We are now in the midst of the darkest days of the Yukon winter, when the sun barely creeps above the horizon for a few hours, when morning and evening bring a long blue twlight, when the hours of nighttime darkness seem unending. It is the worst time emotionally for those of us who live in the bush. That it is also "the holiday season" or "the season to be jolly" seems an unconscionable irony. Rarely do we feel jolly at this time of year. The jolly times come later, during the long periods of high atmospheric pressure, the longer days of uninterrupted brilliant sunshine that usually arrive in late February and prevail through April.
It has been a dark and sombre time. Our dear old "Eegie," Sepalleopard from our first Seppala litter born in Catalunya on 29 November 1991, died in his sleep on the 13th. We also lost a 9 1/2 year old bitch to unexplained natural causes yesterday. Worst of all, one of our brightest young leaders just suffered an illness that may end her career prematurely; the outcome is uncertain, and this weighs heavily on our hearts.
The deep gloom is penetrated by a couple of rays of light, though. Isa's main leader, our broodbitch Kolyma of Seppala, whelped a litter of five on the 18th to eleven-year-old retired leader Markobosco. They are big, healthy, robust pups for sure; all five weighed 21 ounces at birth, real thumpers, yet Kolyma birthed them very handily with no trouble. She has a ravenous appetite now, as I guess the pups must also do! The three boys look as though they will very much resemble their dad, while the two girls are both Isabella whites. Another bitch, little seven and one-half year old Jinx of Seppala, whelped a litter of five to my strongest and most reliable first-string team dog Surgut of Seppala on the 19th, hot on the heels of her half-sister Kolyma. Jinx had a hard time with her whelping, starting with a pup that was rather too big to go first, successfully whelping five of the seven she conceived. Then she was too worn out to continue. She managed to produce one more, a bit too late for it to survive, then had to undergo a C-section to remove a last dead fetus. Nevertheless, she bounced back quickly from her surgery and is feeding her litter of five quite well, fanatically devoted to her pups.
So life goes on at Seppala Kennels in the Yukon. Death visits us on these dark days of the winter solstice, but so does birth, new life, hope for the future. When the present chinook thaw gives way to colder weather, we'll be back on the trail, teaching the current crop of yearlings the sleddog's trade.
Posted by jjeffrey at December 22, 2003 11:55 PM