Great poem from nephew Jacob: Bad Dog

My nephew has given me permission to share this brilliant poem he wrote a couple years ago. He wants a per cent of any profits involved. I didn't dare tell him that there is no money in poetry, even very fine poetry like this.

Bad Dog

I am a bad dog.
My gas makes a fatal fog.

I once stole my master's new car.
I drove 120 mph into a bar.

I drink martinis with the baby.
My behavior couldn't be worse if I had rabies.

I once watched a NASCAR race.
I bit a racer there in the face.

In one day, I stole a steak
And throw a car into a rake.

If you think I'm going to the pound
You're wrong! Cause i am one bad hound.

Rocky's favorite part of Thanksgiving

Michelle brings Nino and DJ to play soccer with the dogs.

must be the scary sweater

Walking the dogs the other day, Sookie slipped away and I heard her barking. I turned around to see her nose to nose with a yearling moose, barking ferociously and advancing on him. The moose was backing away cautiously and politely.

This was a young and small moose, no more than 500 pounds. Sookie weighs nearly 10 pounds.

I called her and she came running back to me. She danced on her hind legs and waved her front paws in the air and told me she had saved me from the Big Dog.

It's been snowing for a week and today it started to look serious. The leaves are still on the trees but we might not see earth again until May.

local moose and other urban wildlife

The tulips are ready. Any day now a moose will come by, walking neatly on the sidewalk, and carefully bite the bloom off each tulip. A sad thing but it can't be helped. They are not nearly as fond of daffodils, fortunately.

The cows are moving into town to give birth. Bears and wolves love to eat moose calves. Unlike moose, bears and wolves tend to avoid humans. So throughout the city the cows will give birth in back yards, parks, schoolyards, and hiking trails. Anywhere people tend to be. In Denali National Park, they often choose the tennis court or the hotel parking lot (right next to the espresso bar).

We all love calves, bright red and the size of goats. But their urban presence is something of a worry. Mother cows are very protective. They give birth near us, but are likely to charge to defend their babies.

We took the dogs to the park today. A muddy section of trail forced us to a section we usually avoid because of the presence of a beaver dam. Usually we walk at midday when the beavers are asleep. Today we were a little early - that happens when the sun rises at 4 am. Having screwed up twice, we met the beaver. First he slapped his tail. That meant something to the humans, but the (rather slow) dogs were intrigued. Rocky and Cosmo stood at the edge of the water on full alert.

The beaver, who weighed at least 50 pounds and was smarter and faster than than the dogs came rearing up out of the water, standing tall, and chirping at the dogs. We hastily called them back and leashed them and dragged them away.

Never mess with a beaver. Or an otter,

the best Iditarod ever

http://www.adn.com/2693/story/342356.html

I know I said that last year. But really, seeing Dee Dee and Paul in the early leads, friends Jim Lanier and Robert Buntzen having such good runs.. And the trash-talking but gentlemanly stuff between Lance Mackey and the great Jeff King... and Lance's second win! The second time this crazy man and Larry, Hansom, etc won both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod back to back,,, what a thrill!

The teams run at night because days in the Arctic this time of year are too warm for the dogs. During the Idtarod I often dream that I am on the trail. I see my dogs ahead of me in the light of my headlamp.

Last night I dreamed of Lance running through the night. I was amused when four different people told me of similar dreams.

Imagine all of us dreaming of Lance as he runs...

Good dogs!

Dee Dee first into Cripple!

Got into a cab this afternoon, a little disoriented after five days in New Orleans. I asked the cab driver how the Iditarod was going, and he told me beautifully. Dee Dee was first into Cripple, the halfway point, after Paul Gebhardt got turned around and started back the way he had come. We spent ten minutes deep in the details of mushing. Aside from baseball, this is the only sport I know and love and can talk about endlessly at the slightest provocation.
Dee Dee scratched last year, and I didn't think she was going to run again. She broke her hand and blamed it on the drugs she was taking to prevent a recurrence of her breast cancer. She had run the 2003 just weeks after completing chemo.
But maybe this is her year!!!!

glacier

Earlier this week, we took the dogs for a walk on the Matanuska Glacier. This is rather like stepping onto a planet with an atmosphere remarkably like Earth. There's ice and silt and rock underfoot, intense blue crevasses, and no sense of proportion at all. The picture I took would probably make as much sense upside down.
When Rocky goes to the glacier, he pretends he is the little dog Stickeen from Muir's "Travels in Alaska". He leaps heroically over the abyss.