I at least give Blaze the avatar while I wait for that photo op.

Great stories everyone.
i will make mine short as i think under the scrapbook section i tell each of their story's.
then boyfriend and i moved from PA to CO both having family's with dogs, so when we moved we had my one ferret with us. she then passed and we filled that void with chinchillas and since we were in an apt. on the 3rd floor a dog was not gonna happen. we bought our home in 2008 and before we signed the papers we were talking dogs. my dads mom raised huskies and kens first dog was a husky GSD mix. being in CO we wanted a "all seasons" dog so husky it was. once the house was livable and some what dog proof i contacted our only husky rescue to never be contacted back craigs list it was. i searched for weeks sending ken pics and one day there was sierra and she was listed as free! i called right away but was to late someone was ahead of me :(i was crushed and stopped looking at huskies. one sunday i was gonna go snowboarding but changed my mind and on my way to costco i got a call from the breeder listing sierra saying her new home was not working out and if we wanted to get her that day! i don't think she finished her sentenced before i said yes. we met them in a target parking lot and it was love at first site. we drove straight to petsmart to buy all her stuff and she pooed on the floor in front of the crates! we had her for a month and she was clingy to me and looked lonely it was 3 months before our wedding and we were gonna wait till after the wedding to add the 2nd. after lots of talk we thought she would be better off with a pal before the wedding so that when we did leave them they were left together, we did not want her to think she was getting a new home yet again (she had been in 4 homes before us!) so we went to the rescue again and this time got a call back. we drove an hr to the "yard" where we had sierra meet all ages of huskies and she as well as us fell for Nanook aka: Jack. he was the only red and white there. now im a sucker for the reds but was not thinking we would get so lucky to have both be reds but we were. this feb/march will mark 3 yrs they have taken over our lives and hearts. we are hooked....

Lovely story, Brian

Agreed, this is a great thread. I love reading everyones stories.
Kristina- I can't believe it about the girls! I truly believe that everything happens for a reason.

I remember when I was real young I loved huskies. I thought they were so beautiful. I remember asking for one once, but of course the answer was NO!

We did get a dog while I was growing up. He was alot of fun but a little wacky. I never had my own dog in my adult life. My parents had one and my sister had two, but my ex husband is not much of a dog person and I was young when I met him. My family's dogs have always been crazy (i know, what's that say about them, lol). I swore if I ever owned a dog it would NOT be like the other crazies, so much for that. My ex and I talked about getting a dog but he wanted a yappy little ankle biter and wasn't having it. I like big dogs, he didn't so we never got one.

We divorced after being married for 5 years but together for a total of 9. My son was only 3 and it was really hard on me. This is when I went back to school, etc to keep myself busy. I kept the townhouse we lived in, but it was in a bad neighborhood. After living on my own with my son for two years, being a full time student, and working fulltime, I really isolated myself and was falling closer and closer to a deep depression. I also hadn't gotten over the whole situation with ex. That's a whole different story, but I'm over it now.

In Sept 2009, I was doing my first of two 12 week fulltime internships. I was hardly making any money and having trouble keeping up with the bills. I had gotten a notice in my mailbox about robberies and break-ins in my neighborhood. By the first week in Oct, there had been 4 break ins on my street, one being my immediate next door neighbor. All of them occured in the middle of the day. During this time I had a pretty set routine. If any one was watching they knew I left at 7:15 every morning and came home about 5:00 every evening and they would know it was just me and a small child. I was getting scared.

I talked to my mom and I told her I was thinking about getting a dog. I told her that I really needed to think about it because of the money situation and I had to see if I was ready. I knew I had to wait since I had 4 weeks left of this internship, after that I would work less so I would have more time. I did start to check out available dogs on petfinder, etc. I wanted a big dog. Like a mastiff or something.

