Frohe Ostern!

Happy Easter, late.  We had a really nice weekend!

 

Matt and I took the dogs out on Friday right after work and they had a blast.  I ran the two mile loop and Matt ran the two mile loop when I finished.  I'm trying to (patiently) let him get the feel for the sled.  I don't have a lot to offer him in the way of advice, since I don't know what the heck I'm doing either.  At least I do know that he won't tie them to a tree and leave them somewhere! :-D  Yeah, that was low.  ANYWAY, as I said, the dogs had a good time.  Clover (Little Miss Vocal) was still whining to go out again even on the way home in the car.  That dog is a running machine!!

 

Saturday, I weaseled my way into a trip to Soldotna to meet Jon Little and his wife, Bree.  Bryan was returning some leased dogs and didn't mind having company in the truck, so I ducked out of renovation duty and made the trip down.  The drive was nice, but the weather could have been sunnier.  It was my first time to the Kenai and I do wish it would have been a little more clear.  Oh well, can't complain, it was still pretty out!  Once we got there, Jon and Bree were so gracious and visited with us for about three hours.  I got a good look at their dog lot and their dogs (not that I have a good eye for that sort of thing).  Their children, Salem and Sylvie, were also incredibly adorable.  Salem had an etch-a-sketch type toy with a magnetic pen and I think I must have drawn at least a dozen moose on it.  He kept grinning and thrusting it at me while saying "MOOSE!" and he was too cute to resist.  Jon, Bryan and Bree talked a lot about mushers and dogs, and I mostly tried to keep my mouth shut and listen. :)

 

Sunday was a pretty slow day.  The Iditarod TV show came on at 3, then we went to Eric and Marti's for Easter dinner.  It was a pretty delicious spread but thankfully I didn't indulge too much.  I am trying to shed my winter insulation and so far my will-power has been pretty good!

 

Today I dropped Calvin off at the vet so he could have a CBC, Chem 8 panel and a Thyroid panel done.  I have been worried about his general health for several months now.  We've had problems with intermittent diarrhea with him and even though he was dewormed (ivermectin and pyrantel pamoate, both) we have still had troubles.  He seemed a bit exercise intolerant this season, so I'm also worried about his thyroid.  My guess is that everything will come back normal, and we'll have a diagnosis of "Irritable Bowel Syndrome" and we'll have to manage this for the rest of his days.  Nothing is ever easy with my animals...

 

File' will also be going in at 4:00 for her second puppy shot.  I'm curious to know how much she will weigh. Calvin weighed in at a whopping 70.1 lb this morning.  I almost fell out!  I had no idea that he was that heavy!  He does not have an ounce of fat on him, though, he's just a big dog.

 

Will update again when I find out what's going on with Calvin...