Your dog suddenly goes into a seizure. What do you do? Do you call the vet? Is there something you can do to help? Are the blindness and confusion normal after a seizure? Can dogs with Canine Epilepsy live a normal life? What medications are available? Are there support groups and resources for families with epileptic dogs (Epi-dogs) to turn to? What triggers a seizure?
Christmastime is here. A time for shared tales of hope and joy, such as the story of Buddy, the Christmas Husky. On a snowy Christmas Day in 2011, a sick, freezing cold, and starving dog found himself wandering the streets of an Arkansas town and right into traffic. His magnificent breed of Siberian Husky was barely detectable.
Written by Dorothy Wills-Raftery and illustrated by Michele Littler, both books are delightful for children or Siberian Husky lovers. The first tells the tale of Gibson, the alpha leader of a family of five Siberian Huskies.
March 26 is Purple Day® for Epilepsy, a day to join together in support for Epilepsy awareness by wearing or creating and sharing something purple. Motivated by her own struggles with Epilepsy, Purple Day was founded in 2008 by a nine-year-old girl named Cassidy Megan of Nova Scotia, Canada, along with the Epilepsy Association of Nova Scotia (EANS). In 2009, the New York-based Anita Kaufmann Foundation and EANS teamed up to launch Purple Day internationally. Cassidy’s goal is to get people talking about Epilepsy in an effort to dispel myths, and inform those with seizures that they are not alone.
If running a team of Huskies across snowy trails is your dream, Robert Forto, lead musher and dog trainer of the family-run Team Ineka in Willow, Alaska, shares that love. His daughter, Nicole, has trained for and run Team Ineka in the Junior Iditarod for the past two years. “There is something magical about being out on the trail with a dog team,” says Robert. “Many times we have been out on the trail when it is 20 below zero, and the Northern Lights are dancing over our heads. It is totally silent except for this swish, swish, swish sound as they dogs are running in total unison together.”
With holiday songs with lyrics of “dashing through the snow” still echoing in our ears, did you know that in some areas, the dashing is done not by reindeer, but by Siberian Huskies? And, believe it or not, the cold white, fluffy stuff is optional for these snow dogs!
