This weekend my happy "family" (boytoy, myself and the two furkidz) took a camping trip to Fairbanks. Friday night we stopped at a campground off the highway out in the middle of nowhere, north of Glenallen. It was late, but not dark and after taking the puppies for a quick run we hooked them up to the picnic table so we could concentrate on putting up the new tent. I used three leashes -one for each dog and one attached to the table leg, and hooked the handles of the boyz leashes through the clasp of the one on the picnic table. One of the leashes was a round rope english type, and the clasp didnt' QUITE close around it, but I figured it would be ok, as I was watching them and a good yank didnt' open the clasp. We couldn't find the instructions for the tent (boytoy put them someplace safe so we wouldn't lose them....hahahaha) and were concentrating hard on how the fly assembled when Kavik started barking. I told him to be quiet. He stopped barking for a second and started again. I told him to knock it off, but came around the tent to look at him. He was barking into the woods. I didn't see Toklat. I asked Mike if he saw Toklat. He said "he's right there" without even looking (which pissed me off bigtime) and I said "WHERE?". Then he actually looked and said some expletive. Toklat was gone. Kavik had been trying to tell us he was gone, but we hadn't paid attention. We were in a VERY Remote area, with a bear problem - right near the only highway in the freaking state. I ran into the brush, where Kavik was barking and started calling for Toklat. I saw no sign of him at all. I yelled for mike to loose Kavik, I figured he would find Tok for me. I called Toklat a couple more times and suddenly he appeared RACING towards me at breakneck speed - as fast as his little legs would carry him. He vaulted into my open arms obviously thrilled to be back with us. The best I can figure is that he pulled out of the clasp and just RAN and then suddenly realized when he heard me calling him that he was all alone and got nervous. Both dogs got special treats for being excellent dogs - Kavik for being the "Toklat Monitor" and Toklat for coming when called.
Saturday we arrived in Fairbanks which was unbelievably warm. So warm that we decided to get a hotel room and not tent camp- we were concerned about the dogs and there was no way we could leave them in the car while we went into a restaurant or a store. So we went and got us a nice room. The boys were happy in the hotel room and played in the air conditioning. We took them out for a quick ride to get food for us from a grocery store - leaving them maybe five minutes in the shade with their polar pup fan going - but thats as long as they could be in the car unattended. After eating dinner mike decided he wanted to swim in the tiny indoor pool so we left the kidz in the room, with chewies. They seemed fine - of course Kavik wanted to go, but he seemed fine. We went down the elevator from our room on the third floor to the first floor. We went into the pool area, but it was full of kids and mike decided to wait until later to swim. After a couple of minutes of dawdling and discussion we caught the elevator back to the third floor. We stepped out of the elevator and WOW! I thought! There is a SAMOYED in the hallway. It took a couple of seconds for it to register that it was MY samoyed in the hallway. He looked happy to see us and not at all traumatized, but we panicked as Toklat was nowhere to be found. I searched the hallway as Mike opened the room door and yelled that he was still in the room. Evidentally, Kavik opened the door, let himself and out and the door shut behind him. We were unsure whether the door had shut fully behind us, or if Kavik was able to open the door, so we put both boyz back in the room and shut the door. We immediately heard Kavik jumping on the door trying to hit the door handle, which upon further inspection was operated in a very similar way to Kavik's doggie gumball machine - where you push down a lever to get a treat. I expect the first door opening was an accident but this time it took less than 20 seconds for Kavik to open the hotel room door and escape into the hallway. That was the end of the dogs staying in the hotel room unattended. In any case, I am relieved to have both mishaps end well, although I certainly need to be more careful about tying the dogs to picnic tables and expecting doors to keep Kavik inside. I am thankful to have my own personal Toklat Alarm but now need to get another dog to let me know when Kavik is escaping. ______________________________________________________________________ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
