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Hello 2011,

It's been a while since I posted a story. I guess it has been a little quieter for "Indianette Jones".

Indi, Typhoon, Storm and Ackja joined the adult dogs training in September. However, Ackja came into heat early October and again early December so she has been on and off training and I have not been able to work with her as much as I would have liked. She is "isolated" in a small yard and she is going a little crazy, bursting with energy. She is still bleeding early January so she can't join my team... We don't want puppies from the "Queen of the bitches". This non-regular bleeding can happen with young females so I just have to be patient and wait...

Typhoon is my biggest dog and amaze me every day. He has turned into a fine sled dog. Powerful, calm and never tired to pull, he is the main "engine" of my team. He looks funny with his dropping lips, like a boxer, and has a little white heart shaped on his forehead... Bless him :-)

Storm gave me some troubles at the start of the season. He loves eating other dogs shit and gets a bad stomach as a result. I had a real hard time trying to keep his weight up. He was also growing up so fast over the summer that he looked underfed and mistreated! However, I seem to have found the magic food for him. I switched to a more balanced dry food and I sometimes add some "magic" powder to his meals. This powder is normally for horses and has been given to me by another musher. It is aimed to help the digestive system and stops any bad stomach without having any other side effects.

And my little Indi was becoming out of control, picking up a fight with any male in his close surroundings so I had to get him castrated. It has definitely helped since the other males don't feel threatened by him any more and he is definitely calmer around females in heat. It has also been helpful regarding "kennel management" since I can leave him with Ackja.

The autumn training was really enjoyable since the snow arrived one month earlier this year. We were able to take the sleds out at the end of October.

The only incident during the training season caused a real turmoil in our local community... And of course... it happened to me... I will skip some details as this is currently under criminal investigation... Yes... the police got involved and I might have to testify in court... So here is what happened.

My colleague and I were going to train two dog teams with our ATVs that morning. I started first and our "lovely" neighbour was standing on the road with his daughter, exactly where we are supposed to go through with the dog teams. There is plenty of space for him to stand anywhere else but he likes to stand right there, just to make a point. Anyway, I was driving the team down from our yard. Dogs don't run into an obstacle and always go around it so I was not concerned over this man standing on the road. However, he stepped in front of the team as they were coming close to him. Don't ask... He's a complete idiot. One dog tried to avoid him by going to his left but the other dog tried to avoid him by going to his right... Result... the man got the little wire between the lead dogs in his legs. As soon as I realized what happened, I stopped my team. The man was furious and started walking towards me. On his way, he assaulted two of my dogs, then stood between the dog team and the ATV and told me that he would call the police. I told him to do so and I gave him my name. Then followed some minutes of arguing and as he finally moved away from the ATV, I left to pursue the training.
The police called my boss saying that the man had put a complain against me for trying to kill him with the dog team. We had an appointment at the police station to explain our side of the story.
In the meantime, the man called the local newspaper. The following day, the paper published an article portraying me like a "hit and runaway" driver. The article was a complete tissue of lies. Several neighbours, including a European sprint dog racing champion and a vet called the newspaper to say how outrageous and unprofessional it was for the journalist to write such an article without checking both sides of the story. The same day, the journalist called my boss to apologize. They published another article the day after, with our side of the story, also explaining that we had put a complain against the man for cruelty against animals and endangering. Since then, the police has been doing their investigation work and this might end up in court. To be continued...