Back on Feb 4, we went to the Chili Lunch and Sled Demo fundraiser for the Free Spirit Husky Rescue.  This is the group where we found Sascha.  She was Holly back then.  I like to support them when I can and it gives us a chance to let Sascha see her old friends.  I was hoping they would let her pull one of the sleds also.  We were in luck.

Sascha loves to ride in the car.  Whenever she has the chance, she barks and paws for you to open the door.  I came prepared this time with a seat cover for any muddy dog that happen to get in. Sascha rides looking out the back window.  She seems to prefer the view of where she has been rather than where she is going.  I think she might get a little car sick looking at the scenery going by so fast. For whatever reason, she sits up with her head resting on the back of the seat watching everything going by.

We arrived about an hour after the event started.  Sleds were set up in the grassy lot behind the Moose Lodge, where the food was being served.  Sascha got all excited to see the dogs and sleds.  We located Bob, who was the driver of her team back in the day.  He was very glad to see her and asked if she wanted to pull the sled.  He said his current dog just wasn’t handling the lead dog responsibilities and he was glad to see someone who could. 

Apparently, Sascha is considered by those who know to be a phenomenal sled dog.  She was lead dog for a year, which meant living out in the kennel to get conditioned.  I think she definitely prefers the indoors now.  Even the Gary, who is the urban musher I took lessons from, remarked that she was incredible.  That’s why we mush now.

We had been having a problem keeping booties on Sascha while running.  I got a chance to ask Bob about this.  You really need to protect the dog’s feet from gravel and other things that could cause cuts or irritation.  Problem is: Nothing we tried would even stay on for more than a minute when you run with her.  Bob says this is normal.  He told me that in the Iditarod race, teams have a thousand booties for the entire team and they usually go through them by the end of the race.  So I’m not the only one having a problem with keeping them on.

 I took Sascha off to the side to wait her turn to pull the sled.  We met a lady and her husky, Mia.  We talked about the dogs and somehow got onto our perfect place to live.  Hers would be Montana with about 6 huskies and her own sled.  She skis and plans to have Mia skijoring next year.  Skijoing is where you use a dog to pull you on skis.  It uses the same lead and harness set up for dog scootering.   As we talked, I watched Mia demolish a 4-inch round tree branch.  Glad my Sascha isn’t destructive like that. 

Time came to harness up.  Sascha was so excited, she couldn’t stand still.  We finally got the harness on her and moved over to hook up to the lead.  There is also a neck lead between the two dogs to keep them somewhat together.  You don’t want them splitting off into two different directions.

Bob finally hooked up the last dog and mounted the sled to begin the trek.  He yelled, “Hike,” and Sascha took off.  Unfortunately, the other lead dog was a little slower to response.  Someone walked out to start them running.  They did a pretty good job, but the other lead dog was having some trouble with direction.  Bob would yell, “Gee (that’s right)” and Sascha would attempt to go, but the other dog would push back.  A little frustrating for Sascha. 

They finally made it around the field and came back.  Sascha looked exhausted and drank a ton of water afterwards.  She definitely enjoyed the run though and I think she even wanted to go again.

One of the volunteers, Lance, came by to say hello to her.  She seemed to remember him.  She wanted to play and he messed with her for a little bit.  I think he was the main caretaker for her kennel.  Lance was the person we talked to on the day we saw her at the rescue.  He really worked hard to sell us on her.  I should have told him he didn’t have to.  We loved her from the pictures on the rescue site!

Anyway, Sascha had a great day.  She got to pull a sled again and meet up with some old friends.  The rescue recently posted pictures from that day and I pulled them down and created an album on my Picasa site.  Thought maybe I should tell me a little bit about what went on. 

https://picasaweb.google.com/JZurekFamily/SaschaAndTheDogTeam#

Now it’s back to urban mushing for Sascha.