Ruby Sue - A Chip Off The Old Block

Some of my posts on this blog contain stories of the best lead dog I've ever had, here at the Sun Dog Express Dog yard, Dudley.  Dudley was an absolutely amazing sled dog.  Very loyal.  He always tried to do exactly as I asked him to do.  He was what dog mushers refer to as a Gee/Haw leader.  The kind of leader that every musher dreams of, but not every musher is lucky enough to get in their mushing career.  Dudley passed away about two years ago, here at Rainbow Ridge Ranch.  He died at the ripe old age of 13 of sudden heart failure.  It was an extremely sad time, given the thousands of miles he pulled me, many visitors and my team down the trail.  We'd done many races together and taken many thousands of tourists on the cold and snowy trail and shared our love of adventure with them.

Dudley fathered one litter of puppies in his life with another lead dog name Jiminy Cricket.  Cricket had five puppies.  Mushers, traditionally, keep a theme when naming sled dog litters.  In this way it helps to keep each puppies lineage straight in a dog mushers mind.  We named them the "Rock Litter".  There were three males and two females.  The males were Lava, Granite and Garnet  .Females were Jade and Ruby (Sue).

Ruby Sue is the only surviving puppy of this litter.  She is now 12 years old herself.  Not only is she the image of her father and looks very much like him, she has the talent of a gee/haw lead dog.  Her ability to guide the team exactly where I need them to go is nothing short of amazing.  Currently she is my main lead dog for training all the other dogs in the yard.  She is hard working and dedicated.  Always willing to try her hardest to please.  She likes raw fish and lots of snuggles.

Pause for Grief

Monday February 4, 2019 - We are starting to post here again.  July 2, 2015 was an awful day for the Sun Dog Express crew.  We lost our main handler and dog lover, Alex.  When you loose someone so special, it stops you in your tracks for a time.  We all but shut down the dog sledding business (for 3 1/2 years) , trying to cope with the devastating pain of his loss.  We are slowly getting going again.  We still train the sled dogs daily, but we just don't have the heart to share it with visitors.  So we will do our best to share it here.  Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Close Encounter Of The Moosy Kind

***Haven't been on this blog in a few years.  Just found this in the drafts. So I thought I'd publish it.  Enjoy*****

November 14, 2009 - Training the dogs always presents a challenge but on some days it can be down right hazardous. Today has been a rough day out on the trail. Not a typical day but a tough day. I had the worst encounter with a mad moose that I've ever had in my mushing career. I didn't see this one coming AT ALL until it was (and I kid you not) two feet in front of my face.

I had just gotten done with a tour. It was the first one of the season. I'd sent the two ladies from, Denver on their way and I hooked up a 3 dog team to go out and work on the very rough trails in hopes of getting some of the longer trails open. We were moving out at a pretty good clip with an empty sled when a moose popped out of the brush just as the dog team was passing her location.

We had been down this trail no more than 15 minutes prior with no sign of a moose anywhere. So I was being a little less vigilant than usual. When I have guests in the sled there is constant chatter and I am watching the surroundings carefully but when I'm alone and have just been on the trail (with no danger detected) I'm usually deep in thought.

The dogs were already by her when she made it to the trail and that left just me and the sled to take her wrath. I'd estimate she was about 1700 pounds and a very tall girl. She stepped on my little taboggan sled. The bed of the sled is plastic and VERY slippery when it's cold. Her dinner plate sized front feet slipped out from underneath her and she fell flat on her slid crushing the sled underneath her and throwing me off. I'm pretty sure my ice hook stabbed her side.

She staggered to her feet, ears penned and hackles up ready to resume her attack. My 3 sled dogs, sensing they could pull the sled free, jerked into forward into action making a run for it down the trail.....without me.

It was just me and a really BIG ANGRY moose. I had been knocked flat on my ass. I had full mushing gear on including bunny boots. I scrambled to "crab walk" backwards to distance myself from this angry creature. My mind was racing......could I get to my feet fast enough to make a run for it? Where was a big tree to put myself behind? Could I run away from this angry animal fast enough to make her realize I didn't want to fight her? (One always runs from a moose.....not from a bear). The closest protection I could think of was about 200 yards behind me at an office building that had a big dumpster at the back I could hop in. I knew I wouldn't make it.

Fortunatly for me when the moose fell on my sled and the hook stabbed her and the dogs ran away (the object of most of her anger) she decided I wasn't worth the effort and spun around making a run for the woods.

The moose gone I realized my prized sled dogs where running off without me. I yelled the name of my faithful (I know that sounds very corny but it's so true) lead dog, Dudley. He turned his head to look at me as the dogs ran away from me at a full gallop. I could tell from his look that he was surprised to see I wasn't on the sled. I watched as they ran to the fork in the trail. Going "gee" or right would take the dogs to the 30 mile network of trails we use and I would have a heck of a time finding them because chances were they would tangle somewhere far out on the trail and have to wait for me to find them. While going "Ha" or left would bring the team back to me.

I've lost the team before and I know if Dudley is in lead he will do all that is in his power to bring the team back to me (this isn't typical behavior of any sled dog). They were at the fork and Dudley pushed the other leader hard to go left- she was pushing to go right. He was bringing the team back to me. I began to run (with my heavy boots) back toward the dog yard. I heard the dogs in the yard bark as Dudley brought the team back through the yard. But since I wasn't there to anchor them in Dudley had to keep on running and find me walking the opposite way on the trail. He found me.