Congratulations Riot and Jigsaw! Our first litter of puppies have arrived. Riot gave birth to her first litter on May 17th. Mom and puppies are doing great and they are already being loved by all of us here at the kennel, Caitlin, Mike, Max, Thomas, Katie, and Savanna, as well as by our visitors. When puppies are born they are pretty immature, so their eyes are just opening. I know they will be getting into mischief in no time.
Katie and two of the "I" litter
As many of you know we have an alphabetical naming scheme for pups. These puppies will have names starting with the letter "I" and we are eager for suggestions if you have any. Max may not have completely understood our naming plan. He already has names for some of the puppies. One he calls “Thunder Rolls” another he was calling “Furbert.” I thought that Furbert was a pretty cute name and I wondered how he came up with it. However, when I asked him about it he told me “Like the Rainbow Furbert we had in a cone.”
Max and Furbert
We had our Cantwell School graduation this last weekend. When I was getting ready for the event last year, I came down stairs wearing a dress. Max said, “Look at that!” I guess I am not known for dressing up.
This year there was one graduate from High School. Hence Lukus was the valedictorian of his class. The Cantwell School graduations are always special. For me it is impressive how many people from our community come to the ceremony who are not directly related to the student. It really speaks to me about how much pride the community takes in our students. It truly feels like the whole village does raise our children.
It does look a little different on the stage to have just one student sitting there in a chair. One of the most memorable ceremonies for me was another year there was a single graduate. The speaker that year had raised her own children and grandchildren in Cantwell. During her speech she addressed the fact that the student was alone on stage and asked everyone in the audience who had graduated from Cantwell School to come up on stage with him. It was a pretty incredible sight to see.
As I was preparing my welcome speech for the ceremony, I looked back at work Lukus had submitted over the years. As the school year started, I asked all of the kids questions about their beliefs about school. I was hoping to understand their feelings about school, to determine and strengthen their motivations. I asked the students if they believed that they were customers at the school. Lukus replied “I am not a customer of school because as any waiter would know the customer is always right. In school there is a lot of times that you are wrong.” My goal as a teacher is to prepare students for life. If Lukus has learned that life is full of mistakes, but that does not stop us, then I feel I have accomplished this.
It is remarkable to me how fast summer comes to Denali. Within a week all of the trees and willows have leaves on them. There are still a few small snow piles left in the shady areas. The trails are muddy in places. Mike has been working with many of the puppies from last summer. He is incorporating them into teams with the more experienced dogs. E-Street and Elvis are rocking up the trail. Max, Mike, and I ran a team of youngsters the other day. As we were running along, Max kept exclaiming, “A beautiful mountain. Another beautiful mountain!” How cool is it that he feels that way about where we live.
Elvis looking proud
E-Street screaming out of the kennel
Mike also built a remarkable new pen for our young puppies. We have always raised puppies in elevated kennels to keep them as clean and dry as possible. However, to improve this even more Mike added a drainage system, so that you can hose the pen clean and the waste water goes down a drainage pipe into its own septic system. The irony is not lost on me that we lived for 10 years without running water, yet now the dogs have a complete plumbing set up. I think it characterizes the priorities of our life. If there is anything that we can do better for our dogs, we try to find a way to accomplish it.
The days are long and we are loving the sunshine. Max has gotten himself back on his teenage schedule. Staying up late with the light and sleeping in. It always impresses me how much the daylight can change your perception of time of day. The dogs themselves seem unfazed by the change of light. They are always ready for action. Grab a harness and they are up and at 'em, dark or light, warm or cold.
Jigsaw and Bruiser leaping to go
Until next time, I hope you are having as much fun with your dogs as we are with ours.
Mike, Caitlin, and Max