A little shy of nine years ago, Carl and David convinced me that we HAD to have a puppy. A Huskie. I fought the idea for a few weeks. They finally convinced me and I argued that it HAD to be a girl with blue eyes and gray/white in color. Sure, sure; they agreed; whatever I wanted. On that fateful fall day, we drove to the east side of St. Paul to visit with a private breeder. When the door opened 8 puppies ran out. Different colors and sexes, but all Huskies. Some were older than the others and some more playful. There was a girl that fit my description. In my mind she was perfect. A little standoffish, I was certain that I could win her over given time. As I watched her play, I felt this weight on my leg and looked over to see a gray/white male husky. The girls pesky brother. I looked at him with annoyance (didn't he know I had a job to do)? However, once he had my attention, he proceeded to inch closer to my face and eventually had his nose on my nose and was staring into my eyes. This boy had one eye that was 1/2 blue and 1/2 brown and the other eye was brown with a fleck of blue. Goofy thing I thought. But it was over. My new baby picked me. So began a love story between this goofy eyed husky and his new mommy. While in the parking lot of Target to purchase his food, bowls, and other supplies, we were pondering what to call this new addition to the family. A woman was walking by and overheard us. "Dakota" she suggested. It fit and it stayed. Dakota was mine and no matter who else came into his life, he was always dedicated to his mom. I taught him that when he ate, some human may want to share food with him and he learned not to bite at the hand in the food dish. I let him know that when he was tired, his mommy would carry him wherever he needed to go and I let him know that he didn't belong in any type of cage. He had that uncanny sense of knowing when I needed a kiss or his warmth laying on my feet. He scolded me after all of my trips away from home for leaving him. He got excited when he saw the camping gear come out as he knew he was in for another great adventure with me and his dad. He was an endless sense of amusement and gave me reason to smile when nothing else could. I loved him more as the years passed and the thought of losing him was never in my mind. On June 11, 2008 the world changed when Dakota collapsed at home. After rushing him to the ER vet (and thinking penicillin would do the trick), we learned that Dakota was one sick puppy. He had a fever, was not producing new blood and needed a transfusion. Worst of all, he had a mass near his lungs that was probably cancerous. When the vet gave us the grim news, it felt as though the world stopped spinning. We looked at the test results, saw the xray and still couldn't believe what we had heard. There were options. Lots of them and they all included pain. Either for Dakota or for me. After much soul searching and putting my baby's future foremost in my thought, I knew it was the right thing to do...cause myself the pain and release Dakota from his. I spent an hour on the floor with him. He was tired and didn't even want to sit up. He layed on the floor, I layed with him. He gave me a few kisses and I kept apologizing that mommy couldn't make it better. Two shots, a few minutes and he was gone. It hurt to let him go, and my comfort is in knowing that he is pain free and running in heaven - peeing on everything to mark it as his. He'll stake out a good spot and wait for me to join him and we'll go camping.
Carl and I went to Moose Lake, MN for the weekend of May 23rd. We needed to break in the canoe and see if Dakota would be able to tolerate riding along with us. He did make it for a short time, but he won't be able to come along for our trip to the Boundary Waters in August. He's just getting too old and it would be uncomfortable for him to be in the canoe for long. Originally we reserved a site with electricity, but when we saw it, we decided it was too close to the road and we switched to a walk-in site. It was spectacular! Nice space and lots of shade. Dakota was in heaven and reminded us of how we are NOT to leave him tied up while we unpack. Yup, I had to tie him around my waist and let him do the trekking with us. Not sure if he thought we were going to leave him, but.... To prove to Carl that I was adventurous, I agreed to sleep under a tarp on Friday night. Close to sleeping under the stars...the picture above should give you a good idea. It was cool out...ok, cold actually, at night, so no bugs to worry about. I have to admit that I liked the openness and Dakota did too -- I woke up at one point during the night to him staring at me. Kinda freaky, but I guess he was just checking to be sure I was OK. Maybe he knew that the zipper on my brand new 20 degree sleeping bag decided to BREAK and it was a challenge to stay warm. The second night we set up the tent, because we had a threat of rain. And yes, it did rain, so we stayed dry. Dakota thought that he should sleep ON our bed, not next to it. We quickly corrected him. Carl spent time figuring out different ways to set up the tarp for cover and for sleeping purposes. We played a lot of Cribbage while listening to the Twins game both Friday and Saturday night. AND, we managed to cook all of our food on the fire. Life is good....
We survived another week in Chetek together without any major disasters. The weather was iffy with only ONE sunny day. The rest was cloudy, but we were able to fish every day (although a few times we had to find a cove where we were safe from the wind). Dad had a new boat that mom and I took out alone one day. No scratches, no errors. Whew. As a clan, we caught over 200 fish and had plenty to bring home even after a big fish fry Friday night. The participants of the 2008 vacation: Mom and Dad; Tina, Bill, Zachary and Brooke; Ron, Lisa, Felicia and Alyson; Donna, Carl, BriAnne, Brian, David, Crysta, Sonny, Emelia. We were joined for an hour by Copper and for a night by Bishop. Met an interesting neighbor named David who shared his fishing secrets with dad and stole him away for a few hours one day. They came back with about 90 fish and dad had a new appreciation for a certain rigging (which I can't name due to the sensitivity). I can't believe how FAST the week went. We're already planning for next year....seriously. Carl is planning the menu. Bless him.
