HUGE Thanks to Kenna, Ole's foster mom, who brought him up on the airplane and who rescued him from the dog pound! Thanks as well to the Puget Sound Norwegian Elkhound Rescue, and THANK YOU all who donated to help pay his way up here! You have made a wonderful difference for TWO dogs!
I drove down Saturday, May 12, from Fairbanks. I left around 1pm and got there around 8:30pm. I stayed at Scott's (aka The Boyfiend) brother's house with him, his wife, two rescue shepherds and a cairn terrier.
The shepherds remembered me from almost a year ago! Before I got very far I received quite a few VERY mushy and wet face loves. When I sat down on the couch, Bruno decided I needed to be THOROUGHLY covered with GSD smell....he rubbed himself, especially his face, all over my arms, neck back, legs...it was pretty funny! Robin said, "Bruno, what are you doing?!" and Dave said, "Well, I guess you are truly a member of the pack now!" Believe me, I smelled like it!
That's Bruno on the left, and Little Miss Propeller Tail in Dave's arms.
Riki Tiki Tavi the terrier guarded my door all night long. I got up to go use the bathroom in the night, and when I opened the bathroom door to return to my room I had three dogs going "Can we DO anything for you?" This GSDs are HUGE, and they both wanted to get in my bed with me...I kept the door closed in the interest of sleep!
Tiki Tavi's got the greatest propeller tail! She looks like she's going to take off! I tried to get a little movie of her so I could make a propeller icon but of course it's too hard to get her to do that unless you have just arrived. I'll have to come in the door with my camera running next time I visit.
Sunday morning I got to meet Ruth, a friend from a dog board, the only other Alaska friend from that board. Her dog's name is Ace. He's aDORable! Ruth and I hit it right off and talked about dogs things and not dog things and had a very good time.
Ace is quite the fetchaholic, and it's hard to resist when he asks you with his pretty brown eyes.
But what's going on in this picture? Just a tad of devilishness!
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If it hadn't been for Ruth I would never have found the parking for the Alaska Airlines terminal. It was VERY poorly marked and I am SO GRATEFUL that she went to the airport with me!
We met Kenna, Ole's foster mom, at the security gate in plenty of time. And then we all three rushed downstairs to find Ole in his crate! There was a bit of discombobulation there, as we tried to figure out what to do first! Take Ole out of the crate? Take him out then come back for the crate? Didn't he have to pee? But who would the luggage...etc.....and between the three of us we sorted it all out.
We hugged, took pictures, tried to get Ole to pee...(but he wouldn't). In the end Ruth held Ole while I helped Kenna get luggage, a cart, the crate and made sure she didn't leave her jacket or purse behind somewhere. Eventually we all departed in our separate vehicles and Ole and I were on our way home!
As I drove him out of Anchorage we passed a huge cow moose right by the road in the city, but Ole was hiding behind the seat and missed it! Some of you may not realize that the actual name "elkhound" is a mistranslation of "elghund," which means MOOSEDOG. In Norway elghunds are still used to hunt moose. It's illegal in the US to do so, but elkhounds have moose hunting bred into them, being one of the "ancient" breeds. So Ole is a lucky boy to live where he can actually see moose all the time.
He isn't used to riding in vehicles, and kept trying to climb in my lap every time I sat down in the seat. When I wouldn't let him stay in my lap (it's hard to shift gears with 50 lbs of dog on the gear shift) then he got the bright idea of climbing between my back and the seat and leaning his head on my left shoulder. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but I let him do that as much as he wanted and eventually he settled down to ride with his head on my thigh (much better) while behind and between the truck seats.
He saw seagulls at a gas station near Denali and was afraid of them. Everything was "Aliens! Scary aliens!" It's was quite the culture shock for Ole.
He wouldn't pee! In fact, he wouldn't pee or drink water until I got him back to Fairbanks. It was a loooonnnnggg day for little Ole-oh! I was so worried and kept stopping to let him pee, but he wouldn't. He was very tired. But when we finally got to Fairbanks at 11pm (we left at five) I stopped at Scott's place. We took him for a walk and he found a muddy puddle and drank loads! Apparently the bottled water I was offering him was too clean. Next time I'll remember that dogs want flavored water.
It was midnight before we arrived at my house, and both Ole and I were exhausted. Sofia was overjoyed to see me home at last (Scott had stayed overnight with her on Saturday night) and of course needed a pee walk. At that point the Musical Dogs episode of my life began...keeping them separated until Sofia was happy enough with Ole not to try to kill him....
It took three days for her to go from 95% I Wanna Kill that Intruder, to 100% I Wanna PLAY With That Guy! It was a VERY stressful three days. The worst day was Tuesday, when I had to go back to work.
While Ole had peed for a good ten minutes at last, on Monday at 8am, he still hadn't pooped. I had one half hour lesson in town, and felt Sofia needed some time with me. So I crated Ole and left him alone for 1 1/2 hours while Sofie and I ran into town and back. When I got back Ole had pooped, finally....FIVE TIMES IN HIS CRATE.
What a mess! He was poopy, the crate was poopy, his food dish was poopy, his big rawhide bone was poopy....and I had exactly one hour to eat and clean him up.
SIGH. I did manage to get him all clean again, and luckily have an extra crate. The story ended fine, but it was really the worst day!
The next day Sofia decided she was going to accept him and not kill him (a good decision, I thought) and they've been best buddies ever since!
Ole is a happy, mushy, sweet and smart guy! He figured out the doorknobs in my house in five minutes just like Sofie did. So they both know how to open the doors in the house (handicap door knobs make it easy for dogs). We have toys strewn from one end of the place to the other, and I removed a soppy sock from his mouth just a while ago. He's only one year old, still a puppyhead goofball.
And now for the pictures....
Late Wednesday night I was eating my dinner (long day) and my boyfriend was in my tiny office playing on the computer. I suddenly realized that I didn't have Ole at my side (he's been leashed to me a LOT, because he gets into stuff) and I said, alarmed, "Where's OLE?" "Oh, he's right here," Scott said. "Oh.....what's he doing?" And what he was doing was chewing on a disposable RAZOR. Scott handed me the handle.