Literally, two days after this conversation with mom and my scoping available dogs on the internet, I get a phone call from my sister. She says you are never going to believe this, but the most beautiful husky just showed up at my door. He was scratching at the door trying to get in and her two dogs were going nuts. My sister couldn't keep him because of her two, so my mom went over to help her find the owners. He had a collar, but no tags. While waiting for mom to get there my sister decided to name him Frankie after ole blue eyes.

My mom got there and took Frankie to walk him and take him to the main office to report he has been found. While walking a car stops and the woman asked if my mom just found that dog. My mom was like "yeah is he yours?" She said that it was her daughters dog and they didn't want him anymore. They were going to drop him off at the shelter if/when they found him because he was nuts and completely destructive. My mom gave the woman her realtor's card and asked that the daughter call us to give us some information about him. We never got that call.

So, my mom was going to keep him if I couldn't take him. I told her that it depended on how he was around my son. We went over to meet him that night and he and my son immediately attached. 10/17 will be our 2 year anniversary with Frankie.





He was underweight and had hookworms, based on his looks and behavior he wasn't very well cared for. He totally wasn't the dog I was looking for. I immediately researched the breed and got real scared, but I looked into those blue eyes and saw something underneath the current mess. I know he showed up when he did because I needed him as much, if not more, than he needed me.



PS- even though he is the world's worst watch dog, people in my neighborhood at that time were scared shitless of the "wolf" dog. So I guess it worked. I never had my house broken into.

Dee, I don't think I have told you this...your son is absolutely adorable! He reminds me of my son at that age!

If I wasn't convinced before, I am now...I'm rescuing my next one!

26nikita wrote:

Dee, I don't think I have told you this...your son is absolutely adorable! He reminds me of my son at that age!

If I wasn't convinced before, I am now...I'm rescuing my next one!

Your going to rescue your next son

Here4thePics wrote:

26nikita wrote:

Dee, I don't think I have told you this...your son is absolutely adorable! He reminds me of my son at that age!

If I wasn't convinced before, I am now...I'm rescuing my next one!

Your going to rescue your next son

Thanks Mindy. I'm a proud mama of both my boys

Len-

Len!!! You're a funny dude, you know that?! LOL

Denise, those pics of your 2 boys is adorable!!! Frankie got so lucky to have been found by your sister and mom!

He's so sweet! Love him!

Here4thePics wrote:

26nikita wrote:

Dee, I don't think I have told you this...your son is absolutely adorable! He reminds me of my son at that age!

If I wasn't convinced before, I am now...I'm rescuing my next one!

Your going to rescue your next son

If I was going to have another child, then my answer would be yes!

I am loving this thread!

After years of living in apartments, we finally moved to a place with a garden, and in the spring we decided to get a dog. We wanted a rescue and went in with an open mind about breed, so we kept looking at petfinder, and even went to see one dog that someone else got. Then we saw that Ghost was in animal control. We read about huskies and weren't too sure, especially since we never had a dog before, so we didn't go and see him. But then he was still there a few weeks later, and we decided to go and meet him. He was a favourite with all the volunteers there, but he was really sad, and also thin because he wasn't eating much. We played fetch with him in their enclosure (this is the only time we have ever succeeded in playing fetch with him!), and took him for a walk in the park across the road. They said they would only let him be adopted to someone with a fully fenced yard, and ours isn't fenced, so we explained that even if it was fenced we couldn't leave him unattended in it because of the wildlife we get. They accepted that so we filled out the forms. It was a few days before they approved the adoption, and when we picked him up he was even sadder and thinner. It turned out he hadn't eaten in the time since we first met him.

We'd only had him about a week when we found a lump on his leg that was suspicious and had to be removed, but luckily it turned out okay. It felt like he had been in animal control waiting for us; despite our early concerns about huskies, he's the perfect dog for us.

We noticed how much he liked it when we walked with our friends and their dogs, so we decided to get him a doggy friend. This time we took him with us to the rescue nearest us, and told the people there that his opinion was more important than ours. That's how we got our exciteable floppy-eared dog. They are completely different dogs but they are good friends.

I love these stories, especially the ones where the dog rescued the human.
Dee's story about Frankie really got to me.

