August 13, 2005
thirty-two years ago
THIRTY-TWO YEARS AGO I arrived in the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, after a grueling 1910-mile drive over two and a half days in a 3/4 ton blue GMC 4wd pickup truck, laden with my worldly possessions and 14 pure Seppala sleddogs. I had started out from Oxford Station, Ontario, where I had been kennelling for three years under the Canadian Kennel Club name of "TADLUK, Regd." I discovered Seppalas only after I already had a thriving "dual-purpose" Siberian Husky kennel using a wide variety of bloodlines.
An old dog named DITKO OF SEPPALA had undertaken my sleddog education in October of 1969. I was a slow learner, and old Dit died (in July 1971) long before I had learnt what I had to learn. He left a number of hard lessons impressed on my soul, but it took years for it all to come out in practice. The move to Saskatchewan in August 1973 marked my final commitment to Seppalas exclusively. I left the other Siberians behind me then, to go in another direction; even as the Siberian Husky breed had itself left Seppalas behind, to go in another direction -- to the show ring and the abandonment of the working trails of their sleddog ancestors.
I can still remember vividly every dog that was on that truck with me. SHANGO OF SEPPALA had pride of place, as the senior male at eleven years' age. LYL OF SEPSEQUEL and FROSTFIRE ANISETTE were there. HAAKON, HELEN and HOLLY OF MARKOVO were on board. Also NUTOK, NORKA, NERA, NYURA, WAWA, ZAKI, ZAZA, and XAROS OF MARKOVO. Fourteen dogs, carrying with them a unique genetic legacy from the Nome goldfields and the frozen wastes of Siberia. Most of them, along with others that Betsy and I bred in Saskatchewan, are shown on these MARKOVO pages of the SSSD Project website.
I wish that the fates had allowed all fourteen to pass their genes down to Seppalas of today! NORKA, WAWA, ZAKI, ZAZA and XAROS' bloodlines were not conserved properly. In the mad rush for middle-distance racing success of the Willett years, genetic breadth and conservation were ignored. The Great One has a lot to answer for. So have I. I doubt whether any of us then had as acute a realisation of what a unique gene pool that was, as some of us have today. So much more might have been done towards their conservation.
The Saskatchewan venture did not last. It was too harsh an environment, and the money ran out. Betsy Bush and I had to sell the Markovo dogs, largely to people who just didn't understand or appreciate what they were getting. It took us many years to reach a position, financially and emotionally, in which we could once again pick up the torch for Seppalas and once more engage in the battle for their survival.
(These reminiscences will probably be continued piecemeal over the next several days. It seems like a good season to look back and reflect . . . )
Posted by jjeffrey at August 13, 2005 12:19 PM