Noelle 
This is Noelle. The Alpha Diva. 7 year old Husky mix, sweet, beautiful, feisty and queen of the pack, born on Christmas Day. When we take her on walks many people at first glance think I am walking a coyote. Husky's are my absolute favorite breed of dog I have ever had. I can not turn away a husky. It is a sickness I tell you! We have had 4 huskies now and every single one of them is very good nature'd, sweet and friendly. They are escape artists! We have spent a lot of money and time keeping them in our yard. There are only 3 cons to having huskies; their ability to be smarter than their owners, foiling all attempts to keep them safe and they shed. Boy, do they shed. I have a very good relationship with my vacuum and I use it frequently. But the pluses of having huskies far outweigh the cons.
Rocky
11 year old Black lab, going on 2 years old. I have a love/hate relationship with this one. We've had him the longest, about 10 years. As labs go he is loyal and sweet, but he is a SPAZ! He is a few french fries short of a Happy Meal. But we love him anyway. Even at 11 years old, he is in perpetual motion!
Ryder
This is Ryder. Ryder came to us as a foster dog. We had just lost Kodi and were in the middle of dealing with Apache's eminent death, so we couldn't commit to keeping Ryder right off the bat. But shortly after we lost Apache, we just couldn't let Ryder go. He is now officially part of the family and he is a very happy dog. Another husky. 2 years old, beautiful and sweet. We have a very large yard and a lot of love for pooches. Noelle has not decided if Ryder can stay for ever, but we have. He has a forever family now.
Apache-ours from 2010-2011
In memory of the most gentle soul in the world
In memory of the most gentle soul in the world
This is Apache. The most mellow, gentle soul I have ever come across. We adopted him and were blessed with him for less than 1 year. He was about 9 years old. Husky/wolf mix. The BEST dog in the entire world. Sadly, we lost him to nasal cancer. I can honestly say I have never loved another dog as much as I loved this one. Our entire family was completely in love with this dog and devastated when we got his diagnosis.
I dressed up as Red Riding Hood and Apache dressed up as Grandma for Halloween. Not once did Apache try to take his costume off. You would have thought he dressed like that every day. We stopped all kinds of traffic on Halloween and had a picture taken many times. Look at those crystal blue eyes. He melted me every time he looked at me! Sure baby, mama will go make you a steak. I miss this dogs presence every day. He would have been a great therapy dog. He had a very calming way about him. We miss you Apache. Words can not express the joy this dog brought us in the short time we had him.
Kodi-ours from 2007-2001
In memory of the Most Grateful Dog in the World
We lost Kodi to cancer in April 2011. We estimate he was about 10 years old. On a very cold Christmas Eve of 2007 my husband saw this dog wandering on the highway near his lake at the edge of the national forest. Most likely he had been dumped. But why anyone would have dumped this dog is beyond me. That's a popular place for just releasing a pet that some jerks don't want any longer. He smelled really bad, was limping and was very depressed, tired, hungry and defeated. Now, my husband knows I'm a sucker for a rescue, so when he finds dogs abandoned on the highway near his lake (he is a forest ranger) if at all possible he contacts a rescue organization to pick up the strays because he knows if he brings it home, it's probably moving in. Well since it was Christmas Eve, no rescues were opened (yippee!). He knew he couldn't let the dog continue to wander and no shelters were open for 2 more days because of the holiday. He brought this dog home. We fed him, gave him a bath and let him sleep in our laundry room. He hardly moved from the dog bed for the next day. We went away for a few days to visit family on the 26th and had a friend come over and feed our dogs while we were gone. When we returned 2 days later this was a different dog. He was bounding up the stairs as if he had lived there all his life. We put ads in the paper and signs around town but no one ever claimed him (Yay). He was very quirky for the first year, you could tell he probably had not been treated well. But he soon learned to trust us and learned that we loved him so much. All he wanted was affection. As long as part of your body was touching him, he was a HAPPY CAMPER! He would just stand next to me and lean on me.
Now earlier I told you huskies were escape artists. Kodi was the exception to that rule. He knew he had it really good here. He had 4 humans that loved and spoiled him, food in his tummy, a warm house and the rights to sleep on the couch. Whenever we captured one of our other escapees, Kodi would just look at them like "you idiot, you don't know how good you have it here". Even as I type this, several months after loosing this dog, I have tears in my eyes. This dog's eyes could look into your soul. We miss you Kodi more than you ever know!
So there you have them. The good, the bad and the departed. I can not imagine life without our dogs.
How about you?
