Chet The Dog

Archive for January, 2012

Friend of the Month Reminder

“Last day of the month, meaning last day to become eligible for the Friend of the Month prize,” Spence says. “Which is having your picture over on the right for the whole month, where Eleanor is now. Plus the human companion gets a signed copy of the latest Chet and Bernie mystery – in this case, The Dog Who Knew Too Much.”

“And all you have to do,” Admin says, “is upload a photo in the Friends of Chet gallery. If you’re already there you’re already eligible. The random number generator does the rest.”

“Speaking of the RNG, have you got it up and running?”

“Just about – I’m bidding for a part on eBay.”

Welcome Louis & Benson, Sierra.

AJ and Jesse on the Trail

“Here’s a photo snapped by Rebecca during the six-hour layover in this weekend’s race in Alaska,” says Spence. “The 200-mile Don Bowers Memorial sled dog race.”

“Won by AJ and his Snowhook team,” Admin says. “The team that this blog community supports emotionally and also helps sponsor. And anyone else can help sponsor them, too.”

“In the picture AJ is tending to Jesse, one of the team. This is how Rebecca describes it. She apologizes for the photo quality – apparently affected by the kind of temperatures they have up there right now: ‘Once he reached the layover, like all mushers should do, AJ tended to the dogs.  He prepared food and water, gave meat snacks, gave the dogs straw to lay on, took off their booties, tended to their feet, massaged their muscles, covered the dogs in fleece blankets and finally walked away so they could get uninterrupted rest.  I wasn’t allowed to help him—race rules—but I watched as he tended to and cared for each.'”

http://snowhookkennel.blogspot.com/

Welcome Buddy Love’s brother, Loving dude (and by the way To Fetch A Thief isn’t the latest – there’s now The Dog Who Knew Too Much), Iggy (yes!), 3 dudes who’ll have to wait until Sept. for A Fistful of Collars (sorry), Ivan, and the very active outdoorsy dude.

History Class: From Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood Street

“The robber barons,” said Mr. Stinecki in history class the next day, “is the name given to a group of industrialists and financiers in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Can we name some of them?”

“Rockefeller.”

“Carnegie.”

“Morgan.”

“Vanderbilt.”

“Duke.”

“Gould.”

“Flagler.”

“Flagler?” said Signe Stone. “I think I’m related to him.”

“Does the development office know?” said Mr. Stinecki.

Maybe that was a joke; if so, no one laughed. Mr. Stinecki was in his second year at Thatcher. There were rumors that he wasn’t being asked back for a third.

We spent the rest of the period on the robber barons. We learned that Morgan swatted photographers with his gold-tipped cane, that Gould tried to kidnap a Scottish lord named Gordon-Gordon, almost starting a war between the U.S. and Canada, and that Rockefeller once said, “God gave me the money.”

“Any questions?” said Mr. Stinecki.

Welcome happy dude, dude and human companion, Alicia, Blue.

Congratulations to AJ and the Snowhook team on yesterday’s victory up in Alaska! Is there a picture we can post tomorrow? Probably a good time to post a whole reminder about Snowhook, the Iditarod, sled dog racing, everything.

No Post Today

“Why not?” says Spence.

“Factors beyond our control,” says Admin.

“Meaning you’re expected on the tennis court in twenty minutes?”

“Something like that.”

“Before you go, did you see those great pictures of AJ and the team on the trail yesterday?”

“In the comments section? Yeah. Maybe we’ll get some more. Good luck today, AJ! Bye for now.”