05/18/04
Thank you for writing and checking in on Sasha, feel free to do so any time.  We know we aren't the only people that care about her and it doesn't bother us in the slightest.  We are all doing very well and Sasha is doing wonderful. The major adjustment period for Sasha and our sheltie, Tavish, appears to be over and life has settled into a more normal routine.  We still deal with jealousy issues over attention occasionally and toys mostly from both our dogs but it isn't as frequent as it used to be.  At the very least, they seem to have developed a minimal understanding of each other - and considering the vast differences between the breeds, that's about the best we can hope for!  
Sasha is SUCH a darling girl.  Our entire family refers to her as "Nanna" as a nickname as she is so mothering, checks on everybody and is always right there making sure you're doing whatever it is you're doing correctly.  I must say though, she spends a great amount of her time trying to calm Tavish down - it's pretty funny to watch her put her big paw on his nose to give him the clue to quiet down.  Doesn't really work though.  
She has gained some weight since you last saw her, nothing too extravagant, maybe 5 to 7 pounds, but she looks lovely. When she first came to live with us, she didn't play with toys all that well, but look out now!  She'll play fetch occasionally for short periods, but loves tug-o-war and tag and is so gentle in each sport. 
All in all, she is doing very well and is a wonderful addition to our family.  The Sheltie may not agree all the time, but that's what happens when an only child gets a sibling!  We are taking both pups to the Oregon Coast for a long weekend next month and looking forward to the romps in the surf.  Tavish is a total beach bum, I think he'd sell Dustin and I for a life at the beach at any given moment, and we are hoping Sasha will enjoy herself just as much.
Again, feel free to contact us anytime you have questions, want an update, picture or even if you would like to see her.  I'm sure we could arrange something. 

05/16/04
SHEBA IS DOING GREAT. SHE LOVES WATER, PEOPLE OF ALL SIZES, WALKS, CAR RIDES & HER BACK YARD. SHE HAS TAKEN A COUPLE OF DIVES INTO THE KOI POND & TOLERATES THE THREE PARROTS. SHE CRATES UP NOW WITHOUT HESITATION, EATS WELL & GETS PLENTY OF EXERCISE WITH OR WITH OUT US. SHE SHED HER WINTER COAT LAST MONTH & THERE WAS ENOUGH FUZZ TO MAKE ANOTHER DOG. WE STILL LOOK AT YOUR WEB PAGE TO SEE IF TIPO HAS BEEN ADOPTED & FEEL BAD THAT SOMEONE HASN'T RECOGNIZED HIS QUALITIES. SHEBA IS A JOY TO LIVE WITH & WE CAN'T THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR BRINGING US TOGETHER. YOUR GROUP IS REALLY SPECIAL & ALL OF YOUR HARD WORK IS APPRECIATED BY THOSE THAT ADOPT THIS SPECIAL BREED OF DOG.
PS. SHE DOES SLEEP ON THE BED!

05/15/04
Sitka is turning out to be a really great dog also. He plays well with my female, and my male is tolerating him okay too. The greatest blessing is that I can walk all three together, and that is a fun sight for the neighbors! Of course I am still kenneling him when I'm gone at work, and he is pretty much willing to go in there and curl up in the dog house. The neighbors have not complained about him being noisy either. He has not made any further attempts to escape.
His latest adventure was this morning--his first trip to the local off-leash park where I used to take Red Ash. Oh my, if you could just see the look on his face! It was as if he had died and gone to heaven!
I was really cautious about letting him off-leash. For a little while there was a weiner dog yapping at his feet and since his description says he is not good with small dogs, I was concerned he would go after the little guy. But he was a perfect gentleman.
He had the time of his life. My colleague came along with his two greyhounds. His female greyhound can be a little aggressive--she took one look at Sitka's big ears and just grabbed hold of one and wouldn't let go. She dragged him all over the park by his ear and finally he just went belly up and we pulled her off him. He was more bewildered than anything. Who would have thought a greyhound could take down a malamute!
When we got down to the water, Sitka just ran along the beach knee deep. The male greyhound is a swimmer. After about the third time watching that greyhound fetch his toy out of the water, Sitka waded in deeper and deeper and all of a sudden he was swimming. He loved the water! Couldn't keep him out of it after that!
He flushed a little bird out of a bush and chased it around for a good 3 minutes. I don't know why the bird didn't fly higher, but for the longest time it flew just at his eye level, and he was only about 5 feet behind it. He is amazingly fast--and prey-driven!!
The funniest part of our adventure was trying to corral Sitka and get him back to the car. Remember Barb's description of him running around the field with 3 people chasing him? Well, he would not let me or my friend near him so I was just planning on staying there until he exhausted himself, when he ventured close to a professional dog walker and I yelled out, "If you would just grab onto that malamute I would be eternally grateful!" and she did. By the time I got to her, she was saying, "Are you being a typical malamute?" Oh yeah.
I don't know Sitka nearly as well as Trixie, but from what I've seen so far, he is a great dog, socialized properly by somebody anyway.

09/06/03
Some of you I haven't spoken to in awhile.  I thought I would drop you all an email.   Things are going well here.   I've been on break for the past week, and have another week to go.  I've been getting some good tracking in, and I’m heading out to go camping in a few days.   Last week, I tracked a deer into a deer lay.  After I was done, I gobbled up some blackberries, and then proceeded to the Sandy River where I finished it off by watching a dance of Blue Herons gliding above the water.  Lovely....
It has been hot here, and much like Sierra, I would prefer to remain in the basement.   To attempt to coax her out of the basement is an amusing display.   She is pretty much out of it, not moving from the fan blowing on her.   Come dusk, however, she is all energy, and ready to go.  I will hook her up to my bicycle sometimes and I will bike with her until I see those sweet eyes look a little tired (this takes quite awhile though :-}
She and I also have a group of friends that we meet at the dog park five days a week.   This group is a five person group that jokingly calls ourselves, "The Gabriel Park Sled Team."  We're a group of Northern Breed owners that are age 27-68.  We bring food, bawdy jokes, and lots of weird stories.  We sit there and watch our Malamutes and Huskies run until they drop.   Most nights, one of the guys, Bob, gets me laughing so hard that I walk out with a sore stomach.     He apparently has a disdain for pomeranians and isn't afraid to think of the nastiest jokes about them possible  :-}
I hope everyone is doing well and having a great summer...........

08/21/03
Howdy! I saw the Web site changes and I got to say I love them! We've adopted and Fostered dogs from WALMAL in the past. I wanted to send along this picture of my guys 3 of whom I adopted from WALMAL and AMOR (Oregon rescue) Was thinking you could add them to the Happy Tails section. Shown in the pics are Steele - Our First Mal and the 1st Mal listed as Rescued on the WALMAL Site Cinnamon - a husky we adopted from AMOR, Lucky, we got from WALMAL last October and Caillou and dog we bought from a breeder. Thanks for making the web site look great:)
In the "good Line Out Photo You see Steele and Caillou in wheel, Cinnamon in Swing, and Lucky in Single Lead. Lucky is becoming a good lead dog. this was taken at Mushing Boot Camp this May. 
The Other picture was taken this past winter in the Fish lake area. It Shows Lucky and Cinnamon in Lead and Steele and Caillou in Wheel.