Faithful Companions

I was 22 years old and in my last semester of school at Northern Arizona University when my friend asked if I wanted to go help her pick out a puppy. It was the home of this family that had a litter of husky puppies every year. They used the money to send their son to college (Arizona's in-state tuition at that time was only $600 a term). My friend picked out this adorable long haired "red" husky and we were on our way out the door when we heard this whining in the corner of the yard. (btw: their yard was completely trashed with holes, chewed objects, and whatnot.....should have been a warning signal) I went over to the sound and found a small ball of fluff that appeared to be stuck in a hole under a bike. I pulled him out of his hiding spot, and I do think he was hiding because he resisted being picked up. I was a gonner, he was so dang cute with these floppy ears and fuzzy face. I just had to have him regardless of the fact that I lived in an apartment, was graduating soon, and really had no business owning a dog. My parents shared this sentiment exactly, right up until the moment that they came for my graduation and met my new friend, Boaz. I had to move into a house so I could keep Boaz, this was the first of the many dives that I inhabited in order to keep my ball of fluff. He ended up getting Parvo at around 4 months of age and barely lived through the illness. I spent more money than I had in saving him but have not regretted it for one second.

There are so many funny stories to tell about this dog, here are a few: I had him in the back of my Toyota pick-up canopy soon after taking him home and heard a strange sound. I looked back to see him with his head thrown back howling at the moon because he didn't want to be back there alone. From that moment on he rode up with me in the cab. Even when he grew to be a 65lb ball of fur he still sat in the front seat. When I sit on the floor he backs his bum up and sits on my lap, I never get tired of that little trick. Boaz has not ever retrieved a stick. He jumped fences and took himself on walks until he was about 10 years old. One time I left him with my Mom for a week in the spring and I came home to a skinny, scrawny dog! She had brushed a garbage can of hair out of him and that has been the norm ever since. He has OCD about his feet being wet and will even lick Seeley's feet dry once he is done with his own. I used to take him rock climbing and he would sit at the base of the rock howling until I would come down. He sits on my lap in the raft when at all possible. Boaz likes black labs aLOT, especially boys! He brings his dish to me and drops it at my feet when he wants to eat.

Boaz traveled with a friend and I to Sitka, AK for a summer. This was the first of many times he would run away on me. We were hiking Harbor-Gavan Hill Ridge Trail to camp in this shelter for a night and the trail was slippery. He was still a pup and pulled pretty bad on a leash, and nobody had invented the retractable leashes yet, so I let him run. Big mistake. He was gone, gone as can be. I hiked back down the car, I hiked up the ridge, I knew I had lost my dog. Then, out of the fog he appeared and plopped right on the ground the minute he saw me he was so tired out from chasing the deer across the ridge. Over the years I have given him many chances to redeem himself. He is a free spirit that has been "lost" in the Prarie Dog Village at Devils Tower, up Mt. Jumbo chasing elk, and over multiple fences doing who-knows-what (just to name a few). He has always found his way home and for this I am so very thankful. While we were in Sitka I got so tired of the tourists off the cruise ships asking me if he was a "real" sled dog that I just started making up stories.

When Joe was moving to Pendleton, he found a 1 year old husky up for adoption. We named her Seeley after Seeley Lake in Montana where we spent some of our first camping trips together. This first picture was on the Montana/Idaho State Line Trail where both dogs....you guessed it, ran chasing groundhogs. Seeley still had her leash attached as she went bounding off a snow bank down the steep ridge chasing these little varmints. It was around this time that Joe and I got smart and stopped letting the dogs OFF the leash. We walk them many times a week and something about this pair of dogs gives people the urge to make comments like "Who is walking who (ha ha)," "You need a sled attached to that stroller (hee hee)," "Are they Snow Dogs!" "I bet they are hot (ho ho)." We get a chuckle every time.

Boaz is almost 14 years old and Seeley is almost 9. The responsibility of having a dog changed my life and I have made choices in my life based on the fact that I had him to consider. These dogs have taken sort of a back seat to the kids in the recent years. They don't go on as many trips, they aren't in the house as much, and that makes me sad. Boaz has gotten really clingy in his old age and I just can only take one cling-on at a time! So, this is sort of my tribute to Boaz and Seeley, our faithful companions. I have so many great memories and cherish every one of them.