The Iditarod

Jared

One of the things about grief, is that we can have a perfectly horrible day, almost languishing in grief and sorrow, and then follow it up with a day in which we are appreciative of all the times we had as a family and with Daniel, where joy and golden moments were felt. Yesterday was a day in which you might think, despite the rain, that Spring might come this year after all. My husband went outside to take care of the animals, and Jared, our eight year old beautiful Siberian Husky made his annual Iditarod run. Despite the fact that Jared has walks, and has an exquisite kennel here, Siberians enjoy at least an annual excursion into the wilds. This is a problem for this individual dog, as he is not very adept at finding his way home, and because we live in a place where the nearest neighbor is a bear. Every year or two, I have had to devote hours to tracking, locating and retrieving our dear friend. He is always happy to see us, and always comes home gracefully, but still does the excursions when able. He is neutered, and we have six other dogs who do not do this.
Yesterday, Jared pushed by my husband who was feeding him, and headed off through the woods. I hoped his information tag was still there. We drove up and down the parallel road but could not see or hear him. Down the road, a large free running bryndle pitbull makes walking to look for him difficult. I remembered thinking that if the US does descend into a Depression and people are foraging for food, they would do well to stay away from this area with the bears, the wandering pitbulls, and a mountain lion which was taxidermized from our area last year. A couple of hours later, I went back to the house to print off some pictures of Jared to place in the general store with a "Lost" appeal, and the phone was ringing. A man on the other side of one of the great forests opened his door this morning, and Jared raced in. His two year old son was enjoying him, and the man marveled at Jared's excellent condition. " Does he live inside ?", the man asked. No he has a kennel which gives him the best of both,including a radio, where he seems to like NPR best rather than a music station. I thanked the man profusely, and Jared wandered back to the truck I brought. He fell asleep almost immediately.
Daniel always loved this dog, and James loves him now. He is an energetic, crazy, direction impaired, loving, lick-you-to-death creature. I am so glad to have him back safely. Life is too short not to have a dog or more than one.


Judging from Jared's proclivity to jump and muddy up clothes,he has a similar regard for clothing.