Wolf of the FiveSibes™ Salutes all K-9 Heroes T oday, March 13, marks K9 Veterans Day in honor of our four-legged heroes of the past, present, and future. We salute you. March 13, 1942 marks the official birthday of the United States K9 Corps when more than 10,000 dogs were recruited and went through eight weeks of basic training. We don't often think of Siberian Huskies as being war dogs. But they were one of the seven breeds of the K-9 Corps. According to History.com, "The K-9 Corps initially accepted over 30 breeds of dogs, but the list was soon narrowed to seven: German Shepherds, Belgian sheep dogs, Doberman Pinschers, Collies, Siberian Huskies, Malamutes, and Eskimo dogs....After basic obedience training, they were sent through one of four specialized programs to prepare them for work as sentry dogs, scout or patrol dogs, messenger dogs or mine-detection dogs. In active combat duty, scout dogs proved especially essential by alerting patrols to the approach o...

Wolf joins in the worldwide "Howl." April 23.  A very important date. It is the anniversary date of the vigil for the slain Whistler 100 sled dogs. Whenever we hear of them, our hearts break and tears fill our eyes. Last year, I, along with the rest of the world, heard the news reports about the shocking slaughter of a reported 100 healthy, hard-working, innocent sled dogs in British Columbia that came to light. Not only were they slaughtered, but some who were badly wounded were allegedly chased down and murdered in front of the other dogs just waiting for their turn to be killed. Last February, in a blog post titled, We Must Never Lose Our Humanity , I wrote about this horrific story and tried to understand how this could have happened. I still do not understand. The old adage says "Out of something bad, something good always comes." While nothing can erase the abominable visions I have in my own head of these dogs,..and while it chills me to think of what ...

T oday is a very special day...it is our beautiful alpha queen Harley's 7th Birthday! Harley is our first Siberian Husky and is my daughter's #1 girl! She knows she is the leader of the pack and enjoys "girl talk" time with my daughter and I, just hanging out on the chair or couch and giving us the occasional nod or mouth movement as we discuss everything from the day's events to movies to just how beautiful Harley is (she knows when we say "beautiful!")  H arley is amazing...even though she was the first Husky to rule our household, she welcomed Gibson in a year later with open paws, and then when the three Pupsters came, she took them all under her wing and became a wonderful surrogate momma to them. She loves her ratty blue Peep stuffed animal and her treasured pink ball, and gets so excited to play Fetch! and Tug-o-War, and loves to "polar bear" and body slam us and the other Sibes while playing! She can run like the wind, and smiles so b...

There's excitement in the air today as the 2012 Iditarod kicks off! It was as if our kids sensed it in the air...they ran their own race all around our yard kicking up snow (and dirt) zooming left, zooming right, jumping over each other in a great practice play for the great race! In our version, Harley would be our lead dog, challenged (and in the lead for this lap) closely by our alpha wanna-be, Bandit. And wherever Bandit is, Chloe is close behind! Wolf and Gibson were running their own race on the other side of the yard, pausing to jump up and knock snow off the tree branches, stopping to get a good nose full of the fluffy white stuff, before joining the other three in their energetic snow games! I think they were just so excited to have some significant snowfall...even if it is, sadly, starting to melt. If you are a fan of the Iditarod, there's some interesting places to check out and follow what's happening. For starters, there is the Iditarod: Last Great Race on Ear...

Harley & Chloe show off their portrait! Extra! Extra! It's Newsy Tuesday... and boy, do we have some exciting news to share! Back in  November, while reading an issue of the online newsletter, the Daily Kibble , I spotted one of their contests to win a Debby Carman original custom painting and just had to enter and have a chance at one of her wonderful, whimsical works of art (you can check out more of her enchanting creations over at her Faux Paw Productions website ).  My own FiveSibes™ Carman original! Imagine my surprise when I was notified by Lynn at the Daily Kibble that I had won my own custom portrait! In the words of my Sibes... Wooooo! Many thanks to the talented artist Debby Carman on her great rendition of my FiveSibes! It's so awesome that I've been going from room to room, holding it up trying to decide where I like it best since it looks so good just about everywhere in my house! I would also like to thank Lynn and the folks at Daily Kibbl...