My favorite malamutes!

In honor of my 100th post, I'd like to introduce you to a couple of my favorite Malamutes (other than Juneau, of course).

 

One of the most wonderful things about the Internet, to me, is the opportunity to meet people all over the world!  Through my sharing photos on the site Flickr, I have met two friends:  Red Stilletto and Julz.  I became acquainted with Red Stilletto (her Flickr user name) over two years ago when I saw a picture of her beautiful long-coated Alaskan Malamute, Lola.  Seeing pictures of her beautiful dog, I was just amazed; I had never seen a dog that beautiful!  I commented on her photos, and she commented on mine.  Before I knew it, we were friends! 

 

About three weeks ago, Flickr brought both of us in contact with Julz, who owns...yes, a long-coated Alaskan Malamute puppy named Sakari.  And, believe it or not, both Red Stilletto and Julz live near each other in Australia.  Lola and Sakari look so much alike in pictures of them at the same age that it's uncanny! 

 

Recently, Red Stilletto was lucky enough to keep Sakari for Julz for a couple of weeks.  Lola and Sakari became best friends.  They played and played, and had the best time together.  They now even have their own Facebook page, Lola and Sakari.  If you want a big smile on your face, go to their page, look at their pictures, and watch their videos.  They are just cuteness personified!  And they have some serious floof going on too! 

The pair are such good friends that, according to their respective owners, when Sakari went home, both she and Lola were miserable without each other.  I foresee playdates in the future!

 

 

For more pictures, check out Red Stilletto's photostream on Flickr:  Red Stilletto, and Julz' photostream:  Thephotogenie.  I promise you'll come away with a grin!  They're two of my favorite Malamutes!  Oh, and their owners aren't bad either! :)

Happy Easter!

Wishing a happy Easter to all my readers!  I hope that you get lots of goodies in your Easter basket, and that you find peace and rest this weekend.

Bunnies I have known and loved

If you've read this post, you know that I carted around a blanket as my security object when I was a child. 

Before I carried the blanket(s), though, I had a stuffed bunny.  Remember The Velveteen Rabbit?  For those of you that haven't read it (And shame on you if you haven't.  It's a wonderful story), it's about a rabbit that was loved so much he became real.  My rabbit was a lot like the rabbit in the story:  he wasn't much to look at, but I loved him.  He was grungy and threadbare and misshapen from being carried around by a little girl all the time. 

 

It looked just like this one, except mine was white--well, it started out white anyway.  The fur got shabby and the satin in the ears wore thin.  Even though my mom washed it, it was no longer white.  I didn't care what it looked like; I just loved it.  I carted it around with me everywhere, until a fateful trip to visit my grandparents in Oklahoma. 

Both sets of my grandparents lived in Oklahoma, so we went to visit as often as we could.  Back in those days, the massive interstate highways didn't exist.  So what is now a four-five hour trip, was then more like a six-seven hour trip.  We stopped at least once on the way up, usually at a cafe in Duncan, Oklahoma.  On this trip, I accidentally left my bunny behind!  Of course, I didn't realize it until we were well on the way.  We stopped on the way back, thinking to pick it up.  This was the 1960s--a kindler, gentler time; someone had surely found the ragged bunny and put it aside realizing that it was obviously a favorite toy.  To my horror (and my parents' too) there was no bunny at the restaurant.  We queried our waitress, who said she hadn't seen the rabbit.  With nothing left to do, we were about to leave.  As we started to walk out the door, another waitress pulled us over and told my mom that she had seen the bus boy throw my rabbit away. 

I was devastated, and my mom was angry!  But there was nothing that could be done about it; the rabbit was long-gone.  My parents bought me a new bunny when we got home, but it wasn't the same.  That's when I switched to carrying around blankets instead.  And we never stopped at that restaurant again! 

I still love stuffed rabbits, though.  Every year around Easter, I find myself adding at least one to my collection.  When I started writing this post, I searched on eBay to see if I could find a 1960s-era rabbit.  Sure enough, I found the one pictured above.  And while it wasn't mine, at least I can give this one a good home!