Dakota - How it all started

     Today I will talk about how we got a start in our foster career. And if we had never done it, we may never have had any sled dogs. It all started with Dakota. This was before I was born so I interviewed my mom. We got her when a guy that worked for dad told him he had a dog that needed a family because she was left alone all day tied up outside. We took the offer and got Dakota. She was one or two years old and was a malamute mix.
     She was loveable and sweet. One time there was trouble with the septic tank. Dad decided to dig until he found the tank. He was digging and Dakota was sitting by the hole with her paws over the edge watching. Suddenly, she jumped down and started digging as well. Though she soon got tired and dad gave up, too. She loved to go on hikes. My parents took her for many hikes. The one bad thing was she was not kind to cats. 

     But then she got sick. She got bone cancer. Our vet suggested we take her to Purdue. There the vets gave us the option to amputate her front right leg. They said it wouldn't save her life but it would give her more time to live. When she got home, the vets had told us that she shouldn't get on our sofa while recovering, she loved the sofa. One day when mom was cleaning, she piled a bunch of cushions on the sofa to keep Dakota off. But that didn't stop Dakota. She got on top of all the cushions and was laying on top when my mom walked in. She was surprised.

       Dakota earned a fan club at dad's office. Whenever his coworkers would see her, they would pile on the ground and pet her. Dakota soaked it all in. She also had a fan club at doggie daycare. While she was recovering, she went to doggie daycare and instead of keeping her in a kennel, the staff let her hang out in the lounge. She had lots of fans. Having only three legs didn't slow her down.

    

Right before her surgery

One of her many fan clubs

     About nine months after her surgery, Dakota started to slow down and the cancer had started to spread. My parents decided to put her to sleep. This happened in 2000. But that night a cat showed up and laid right in Dakota's old dog house and was still there the next day. My parents joked that this was the reincarnation of Dakota. They called the cat Dakota Cat or DC. It was about a month later, mom went to donate Dakota's dog food at the animal shelter. They told her that two husky puppies had arrived. Those two puppies were Nikita and her sister. Thus began the rescue of many sled dogs. 

She still played ball

     I didn't get to know Dakota but from the stories I've been told, she was a great dog. I wish I could have met her. 

She loved leaf piles

 

Still looking for cats