In March, 2012, Valley Animal Center rescued a litter of puppies. Kimana (animal ID: 12969), a Siberian Husky mix, was part of this litter. She was adopted quickly after her rescue, but five years later in April, 2017, she was surrendered by her family back to Valley Animal Center. Her family was moving and the new home would not allow pets. Kimana spent only a few weeks with Valley Animal Center before she was adopted the next month in May.
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.
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.”
“Thank you for doing this for him,” my vet said, patting the top of Odin’s head.
I wondered about this statement. Although I had adopted Odin only a few months before his accident, he was now my responsibility, my family member. I would do whatever it took to help him recover from his herniated disc. The mounting vet bill—I’d deal with it, find another job, if I needed to.
