Dec 30, 06

Here I find that I should back up and update who is who on the team since we have some new members. My normal lead dogs are Cosmos and Kenai, then there is Bear and our new guy Tucker who has come from John and Zoya Schandelmeier's kennel in Alaska. Tucker has ran the Yukon Quest several times as a lead dog. Tucker is a little shy of people but and excellent working dog. Next there is JoJo and Caleb they are both red and white from the streets of Savannah, Ga These two dogs have impressed me. They came off the streets and into the team and are running very well. Next is Sasha and Yeti. This year Sasha is really coming into her place on the team. In the past two years she has ran slow and stumbled many times but she never quit so I would ride the brake and keep the team slow enough for her to keep up. This year she is barking and howling to go and ready to give the guys a run for their money. A little time and patience with her has paid off. She is a wonderful girl. Yeti has been with me for a while now also. In wheel is Ulric and Dancer. These two guys never complain about their hard work of having to pull the cart by themselves when others are goofing off. Their tug lines are never loose and they keep a smile the whole time. When we stop Ulric always rolls over and wants a belly rub. He needs a sign on him that says "Will work for belly rub". Today we had a rider Aimee who you can see guiding the dogs along the trail. I always forget to tell people that I jump off the cart while the dogs are running and run up and take care of anything I need to without trying to stop the dogs from running. So when I jumped off Aimee was shocked as to what to do witht the steering and braking. She quickly learned that when I say "we went running today" that I meant the dogs were running and I was running. The cart is just there to carry the gear.