Our Talking Dog

We're back in Homer after spending most of the summer "up North". Took care of some maintenance projects at our Healy home on the Stampede Road and then did a long paddle trip on the Koyukuk River. While in Healy we had our last sleddog, Nike, staying with us. He is quite a little character and had a lot of stories to tell about his winter trips with the other dogs. When Nike was born we noticed he had a white "swatch" or checkmark on his otherwise black shoulder. He also has a huge overbite which gives him a long nose and short jaw. When we took him to the dentist she suggested braces but we thought he would just get dry fish caught in the wires so decided to have his lower canines shortened and capped. We've been working on Nike's verbal skills which are now up to the level of the typical human teen-ager....

While boating on several rivers we saw 2 sets of black bear moms with 3 cubs each. They teach their kids to swim at a really young age and it was pretty cool to watch these kids swimming across the wide and swift Tanana River.