To the girl who did things her way. Who played hard, loved hard and napped hard. She created a life wherever she landed and the humans went along for the ride. This is how I saw Sassy. Her eyes, her floofy tail. Her joie de vivre. The way her 'smile' always made me smile. Some sleddies choose their own adventures and I'm grateful that Sass found a family who loved her, cared for her and understood her. Sweet Sassy hadn't been well but headed out for one last adventure, on her own. And although we can never know what a dog is actually thinking, it may give us humans some comfort to think she choose her life to the very end. To the huge community who took to the neighbourhood looking for her, to the kind family who found her laying peacefully in their garden. And most of all to her family... I send great thanks, appreciation and hugs for being a part of Sassy's Way. Read more about Sassy here, see more about Sassy below... The game is called "pick out the sleddies"!
An annual walk with some friends and their dogs- some being former sled dogs, some aren't... can you figure out which is which? [Hint: the sleddies are named below the photo gallery- click on their names to learn more about them as part of the I Was A Sled Dog photo project] It was more of a forest bathing mud bath after a big rain and wind storm yesterday... but nevertheless, big thanks to ChiChi + Tica, Trixie + Penny, Niv + Cedar, Mary Kate + Roo, Sassy, Fiddle, Jasper, KC, Chester, Falen, and your amazing humans for coming out today! Please click on the first photo and then scroll through the gallery- there are 70 photos including multiples of similar images so you can see the change of tail wags, facial expressions and what the dog is interested in. There's a photo bomb, some blurry ones and some of the dogs just standing and looking around (there's always some of that). This is all intentional as I want to help you feel as close to being there with us as I can, because it's that magical! Three of the dogs on the walk today are survivors of the Whistler sled dog cull and 2020 will mark the ten-year anniversary of that horrific event. And even after all that happened, there continues to be sled dogs that need help. Animal protection laws for working sled dogs here in British Columbia, Canada and beyond are atrocious and it's incredibly sad and unfair that working sled dogs are exempt from animal protection laws in Canada, just because they're classified as sled dogs. But sled dogs aren't a breed- they're a mix of any number of breeds, and you can see the diversity in the photos below as well as in I Was a Sled Dog, Part 1 + Part 2. The fact that, for example, "Dog A" is classified as a working sled dog on a Monday and therefore exempt from the same laws that protect the animals we share our homes with. But when "Dog A" gets adopted into a home on a Tuesday, suddenly- as if by magic- he's covered by those same laws he was exempt from the day before. It makes absolutely no sense. The dog is a dog is a dog. I could go on, but right now I want to enjoy the memory of today's walk with these remarkable dogs and their wonderfully compassionate humans who love to celebrate them as much as I do. Happy New Year sleddie family! ~wendy |
Archives
July 2024
Categories
|