gorgeous now (it was so ratty when we got her) and she IS eating much better.
We also think she is deaf or very hard of hearing. She doesn't like other dogs surprising her and will lash out at them. So we have kept her in a large pen and let her loose with just a couple of dogs each day. She loves people and comes if we can get her attention to see us. She loves cuddles and pets. We will run her with the older group this winter and just take a day at a time with her.
We are anxious to start running the dogs but at the moment the 4 wheel drive is broken on my truck so I can't haul the 4 wheeler anywhere. And until we get more snow I can't run the 4 wheeler out of my house.
Luckily the shelter has very few huskies right now. SCL pulled 5 dogs into the group over the last 5 weeks (North Pole, Kodiak, Raz, Vicki (now Nicki) and Alma). Alma will be going to Michigan to her new home by the end of the month. Chalupa got adopted into a great home recently so that made us all quite happy.
We are praying for a good snow winter this year. Lots of skijoring on our agenda!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
All this new blogger stuff has made it difficult for the fosters to post. Don will be working on this in the future so that all the fosters can be back on the SCL site for blogging. I luckily remembered how to get in and will try and post more often.
The summer is zipping by. Life has become a bit ritualistic here at the Kleckner/Kiely household. About 2-3 hours before I have to go to work (I work nights going in at different time between 3:30 and 5:30 pm) we start letting loose the dogs. We do them in 2 groups this summer. Each group gets around an hour of running around. We interact a lot with each dog during this time. Lots of petting and brushing out their winter fur. With the hot weather we always have the wading pool filled but only a few dogs will go and lay completely in it. Others will wade and a lot of them like to pee in it!! funny dogs. After their play time it is feeding time and the dogs are then settled for the rest of the evening.
All our SCL adopted dogs are doing great. Also our direct shelter adoptees. Shaman is coming around quite nicely. Although he is still very spooking he LOVES to be petted if we sit in our lawn chairs and let him come to us. He gets lots of pats during this time. We usually just leave him loose all the time in the fenced yard. He ventures into the house every now and then but he loves to play and he has plenty of companions in both the indoor dogs and the outdoor dogs that he goes and visits with.
Don and I just got finished putting up new fencing. We cemented in 4 x 4 posts and ran 6 foot horse fencing with a new gate. The side yard is now divided into 2 parts. I'm looking forward to tomorrow to start picking dogs that will be able to be in there loose all the time. I will be building more dog houses in the next week so that we can have houses for them in both the freedom yard and the main dog yard if we need to chain them back up (probably when we both aren't here or have a pet sitter for some reason). Our goal is to eventually have several huge areas where we can leave groups of dogs loose all the time.
It has been so hot that we haven't been able to run shelter dogs too many times. Adoptions have been so/so but they have been keeping dogs for quite a long time if there is space. A couple of my favorites got adopted recently and we pray that they are happy in their new homes.
The summer is zipping by. Life has become a bit ritualistic here at the Kleckner/Kiely household. About 2-3 hours before I have to go to work (I work nights going in at different time between 3:30 and 5:30 pm) we start letting loose the dogs. We do them in 2 groups this summer. Each group gets around an hour of running around. We interact a lot with each dog during this time. Lots of petting and brushing out their winter fur. With the hot weather we always have the wading pool filled but only a few dogs will go and lay completely in it. Others will wade and a lot of them like to pee in it!! funny dogs. After their play time it is feeding time and the dogs are then settled for the rest of the evening.
All our SCL adopted dogs are doing great. Also our direct shelter adoptees. Shaman is coming around quite nicely. Although he is still very spooking he LOVES to be petted if we sit in our lawn chairs and let him come to us. He gets lots of pats during this time. We usually just leave him loose all the time in the fenced yard. He ventures into the house every now and then but he loves to play and he has plenty of companions in both the indoor dogs and the outdoor dogs that he goes and visits with.
Don and I just got finished putting up new fencing. We cemented in 4 x 4 posts and ran 6 foot horse fencing with a new gate. The side yard is now divided into 2 parts. I'm looking forward to tomorrow to start picking dogs that will be able to be in there loose all the time. I will be building more dog houses in the next week so that we can have houses for them in both the freedom yard and the main dog yard if we need to chain them back up (probably when we both aren't here or have a pet sitter for some reason). Our goal is to eventually have several huge areas where we can leave groups of dogs loose all the time.
It has been so hot that we haven't been able to run shelter dogs too many times. Adoptions have been so/so but they have been keeping dogs for quite a long time if there is space. A couple of my favorites got adopted recently and we pray that they are happy in their new homes.
