It's awfully quiet here....

So May 1st Hugh and I loaded 56 dogs (plus Deyaah) into two trucks and a trailer and headed down to Skagway and then on the ferry over to Juneau. Hugh and the dogs will call Juneau home for the next (gasp) five months! Standing on the ferry dock we realized watching Deja vu the night before was maybe not the best movie choice.

We arrived at Juneau and thankfully Randy and Kim were at the dock waiting to show us how to get to the dog camp. The camp is about a mile shy of the ski hill on Douglas Island. Upon leaving the road, we started going down a muddy, steep, winding road over to where Hugh and the dogs will spend a lot of time. It's amazing the amount of work that had taken place before we got there. The dog yard had been dug out and then built back up leaving some steep slopes on either side. As you can see it was really muddy in spots.

Being as there wasn't enough room yet some of the dogs ended up being temporarily placed in the trees on the sides.

The good thing was that these dogs could watch out over the whole yard. There were lots of people around to help unload the dogs in a short amount of time.

Shortly after arriving I had to run over to the vet clinic to have them look at Nova. She hadn't been feeling well the past few days and she had all the signs of pyometra. I didn't want to leave her at home in case it got worse and thought that the Juneau vets might be more reasonably priced than here in Whitehorse. The vets confirmed my diagnosis and scheduled her to be spayed the next day. We had always hoped to breed Nova but after two years of no heats (or no obvious signs), a false pregnancy last fall, and a heat a month ago where all she wanted to do was mount the males, I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I picked up Nova right before my flight the next day. She was doing well, walking around as though nothing had happened but of course I had to argue with the vets to release her. They wanted to keep her overnight to make sure she was ok. I then got the bill - $1,100!! This after they'd told me on the phone it would be around $250. I guess it's not just Whitehorse after all with outrageous vet prices.

Hugh took us to the airport and we said our goodbyes. I guess we'll have to deal with phone calls and random visits for awhile. I got home on Wednesday night. I have only 12 dogs to look after but hopefully we'll have fun together this summer. Nova is doing well, hanging out on the couch and on my bed. She's moving slowly but perking up more each day. Most of the snow is now gone at the house. The snow drift from the lake is still there and I can still walk on the ice on the lake to get water. I have to admit I'm not really enjoying this however as there are open spots at the other end where the lake is shallower. The birds are starting to arrive and the mud is slowly disappearing. Summer will be here soon.

-- tamra