Dogs are everywhere. Bam Bam, a big black and white female, keeps track of her human children all around town, (She waits outside the post office), while JoJo is a party-going socialite. Rupert (see photo left) is a Yorkie mix with an extremely high personalty per pound ratio. Yesterday, I saw a handsome pit bull and what must have been a part mastiff part Great Dane.
There are mushers here - John Baker won the Iditarod in 2011 and finished in the top ten 13 out of 17 times. I passed the house of a “sprint musher,” Paul Cook, whose smaller, dark dogs seemed ready to go at a moment’s notice. This photo is a trailer full of champions. While waiting to cross the runway on the way home from a tundra ride we caught up to the man himself - John Baker - towing his grinning dogs to Kotzebue. I wish you could see their faces better! Most excellent tongues.
The dogs who aren't "from America," the ones who grew up here, live in wooden houses. The one across the street has his own car. I have tried to get a photo of him on his car, but I think he went hunting this weekend. Most local dogs stay tied up in town, but there are a few who wander. Some even go shopping.
I have not met a single cat, but there are little piles of what the students tell me is chinchilla poop in my classroom! (I decided to not include a photo of that!)