My Life with a Husky

When my oldest son was five, we bought our first dog. We had been thinking for some time that we wanted a black or golden lab. One day we went to a breeders kennel and started looking around. First I spotted the cutest black lab puppy I had ever seen and I wanted to pet it. Unfortunately it was just shivering in the corner and wanted nothing to do with us. Now I have always said that kids and animals seem to like me, so I attributed this puppy snub to something being wrong with this dog. Next we were introduced to a large rather goofy looking golden lab. He was older than many of the other puppies and his reduced price reflected this. Well, when he got out of his pen for us to socialize with him, he just started running all over the place. He was skidding across the floor, knocking things over (including my son) and wouldn’t stand still long enough for any of us to even pet it. Strike two! We were about ready to leave when my son saw a husky puppy that was standing in the middle of a pen with little Jack Russell puppies jumping up and nipping at it. I thought it looked kind of pathetic (in a cute way) but my son stopped, stared at it for a little bit and then asked if he could pet the dog with the weird eyes. This puppy had one brown and one blue eye which he had never seen before. When the puppy was brought to us I was waiting for it to run around as the other one had but instead, it walked over to my son and sat down on his lap licking him. SOLD!

Now for those of you who have never had a husky before, they are very social animals. Once there was a mutual understanding that I was the alpha she was an absolute joy. She will lay down with her paw curled up underneath her and just watch me. When I move around the room her gaze will just follow me. If I sit on the ground she will move over and lay down right next to me, twisting her belly so that I can pet her. She is a talker, letting me (and the entire neighborhood) know when she wants to be let inside. Even fully grown she tries to sit on my lap and will stand on her hind legs to ‘dance’ with me. Now, not only are huskies social but they are also very intelligent and this intelligence can allow them to get bored sometimes, and when they are bored, look out! Things will get stolen, things will be found but chewed up, holes will be dug and great escapes will happen. My husky is guilty of all of the above, but is best known for being an escape artist. I call her The Great Houdini because sometimes she can escape from handcuffs, straight jackets and even being locked in a chest. Just kidding, but I will attest to the fact that she has escaped from many different dog appropriate containment devices, and once she gets out its like ‘free at last, free at last’ for at least four hours.

We have tried a picket fence and when she was younger she would jump over and as she got older she would just dig under. We would put boulders and logs along the bottom of the fence and she would always find a way to move them. We have tried dog runs and she seems to find a way to rub against something and unlatch it. We even tried an invisible fence. After she went through the training she would just lie in the corner of the yard and not even move. We just assumed that sooner or later she would get used to it and we would be fine. As it turned out whenever we were looking at her, she would be curled up with the pathetic look, but when we stopped paying attention to her, she would bolt. She had figured out that the shock didn’t hurt that much and that when she got to the other side it was done. DOG THREE, HUMANS ZERO! We had one last trick up our sleeves and that was getting her a friend. We went to the kennel and adopted our second dog. He has his own baggage but that is a story for another hub. I can say that my husky is generally happy and content now. They are always together and I could not see ever separating them. I swear that they talk to each other and have picked up each other’s mannerisms. What ever it is that they discuss, I am happy to say that I now the proud owner of a husky that only peruses the neighborhood two or three times a year.

My life has been enriched by my dogs and if it is up to me I will be a dog owner for the rest of my years.