I don't have a pack, but I have been a serial husky owner. My first dog, Casey. I bought from a BYB, not knowing anything about the breed, but because I had always wanted one. He was an ethical breeder, checked on our house, had birthday parties for the litter, kept in touch. I think it was his only litter. Casey was a total macho dog, fearless, strong and he could run forever. As a youngster he did some major home remodeling despite running twice a day. I was running 60-90 miles a week then and he'd probably run 3/4 of those miles with me. He was a wonderful dog that I loved wholeheartedly except for one thing- somehow he inspired other male dogs to fight. We'd be running down a street and a dog would burst through a screen door to get at him. Finally this caused his demise. He was attacked by a wolf hybrid when we were camping in the North Cascades. Casy developed canine lupus afterwards and was never the same. But he lived to 14.

After four or five years of petlessness, my wife, son and I got another husky. I was wiser this time, went to dog shows, met breeders, found a line of dogs I liked and waited until one of the breeder's bitches were pregnant. This breeder also raced, so her dogs were pretty rangy. After the problems we had with Casey fighting, my wife talked me into a brown eyed girl. Nataha of Snoshu was her name. She was sweet, gentle and loyal. Even though she never was quite the athlete Casey was, I completely bonded with her. I talked with her and she talked back to me . We were completely simpatico. She contacted cancer at nine and fought it for four years and two surgeries. Putting her down was the hardest thing I have ever done.

My current husky, Bodhi, is a rehome from a breeder outside of Seattle. I didn't think I could do puppyhood again, so I wanted to get a rescue or rehome. Looking for another dog, I went to dog shows again, talked with breeders, found some I liked who told me about available dogs. I went to look at some. Bodhi just was "the one" as soon as I met him. He is amazingly exuberant and eager, a wonderful 2 year old boy who is social and doesn't fight. Because of his small size, he has had to learn some tricks to protect himself. He likes to start a game of chase with bigger dogs, turn and leap over them when they get close. It's amazing to see. But I can't catch him either if he escapes- my one big worry with him.

"If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went" - Will Rogers

I'm so sorry to hear about Casey and Snoshu but so glad they had a wonderful life with you Michael. Bodhi's game of chase and leaping over the dogs is exactly what Willow does with Dakot whenever he corners her. I need to get it on video someday. It seems like her leaps are getting higher and higher! I'm starting to believe she is one of those sibes that can leap a 6 ft fence!

We got our first husky Yakkul from the humane society. Her original owner was one of my boyfriends co-workers. He was moving to china and needed to find a home fore his two huskies. His parents were going to take one of the dogs, but he needed to find a home for the other. It had been two years since the dog I had since I was four years old had died, and was ready for another dog. Wasn't looking for a husky, but at this point I wasn't going to be picky. My boyfriend had never had a dog, so he didn't understand the whole dog thing yet. I begged my boyfriend, and he said no. A few months later, I saw this guys husky on a TV show that the humane society puts on. Turns out the guys parents had taken both dogs anyway, but this dog drove them nuts. They gave the dog to some relatives, and they just chained her to a tree outside. Lucky for her she was a typical husky, and escaped. The humane society caught her, and when they called the people they didn't want her back. That situation convinced my boyfriend that we could get the dog. Good thing we did, she was going to be PTS later that week. She was a handful at first, had a lot of anxiety issues. But she did teach us all about what typical husky behavior is like! Sadly, about three months after we got her, she died in my arms on our kitchen floor. She was just standing there with me, let out a cry, and fell to the floor. That was the worst day of my life. A necropsy revealed she had a brain anurism. I still cant help feeling like I could have done something to save her. I drove about 90MPH and blew through stop lights to get her to the vet, all the while attempting to do CPR. I will always wonder if they would have been able to save her if I would have gotten their quicker.

