Goodbye to Mans Best Friend

I wasn’t planning on this to be my next writing topic. I wanted to write about our winter on the trapline but that will have to wait till next time. I’ve never written any details about our dogs before. This is because our relationship and life with the dogs could fill a book, not a simple blog post. On the 4/19 we lost our best dog Jaffy to a cancer that came on strong and took over most of his major organs.

Jaffy had just turned 10 in March and we expected him to lead the team for a a few more years before even considering retirement. He had a great winter and we didn’t even know he was sick until 2 weeks before he was to much pain to keep going in this life. We need him. We miss him. We are having a really hard time with this. I can’t even type without blubbering about it. Tyler cried harder than I’ve ever seen him cry. He was Tylers very best dog buddy ever. He was not only our buddy but he was an irreplaceable genius of a working dog. Jaffy was our Balto. He was one of those dogs that only comes around once in a life time.

I can’t begin to explain how much time and trouble this dog has saved us over the years. A working dog like him is hard to find. Jaffy would safely lead the team across open water and refuse if it was impossible. He would lead the team down trails that even he was sick and tired of when he’d rather do something else for the day. If the team was misbehaving he’d turn around and talk to the team by barking and getting sassy. He never fought. If there was ever a dog that could have graduated in the art of diplomacy it was him. He knew the trapline better than Tyler hands down. He could lead take you down the same trail that had been recently been ravaged by fire and appeared indistinguishable to the human eye. He knew where all of Tylers trapping sets were no matter how hidden and naturally would slow down to let Tyler decide if they needed work or not…basically asking Tyler is he should make the team stop for a bit. We travel through a few brushy open lakes that are drying up and our trails in and out of these areas is unmarked. We, ourselves would have to scout around for trail heads a bit before finding our way but Jaffy never had any trouble leading the team directly to the trail heads through thick brush.  Jaffy was so human like and intelligent it was as if Tyler was working his trapline with a human friend with wolf like superpowers. In the summer time when we live just outside of Fairbanks Jaffy is so well behaved off leash that he is untethered and loose much of the time and never ran off because he is like a homing pigeon and loves to be at home most of all relaxing and watching us and our activity. He was careful around children and wonderful with Sydney.

It’s been over two weeks now since he died and still I struggle to write about this. Our second baby is due next week and the emotions of loss and late pregnancy are intense. Jaffy isn’t the only dog we’ve lost in the last 2 weeks. Two of our older dogs have been re homed for retirement with some friends of our down in Palmer. They are together and will be spoiled house pets with a family of 4 children now. The will probably get regular baths and sleep in bed with their human friends now. I’m happy for them really but They are the last of our original team we started this lifestyle with and it feels like a whole new chapter for us. Balu was Jaffy’s sister, a sassy snow white inuit that most often ran in swing, the position directly behind the leader. We wanted to find a good home for her while someone can still enjoy her before she gets too old and decrepit. 12 years is about the serious cutoff range for a hard working dog.  Kazak is only 8 years old this year but has the body of a 12 year old dog. He’s a very large black and white male given to working too hard. Kazak is one of those dogs that has only one mode,  and that is to pull hard and as fast as he can. He was our big friendly dumb jock. Consequently he already suffers from a bad back and we can’t feel good about running him on hard trapline jobs anymore. Pulling a few little kids around for a few years will probably be ok for him but he needs to be held back from hard work and he would hate to stay home with me and the babies and watch the team run off without him every day this coming winter.

Sydney and Balu

Sydney and Kazak

Some people might wonder why we don’t keep them ourselves for retirement?  Our lifestyle just doesn’t work well that way. We have figured it out a long time ago that about all we can afford is an 8 dog maximum. Going over that number would mean more food to harvest and boat or fly out to the bush every year. It would mean chartering an extra $1800 flight out of the bush every spring. It would mean being able to give each dog we do have less attention. I have no doubt in my mind that we have done the best possible thing for Kazak and Balu. I don’t want to be without them but they are going to love their new lives. What’s even better about their new placement is that they are with good friends that will keep us updated and we will get to continue to visit with them over the years. They left just a few days ago and already they’re adoptive family is sending to a day at the groomers to get the full house dog treatment. I want a video of that!

Tyler, Sydney and super pregnant me with Kazak and Balu before they took off on Sunday. Right after they loaded up in the back of the pickup to drive off I had to excuse myself for a good and ugly cry.

Tyler started training our 2 year old dog Larry in for lead position about 10 days ago now. We meant for him to run double lead and swing with Jaffy for the next couple of years to start learning the ropes out on the trapline but our time was cut short of being with our boy Jaffy and now we have got our work cut our for us in the next few years. Larry was to young to have the full responsibility of training to be a lead dog this last winter but he is sensitive and smart and the dog that seems to have the most potential to take Jaffy’s place in our team. Every day after Tyler gets off work he exchanges his carhartts for some sweats and a skijoring belt to hook Larry up to and heads to our neighborhood mushing trail to teach Larry to stay lined out and eventually will start adding more and more commands. Larry is enjoying his new job as lead dog in training and showing signs of serious potential. Tyler lead him into deap water today and Larry didn’t question the command. He is also showing that he will remain lined out while staked down as Tyler walks away to “work” or do something else.

Meanwhile our loss of Jaffy is going to take years to get over. The ground is still frozen here and he is in one of our freezers wrapped in a blanket waiting for a proper burial of a champion in our yard near the greenhouse.