Summer!!!!!

Ana & "Zeus", our pup out of Prophet/Tefa

Tefa & Zeus

Ana & Zeus. Doesn't he look comfortable with his pillow & blanket??

Zeus, discovering his first toy at 3.5 weeks old

Larry & Zeus

Hobo, the super stud that lead Lance Mackey's winning Iditarod & Quest team. We bred two of our females to him this year.

• Well, I've definetly been slacking on our kennel blog. We have been busy, as usual. You'd think that I would have lots of time to do this, now that our race season is over. The projects keep piling up though, so we are never without something to do.

• Our first litter of the year from Prophet/Tefa arrived 3.5 weeks ago. Things didn't go smoothly. Tefa went off of her food 7 days before her due date and didn't want to come out of her house that day. I was worried about an early labor, but hoped for the best. She held off until the next day, still 6 days early. But, the outcome was not what we had hoped. Two of the pups were dead after they came out and Tefa seemed listless, so I rushed her to the vet. They did xrays and found two pups still inside of her. One was for sure dead, as they could see the air in it's chest cavity. The other they thought would be dead too. The vet thought one of these pups died a day or so before this and that caused the early labor. They did an emergency C-section on Tefa and had to spay her since she had an infection and could die if they didn't. Tefa made it through surgery just fine and to our surprise, one white male pup survived. We were so happy!!! We named him Zeus, since his dad is Prophet and his grandpa is named Buddha. We thought we'd stay with the "religion" theme. He is doing great and is now 3.5 weeks old!

• We also have two more litters of pups on the way. We bred two of our best females, Fender & Zoey to Lance Mackey's Hobo. Hobo was one of Lance's incredible leaders that helped take his team to a Yukon Quest & Iditarod win in 2007, less than 10 days separated both races. Nobody in history has EVER done that! To top it off, Lance has won the last 4 Iditarods in a row! We have known for a long time that we wanted these bloodlines in our kennel. Hobo now resides in John Stetson's kennel in Minnesota, making this wonderful breeding combination of our Swingley lines and the Mackey lines possible. We are so excited to see what we get. Fender's litter is due to arrive in late July. Zoey's will arrive in early Aug.
  

• We also have many projects to get done before training resumes in late August. We are STILL finishing our basement, slowly but surely. We are also building a patio under our deck and another puppy pen. We also have to finish putting the wood lament flooring in our office and Ana's room upstairs. So, hopefully we can get all this done by the end of summer. We are enjoying our "off" season and spending time with family and friends, because when training begins, our social life takes a back seat to our dogs. Have a great week everyone!!