Our kids

[banditvt]

Hello again,

Some of you may remember me from my recent post announcing my return to the forum in the "New Member Introductions" section. I figured I would post some photos of one of our three Siberian Huskies and her incredible story. I believe I've shared her story on this forum some time ago, but it's so touching and I'm sure there are many new members here who would enjoy reading it.

As I said above, we currently own three Huskies. They are named Nikita, Zema, and Sequoia. Zema was the second Husky we ever owned since the passing of my first Husky Tundra in 2015, and the first Husky we raised from a puppy. My wife actually came across her by pure coincidence while poking around on Facebook. We contacted the breeder and much to our surprise she was still available at 5 weeks old. We arranged to meet with them to see the puppy and they agreed to let us adopt her, so we gave our deposit and went home in great anticipation of picking her up a few weeks later once she was 8 weeks old. Later that night when I woke up to get ready for work, I saw that I had received an email from the breeder with a digital birth certificate for Zema. When I looked at the date and time she was born my heart stopped. Zema was born on July 10th of 2016 at 6:28 PM. On that very same day (almost exactly 11 hours prior) at 7:31AM my father succumbed to his battle with stage 4 lung cancer. Zema has been an absolute blessing to us, and is without question one of the smartest dogs I've ever seen. Zema was instrumental in helping me through the tough times that followed dealing with the death of my father and then my mother in 2019.

Here is a collection of photo's showing her from the first time we met her at 5 weeks to how she looks today at nearly 5 years of age.

5 weeks....

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8 weeks old, the day after she came home with us.

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This was Zema at just shy of two years old.

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Cropped shot of the shot above. This photo was selected by our local Vet office to be the cover of their calendar in 2019.

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These are the most recent I have uploaded to my Google Albums although she hasn't changed in appearance any since she was fully grown at age two. Keep your eyes peeled and I will be uploading photo's of our other two Huskies in this thread as well as sharing their stories soon.

 

[Phil K]

Lovely dog, lovely story.

 

[catalyst]

Oh, man - Greg. What a sweetie she is - glad that she'd helped you get through really tough times.

 

[Palouse]

Cute, soft, white and well shot!

 

[Terri French]

I'm so glad you came back to share with us. What wonderful photos of your beautiful dog.

 

[drr1531]

Beautiful dog. They surely add another dimension to life. The shot at 8 weeks and the last one are really nice.

 

[Hylander]

Beautiful dog. I had two huskies in succession and now an Alaskan malamute.

 

[banditvt]

Thank you for the kind words everyone. As promised here is round two with our second Husky that we added to our pack. My apologies in advance for the long post as Nikita's story is a bit complicated.

Nikita was a rescue and came home with us just a couple days after Christmas of 2017. She will soon be turning 12 years old on May 14 of this year (I can picture some people looking at their screens a little weird right now wondering how we know when her birthday is since she's a rescue). Almost exactly a year after we adopted Nikita, my wife received a private message on Facebook from someone claiming to be Nikita's former owner. After several messages back and forth (and a few photos of Nikita) we felt confident that this person was in fact Nikita's former owner and we agreed to talk to her on the phone. So the story of Nikita coming to us started out when Nikita's owner had to leave her with her aunt to watch for a few months while she went to stay and take care of her mom who was sick. While she was gone her aunt suddenly started being a bit evasive when she would call to check how Nikita was doing. When she finally returned she discovered that her aunt had given away her own dog (Nikita's litter mate) and surrendered Nikita to a local shelter. When she contacted the shelter to let them know what happened they told her that Nikita had been euthanized.

Fast forward a year (Christmas Eve 2018) and one of her friends found and shared to her the original Facebook post of Nikita by the shelter. She read through the comments and deduced based on a couple comments from my wife and I that we had adopted her and she reached out to us. She assured us that she only wanted to know that she was still alive and doing well, and that although she would love to have her back, her current living situation prevented her from doing so. Being Christmas Eve, and hearing her story my wife and I agreed and offered to meet her at a the local dog park near her home (about an hour drive from our home) so she could see her again. Nikita immediately remembered her former owner and was beyond excited when she heard her voice which made my wife and I feel both extremely happy and sad at the same time. We spent about three hours at the park talking with her and we learned all about the breeder where Nikita came from and about her "spa days", and all the fun activities that she loved to do with them. She showed us dozens of photos she had from a puppy all the way up until just before she left her with her aunt. It was very clear that she loved Nikita and would never have left her behind for anything.

We ended up becoming friends with her on Facebook, and she also follows our Husky Owners Facebook page to know when we hold our Husky dog park meets so she can come and visit Nikita. Despite the somewhat emotional roller coaster of emotions wondering if she was going to ask for Nikita back and hearing her heartbreaking story, it turned out to be one of the greatest Christmas gifts for everyone.

Nikita is such a beautiful girl and is the charmer of our pack. She will greet everyone with a howling Woo Woo Woo and is quick to roll over for a belly rub. She thinks she's a lap dog and will beg you relentlessly when she is craving attention. Although she is going to soon be 12 years old, whenever she meets another dog she turns in to a puppy all over again and immediately want's to run and play.

These are a couple of photo's of Nikita a week or two after coming home with us. Her fur was very thinned out and I'm unsure if it was due to her time spent with the aunt or the stress from being in the shelter for a few days.

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This is a photo of her in May of 2018 around what would have been her 9th birthday. Her fur was really starting to fill out at this point.

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Here she is in October of 2018. Just like her sister Zema who made the cover of our Vets calendar, this photo was selected to be October in the same calendar.

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This is by far one of my favorite photo's of Zema and Nikita in front of our house in late November of 2018.

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Almost forgot this action shot of Nikita jumping over a pile of snow.

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[drr1531]

Interesting story. Dogs never forget former members of their pack. Whether human or canine.

That first image is really excellent. What works better than a husky in snow? And then the shot of the two of them together is also great.

 

[...Daniel...]

Beutiful dogs with a story!

I really like the images..

 

[banditvt]

I got a little busy the past few days and almost forgot I still had to post about the third and final member of our furry family.

The third and youngest member of our pack (currently turned two years old on Feb 2nd) is named Sequoia. Sequoia came to us as the result of a planned breeding coordinated by my wife and I between two members of our Facebook Husky owners group that we run. Anyone who is familiar with the story of the 1925 Serum run that saved Nome Alaska from the Diphtheria outbreak will likely have heard the name Togo. Sequoia's father is a distant descendant of Togo having traceable ties back to Seppala Kennels started originally by Togo's owner Leonhard Seppala.

Here is Sequoia at 1 week old snuggled up to my wife's leg the day we chose him (or should I say he chose us).

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This is at three weeks old.

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This is at five weeks old laying next to momma (sorry for the pee piddle on the pad).

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Another photo at five weeks old. I've never seen bluer eyes on a Husky puppy than this guy. This image has very little editing other than a very slight exposure adjustment and the cropping.

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A few days after his first birthday.

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As he looks now at two years old.

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