Everybody's Here in Manitoba At Last!

Omigosh, things has been so busy I couldn't write my diary. It was weeks ago now, but one day EVERYBODY from the Yukon arrived here on our Manitoba farm! They was all jammed into a big yellow school bus, and picket lines all over the place -- it was like just crazy! And doggies kept getting loose off the pickets or out of the crates they wuz sleepin' in. My goofy big brother LEV got loose one morning and went off explorin' -- Bossie was so distrackit like I never seen him before. Lev was gone for a whole week, and then they found him on the next farm. He had got porklepine quills in his snoot, the big doofus, and he was just covered with ticks.

All my fambly's in the HOUSE now -- my funny lil sisser Lara, and my bruzz Lev and Lenny are sleepin' in crates inside at night, and my dear old Mom Kolyma is Queen of the Kitchen. In fact, I don't know jus' how many doggies are in the house now. There's half a dozen Chinooks, and I guess more than a dozen of us Seppalas.

Bossie spends all afternoon every day building doghouses, and there's a bunch of the males up in the barn so he goes up to feed and exercise them twice a day. He's pretty tired when he falls into bed at night, so I cuddle up close and give him all the support I can. I know he needs ME special. 'Specially now that Tonya is so old and crusty that she won't give him the time of day some days . . . I could never treat my Bossie like that, but Tonner always was snooty like that.

I LOVE Missy Suzy, who cooks the food for all of us and looks after us so sweet, and tries to keep my Boss happy. I like to put my head in her lap when we sit together on the sofa. It's a crazy time just now, but a good time for me. I know I'm needed!

At Last it's Spring!

Well, it sure did take a LONG time for winter to be over! Or that's the way it seemed, since I didn't get to lead any teams. Not that I'm complaining about lying on the sofa in the living room, it's mighty comfable. But it did seem like the prairie winds would never stop blowing and the snow would never stop either. But now it's getting nice and sunshiny, and the other day Boss popped the first SQUIRREL of the season -- our first Bossburn squirrel! And he gave it to ME and I laid under the picnic table and crunchted it up.

Chena's puppies got real big and Boss has built doghouses for them; two of them are on stakeouts now and soon the other two will be, too. And those crazy Chinook puppies are finally outside in a pen with a big four-foot-square doghouse that Boss built 'em. I'm glad, cause they just drive me nuts when they are inside, they won't leave me alone no matter how furocious I growl, but of course Boss would be mad at me if I bit 'em so I have to grin and bear it.

Tonya is getting old and she went to the vetamarian and had her parts out, so she really can't be Queen any more, so now I'M gonna be Queen, except I don't know if Darka and Chena really accept that yet. Gotta watch that Cheech cause she IS a Head-hunter.

Life is sure a lot more compacated in this house full of Chinooks and all, than it used to be in Bossie's little shack. But I LOVE my new Missy and I sleep under the covers cuddled up to her sometimes, she is very sweet to me. So life is good for me . . . Bossie took a nice picker of me sleeping on the couch and I want him to put it on my page here.

I didn't know the world was so big . . .

Well life just goes on getting stranger for Lizzy Lineout! Late last fall Boss put me and Tonya and Janis and Darka in his big green truck, along with Chena and her new litter of puppies. The trip started out beautiful, nice and sunny, but we didn't get further than Watson Lake and we ran into a BLIZZARD! And from there on it was just more and more BLIZZARD for four days! It was scarey. And Boss just drove and drove and drove, and the truck gave him trouble, and he was SO tired he would just stop and nap for an hour or two, and then start driving all over again.

Finally we got somewhere. I saw it a year ago -- a nice little house on a nice farm with lots of birds and squirrels and stuff, my nose told me. And there I met this WONDERFUL lady, and Boss told me she was his new wife! So my new Missy and I got to be great friends, and I get on the sofa and lean across her bosom and bliss out, 'cause she loves dogs, too. But more weird yet -- she has MORE dogs like JANIS! "Chinooks" they call 'em -- some of 'em are crazy -- they bark real loud and bounce around a lot.

And I met this guy Jack -- and of course I had to bark him. I always bark strange guys. He finally left. Boss says he went to the Yukon to stay with Isa and the other Seppalas until we can bring them all back home. "Home" now is this farm place -- some of the Chinooks call it Wossburn, and Janis calls it Bossburn, but Boss and Missy call it Rossburn. I dunno! I don't call it anything . . .

And it snowed and snowed, and the wind blew real hard most of the winter, and we never got out to play on the sleds this year. But it was nice sleeping on the sofa, and at night on the bed. I hope my kids are okay back in the Yukon, but those little stinkers can take care of themselves pretty good, so I don't worry much. And I don't miss my sisser Lara, coz she always wanted to be Number One Girlfriend instead of me. Darka and Chena are with us here, and they are okay, just crazy. Chena tried to eat Darka's head once, when she was weaning her litter. Boss had to pull 'em apart! Darka got a scar over one eye, and now she calls Cheech "The Headhunter."

Ain't life weird, though . . .

I'm So Happy that I'm a Lead Dog

Well, Tonya and I justified oursellufs this winter! Boss had over a dozen totally dumb green yearlings that had to be taught to run in a team this winter. And this GUY kept coming over! Boss said I muss be nice to him 'cause he had come all the way from BeeCee to help, wherever that's sposed to be. But I barkted him every day, even on the days when I also washed his face for him.

And the ONLY other real leader we had was my Momma, Kolyma, and she always had to lead for this Jacob guy. So really it was up to Tonner and me. We must've gone out five times as much as any other dogs this winter, and the trails were real bad sometimes 'cause there was more snow than usual and a lot of wind, too. The fact is, if Boss didn't have me and Queen Tonya he would be in deep doodoo. I guess I have learnt to feel very serious and responsible somehow -- at least Boss sez I'm much more serious than before.

