Magic The Sled Dog Tells A Story
|
When Krissie was in the hospital having her tonsils removed, Magic wrote her a story.
June 2, 1993
Dear Krissie
We heard you weren't feeling too well and came up with the idea of telling you one of our adventure stories. My name is Magic. I'm a black and white Alaskan sled dog with blue eyes, named after a basketball player of all things.
The characters in my story are all here with me.
First there is Lucy. "Hi Kris!" She's a black and white Siberian Husky. We all call her Crazy Lucy behind her back. Then there is Buck, a very formidable copper and white Siberian male. Cujo is another Alaskan like me only all legs and he never seems to get winded no matter how far we run. Jude and Zina are both black and white Sibes. Zina has the dubious distinction of being Lucy's twin sister.
Anyway, now that we've been introduced, we'll get on with our story.
We all love to run, whether there's a sled behind us or not, which sometimes creates a problem for our master who thinks he's the Alpha Male around here. As long as we let him think that, things run pretty smoothly.
Lucy: "But there was one time last winter when we really put the Old Man through his paces."
Magic: "That's what you say. Everything would have been just fine if he hadn't put you next to me at lead. You see the Old Man likes to run us on the lake not far from where we live. It's really easy for us with no hills to run up, and it's easy for him because it's close by and there's usually a snowmobile trail there for us to follow. Up to this point he'd only been running us in four dog teams. Of course, we're easier to control when there's only four of us, six is a little different proposition."
Buck: "Why don't you get on with the good part? Cujo and I are the ones that got wet."
Magic: "Ok, just keep your fur on. We got to the lake that morning and as usual, he took Jack, Dottie, Hood and Sheila out first. I neglected to introduce them, but they live with us, too. Lucy just doesn't like sitting around in a dog box while those four are having all the fun, so she tries to think up ways to do things different each time we go out."
Jude: "Well I for one don't mind staying in the box with all the sweet hay to keep me warm."
Cujo: "You don't like to run anyway."
Zina: "Why don't the rest of you be quiet and let Magic get on with it."
Magic: "We finally got our turn and after Lucy and I were hitched up in lead, he hooked up Jude and Zina at point followed by Cujo and Buck at wheel. (Those are all sled dog words that refer to what position we are hooked up to the sled in.) And away we went."
Lucy: "I always like the starting part when we see if we can get away before he steps on the sled."
Magic: "We were doing fine until you saw that raccoon along the shore."
Lucy: "I just wanted to say hello to her."
Magic: "You just about did, too, before he got the sled stopped. It took you long enough to figure out that he wanted to continue on with the training run rather than talk to a raccoon."
Zina: "I thought we'd be stopped there all day until the two of you started moving in the right direction again."
Magic: "Lucy finally gave up the raccoon chase and we started running on a different trail along the shore. We went around a corner, past a small spot of open water, where there's a spring and the water doesn't freeze very well and up into the woods. As I said before, the Old Man likes to train on the lake and here we were in the woods, so he stopped us again."
Jude: "He had to stop us because you'd each decided to go separate ways around a tree and the rest of us were all snarled up in the gang lines and tug lines."
Magic: "Yes, you're right, but I, at least, was on the trail side of the tree. Anyway, he got our lines all straightened out and squared away."
Buck: "Yes, but he forgot that when you stop a bunch of racing dogs for any length of time we get our second wind."
Zina: "We start out again just like we were leaving the starting line."
Buck: "So once he pulled the snow hook and everyone took off we were only a couple of hundred feet from the lake."
Cujo: "...and that spot of open water. I could see it coming and there wasn't a thing I could do about it. As we came onto the ice, Crazy Lucy at lead decided she didn't want to follow the great snowmobile trail we were on, she wanted her own trail and zigged to the left."
Jude: "That left Zina and I scrambling to zig also. We just managed to miss the water."
Buck: "Unfortunately, for Cujo and me there was no zigging left and we ended up sliding right into the water."
Cujo: "The Old Man wasn't too happy either because that's what wheel dogs are for. Where we go, the sled goes."
Buck: "..and whoever is on it."
Cujo: "He sure was gasping and sputtering when he surfaced."
Buck: "At least he was able to push you and me back onto the ice, and then the sled. Finally he dragged himself clear after grabbing his coat."
Jude: "I think that's about the maddest I've ever seen him. Good thing he'd taken his heavy coat off and put it in the sled. I think if he'd been wearing it he would have sunk".
Zina: "I just don't think it was appropriate of you at that point, Lucy, to walk over to the water and take a drink like nothing had happened, while the rest of us were hanging our heads and trying not to laugh."
Magic: "Well, we finally got all straightened out again, back to the truck and finally back home. Nobody caught a cold and we earned ourselves a little more respect."
Cujo: "That's easy for you to say. I'm the one that got dried off with a hair dryer. The indignity of it all."
From all of us at Washington Kennel, we hope you're feeling better soon.
Signed, MAGIC (and the others)
|
|
|
