Just to mark the day for all time (and perhaps so I can compare next year):
Today's the day the little green leaves came out on all the aspen trees at Seppala Kennels!
Well, we sure had been wondering when if ever it would happen. And today, the 23rd of May, quite suddenly, there they were at last. What a relief. And it really is warm enough now for us to believe that we shall, after all, have a summer this year. Mind you, there's still quite a LOT of snow in the Miners' Range.
Moreover, there's no longer any doubt about the pregnancy of Lizaveta of Seppala. Although she's carrying her litter very high and tight, even from a distance she looks very stocky and thick through the loin; she's obviously got something. And she still has three weeks to go. We're delighted, as this is a litter that is very much wanted and greatly anticipated. Lizzy's the best young bitch in the kennel, and her mate Pavel of Seppala is one of our Russian import
Pia of Seppala's 2006 trio are eleven weeks old and really delightful pups. They nursed well, weaned easily, they eat well, and they have grown steadily (weights 19.5 to 21 pounds a week or ten days ago). Two of them, Ulan and Ulma, will look very much like their mother Pia, probably silver-grey saddlebacks; the biggest male Uelen is white like his sire Krevanka of Seppala (Tonya's brother). They are out of their pen a lot for play sessions in the fenced compound around my shack, and they have gotten very friendly and easy-going now. They go bombing up and down the steep hillside with gay abandon, building little muscles and ligaments. If these are a fair example of the second-generation Markovo/Russian cross, and we think they are, then Lizzy's litter ought to be "to die for."
A MONTH AND A HALF AGO I said spring was coming. I lied.
The weather seems seriously out of order, more and more. After a tepid winter, now we can't seem to get into spring here in the Yukon. It has snowed -- a little bit -- most days for the past couple weeks. Yesterday it finally turned to rain, but when I looked at the thermometer this morning it was still only about three degrees above freezing. Things aren't greening up in the usual way. We spotted the first crocus of the season about five days ago, but it must be freezing its li'l purple butt off and wishing it had slept for another couple weeks.
CHOOCH didn't take to her ZAKI mating. I don't know which one of them was at fault, or maybe it was both. He's pretty old, and she had a fairly odd heat and a lot of abnormal discharge afterward.
LIZAVETA was mated to PAVEL OF SEPPALA (son of SHAKAL IZ SOLOVYEV the Russian import, out of ZIRCONIA OF SEPP-ALTA). It has been five weeks; she isn't bigging up just yet, but she has the right kind of discharge, she stopped shedding right after the mating, her back has that mirror-sheen on it, and her behaviour has altered radically. She's super-soppy, and she will no longer participate in any exercise-yard games; just sits beside Isa or me and watches the others play. When she gets near any other bitch (except Tonya or Janis who are with her every day in the shack), she sports an AMAZING "Mohawk" that goes all the way down to her tail. And her eating has become impossibly picky. Another week or ten days should see her blowing up like a balloon if she's really pregnant. Let's hope -- we need something to salvage this depressing non-spring season.