Scat messaging

This is the message I received this morning from our new neighbours

click to view in all its glory

 Right at the end of our driveway - an impressive pile of wolf poop. And I mean a PILE. This can't be from just one animal, therefore this required a community effort. What does this message mean?

• We're big so don't mess with us.
• This is the line into our territory. You own the driveway, we own the rest.
• Hello there, dear neighbours, here's our card. Call us.
• We know you are dogsitting a tasty little morsel of a Chihuahua right now.

The past few days we've had lots of wolf excitement. One evening I looked out the window in time to see the dog running for her life onto the deck with a huge brown timber wolf on her tail. The wolf came right to the bottom of the stairs before he noticed me standing there, and then wheeled around and took off down the driveway.

Two nights ago the dogs and I were walking in the dark and found ourselves in the middle of the pack taking down a deer. We didn't see anything, but the noises surrounding us had me hustling home with my feeble little headlamp frantically scanning around behind us. In the morning we found the evidence of a fight to the finish. The tracks told the story of how the wolves went around downwind, and then launched the attack. The deer went down, got up, went down again. We have many, many deer in our area, so it must be a good spot for the wolves to hang for a while.

flickerCC

In the evenings, the pack sings. They sometimes wake us in the middle of the night. They obviously have some pups who can't sing yet, but try to make up for it by being the loudest. Sled dog pups do this too. It's hilarious to listen to.

Any wolf stories out there? Anyone care to decipher to scat code?

Fall training insider

If you like dogsledding, check out the 2011 Iditarod Fall E-runner. It's full of pre-race stories and great pictures of the amazing sled dogs and how they get geared up for the big race.

Giving thanks and announcing winners

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

I have much to be thankful for:

my man
my job
my dogs
my home
my health
my family
my ability to smell when the milk is about to turn. It's a gift really.

and the most recent huge thing I'm thankful for, I can't talk about yet. Please stay tuned.



Now, on to the winners of my recent Elevensie Celebration Giveaway:

Winner of the YA package is Lucy D'Andrea

Winner of the MG package is Irene Latham

Winner of the MIXED BAG package is Angel Cruz

So, what do you have to be thankful for today?

Cover Love

A recent new blog I found, CE HART's post on covers has inspired me.

 I LOVE book covers. I could wallpaper a room with some of the delicious art that is wrapped around books. Give me a cup of Starbucks Chai Latte and let me loose to wander around Chapters. Bliss.

I will admit to purchasing many just because of the cover.

Here are some of them:

and these:

But really, my all time favourite cover, the one that stopped me in my tracks as I was trying to leave a bookstore, was this beauty:

Have you ever discovered a new favourite author because the cover drew you in?

Six sentence Sunday

I'm jumping in to the six sentence meme.

Here's six from my own novel DOGSLED DREAMS, published by 4RV December, 2010

Chunks of ice flew off the dogs' feet and bounced on Rebecca's chest. Sometimes, more than just ice flew back.The dogs were trained to poop while they ran, as all racing sled dogs are. Rebecca kept watch for brown missiles flying in her direction. She made sure to keep her mouth closed.



Don't forget to enter my giveaway - two weeks left!