Took me abouth three months before I decided to get another dog. I was so depressed, I needed something to keep me active, so we decided on a puppy. Thats when we got Luka. She was such a naughty puppy, but she helped me keep my mind off the loss of Yakkul. I had a co-worker that was involved in sled dog racing, and I was planning on running Yakkul with some of her dogs. Instead I got to use a tem of her dogs and began to race. When Luka was a bit over one she joined the team.

When Luka was around two we decided we wanted to adopt a second. When met a awsome female at an adoption event and put in an appplication to adopt. By the time we were approved she had already been adopted. We traveld down to meet some other dogs, and they would only show us males! They had this idea that you needed dogs to be the opposite sex. Luka did not get along with any of the boys. They seemed upset that we just didn't pick one of the dogs they showed us. They told us Luka would warm up to any of them eventually. Luka had always warmed up to female dogs quickyly, but they didnt care. They said they would call us back when they got some more dogs in, but we never heard from them again.

Soon after that mess I saw Kitty on a breeders website. She had been attacked by another dog whan she was a pup, and the original owners no longer wanted her! Went down to pick her up later that week. The breeder was very nice. She had cared for Kitty very well during the three months it took her to heal up, and were going to keep her if they didnt' find the perfect owners, they just loved her personality. Luka and Kitty got along right away. As upset I was at the rescue, I'm glad it never worked out. Otherwise I never would have met Kitty. I am really blessed with two great dogs.

Back in 1985 received Jessie, a Husky/GShepard mix. Which happen to be in my pre-digital days of computers and cameras. Have a few pictures and regret immensely the fact that I don't have more. Some day I'll rummage about and scan a few of him to the computer. Had him until 1998 when old age complications took him from me. Ripped my heart right out of me when he passed and didn't think I'd be capable of having another.

But then 2 1/2 years later decided I wanted the companionship of a Husky again after cutting off a long term relationship gone bad. Made visits to the SPCA several times, finally the 3rd or 4th visit there was Mylo, sitting there with someone s I silently cursed my bad luck thinking I was aa few minutes to late. What it was that the person was a volunteer and had just took him for a walk to see what he was like. He was turned in that day about noon I was there after a dentist visit about 5PM. I moped in the kennel hoping and finally the girl brought him back I asked about him, took him for a stroll, smiled , claimed him. He was about 9 months old at the time and was my best friend for the next 9 1/2 yrs. Passed away July 27,2010, after 2 previous attempts to remove his cancer. I lost my heart with Jessie, but lost my mind when Mylo passed, I still haven't found it.

Mylo:













In 2007 Beth and I moved to a larger home and knew before we made the move that I wanted another Husky. Who just happen to be quite the escape artist and chicken thief at 17 months of age. The options were few as if I didn't take her she was headed for a death sentence, as he no longer wanted to keep paying for shredded chickens. So I took the really not very good looking girl at that time and she was Adobo. Now at 5 years of age she is the reigning diva/princess/hot shot bitch of Akron.

Adobo:





In what I think was my haste to "replace" Mylo, we attempted to rescue a 3 yr old female Malamute we named Tinola. I loved her immediately, she loved Beth and I. But it was hate at first sight with her and Adobo. Adobo was so terrified of Tinola that she walked like she was treading on glass. The 4th day they were out in the kennel and me like a jerk thinking they would learn to like each other. Ten minutes later Beth runs into the room and says they're fighting. It wasn't a a fight Tinola was kicking Adobo's ass. No choice I reached in to disconnect Adobo's lead. I'm embarrassed to admit I failed Tinola miserably. Summer of 2010, put me into the depths of hell.

Tinola:




You think I would have learned but nope after a week I started going through Craigslist looking for my next heartbreak(?) Located a red and white about 15 miles from me made contact with the owner told him our good history with Huskies and he decided we were the best choice for the one and only Biko. So at 13 months I was back to train a pup that lived outside 24/7. A few piddles and he learned quite well that wasn't permitted. He has designated himself as my body guard and follows me everywhere. He gonna be one with Mylo potential.

Biko:




Whoa I think I'm over my allotted time limit good night.