I'm just so HAPPY to be a leader and not to be stuck with my stupid puppies any longer. They are all staked out in the back yard. Jacob and Boss fooled around with them some, putting little harnies on them and letting them pull a piece of snowmobile track down the chute lane and back. They weren't big enough for a team, and I was glad of that. I done what I had to do and I didn't want much more to do with 'em. Bossie sez they look a whole lot lot like me but I don't see it. I think they are crazy like their daddy Pavel who is a Mad Russian.

Anyway, it's big status being a mainstay lead dog and I like that a lot. The only thing is, I don't know why Tonya and my dumb sisser Lara got a video and I didn't. I'm kinda jealous about that...

Well, I seed my doody an' I done it.

It was a long hard slog, though. Who would ever have thought that sweet li'l puppies would be so much work and would take so much out of a gal! If I could've done like Alana did a year or so ago, and jus' had ONE sweet li'l duppet, it might have been more fun. I though her li'l Echo was such a cutie.

I kept on nursing them until I didn't have a drop of milk left, and even then they wouldn't give up. But Boss has helped out. There are lots of squirrels around this fall, and when he pops one now, I grab it out from under Tonya and Janis, give it five or six good hard crunches, and then I take it up to the big puppy pen where my kids are living now, and drop it beside the pen so Bossie will know to give it to them. An' they have learnt what to do with a squirrel good an' young, the way they sposed to do.

The best part is that I'm all done with it, though, and I still have some time to recover before the fun starts this winter. I won't have to miss being an important lead dog, just to take care of puppies. I can hardly wait for the snow to fly!

Busy Lizzie!

You can just call me "Busy Lizzie" 'cause I'm so distrackit I dunno whether I'm comin' or goin', and Boss sez it's gonna get worse, cause the puppies' eyes are just about to open and their little heads are coming up and they will be running around. He sez! So far I've been able to keep 'em in my nesting cubby, mostly; once in awhile one would fall out the front and either climb back in or Boss would put him back.

I can't get enough to eat! I'm just STARVING all the time! And I've gone and growed big boobs, eight of them; I look like a dairy! And I used to be such a graceful gazelle type gal . . .

I tell ya, I just don't know what to think about this mother stuff. Boss sez I'll just love 'em when they start playing and really acting like puppies. He sez.

I would never have believed it

Well, it all happened nearly a week ago, and ever since then I've been so BUSY I couldn't even do my diary! On the 9th of June, right at the beginning of the Yukon's June HEAT-WAVE, I got to feeling real funny. And I had cramps! Bossie put an old blanket folded up on his bed and made me lie there. I trembled a little bit, 'cause in spite of the heat, I felt COLD. And the next four hours were like some kinda weird dream.

I came out of it with SEVEN little puppies! So now I haveta FEED them all somehow, and it isn't so easy. I dunno how my little squirt sister Lara managed to make her four puppies so fat last year. Mine are kinda skinny and Bossie says they should gain weight faster. I'm feedin' 'em as fast as I can! I was so sick at my tummy after I had them that I was yercksing all over the place the next day and I couldn't eat much. Oh yes, I haveta CLEAN UP after them, too! And that makes me feel yercksy, too, sometimes. I usedta think that little puppies were cute, but now I'm not so sure; maybe this motherhood thing ain't all it's cracked up to be. And I thought my puppies would PLAY with me; all these do is squirm around a lot, and nurse, and fall asleep.

But they are MY PUPPIES all the same, and if Tonya or Janis ever try to stick their schnoozles into my nesting cubby, they'll get out real quick, minus a nose or something!

Oh, my poor belly!

Oh, gawsh! I can't believe how TIGHT my poor belly feels! And I must look like a great big sow when I lie down on the floor. And a couple of them just INSIST on trying to poke their heads through my side, like they thought there must be a window or something!

Boss, cantcha do something to help me? When will this finally be over?

Omigosh, I figgereded it out!

I've been brooding about this whole thing. And last night I think I finally got it. I think I UNNERSTAND now what Boss has been talkin' about.

Last night we were lyin' on his bed after supper. I couldn't get comfable, and it felt like somethin' was pokin' around inside my belly! Bossie looked at me, and said "Lizzy, look at that! I can see your PUPPIES kicking your side." And do you know what, it crashed through then! I know now where I'm gonna get "puppies of my own" -- I've already GOT 'em, but somehow they are INSIDE ME. Ooooh. That's weird. How ever will I get 'em out?

And it seems like my hungries just won't quit these days. SO:

HURRY WITH YOUR POP-STICK, please, Boss-man!
POP me a bunny, as fast as you can!
POP him, and CHOP him, and give him to ME!
'Cos I got PUPPIES in the oven from PAVEL, you see!

Well, I wonder . . .

I just thought of somethin'. It happened weeks ago, though. I was feeling really weird at the time, I think I was sick or something, 'cos I was bleeding and I had to keep lapping myself. Anyway, Bossie brought old Jackie's son Pavel into the exercise yard to play with me, and we wound up doing something strange. And Bossie had to hold us and talk to us 'cos somehow we got stuck. I remember thinking, "Dang, we've GOTTA do it, I know it's weird, but this is life and death, somehow." It happened two days straight, and then I sorta came to my senses. And I just thought I had some kind of crazy spell.

I hadn't thought any more about all that. But now I really wonder . . . whether all that could have anything to do with the way I feel so funny now. Seems like I'm hungry all the time, but I don't want that dog slop any more. I want MEAT. Bossie popped a squirrel this morning and I ate every bit of it.