A Very Busy Malamute

[Bonny]

Yesterday at work there was a car outside our visitors center with a Malamute dog in it. The owners had gone on a tour. I was eating my lunch while watching their dog remove stuff off the dash board. She took her nose & would push things off onto the car floor. She even dislodged a small package in the corner of the dash board. Her & I locked eyes as she saw me watching her. I decided I better stop staring at her. She laid down in the car seat & napped. The owners came back from the tour & I told them about their dog. They said she does that all the time. LOL! The dog wore a huge bell on her collar along with her tags. I asked why the big bell & they said she likes to run off & this way they can find her. She was a beautiful dog with big blue eyes & a character.

[Freedom]

Great story, thank you for sharing!

Another little devil in doggie costume.

[cyber-sibes]

She must have been fun to watch! Just so you know: If her eyes were blue, she was a Siberian and not a mal-- all mals have brown or gold eyes. (little-know fact outside of mal & Sibe owners). Blue eyes are a dead give-away that there is Siberian in the mix. She's definitely got that northern-breed curiosity going on! : )

[Bonny]

She had bright beautiful powder blue eyes, yes. She was a medium sized dog & looked like she was in real good shape. They said she liked to run & would run away therefore the bell on her collar. She was fun to watch. A very busy girl & maybe bored entertaining herself. LOL! So she is a Siberian Husky? I never asked them her breed.

[cyber-sibes]

She had bright beautiful powder blue eyes, yes. She was a medium sized dog & looked like she was in real good shape. They said she liked to run & would run away therefore the bell on her collar. She was fun to watch. A very busy girl & maybe bored entertaining herself. LOL! So she is a Siberian Husky? I never asked them her breed.

Yup, another way to tell is that Siberians are a medium size (my females have been from 30-48 lbs., whereas mals are a much larger dog (a female malamute is around 75 lbs or more. Males can be well over 100 lbs lbs, as opposed to my male, who weighs 58 lbs.)
I'll attach a couple pics of my friend's malgal Holly with Sam and KhadyLynn- 2 Sibes. Compare those paws! Khady is demonstrating that sibe curiosity (and instigation technique) in the other photo.

[Bonny]

She was in the 30-48 weight range it looked like to me. She was sitting on the front seat & her owner was trying to get her to jump into the backseat. I noticed they had a leash on her too. When they take her out they would have to have a good hold of the leash. She was a power house of energy.
She had a nice thick bushy looking coat. I didn't notice her paw size? Usually we allow people to bring their dogs along on the tour, especially during the hot summer. Actually the dogs behave better then some of the children we take on tours. I think this girl dog would of been a handful in the musem her nose would of been busy checking everything out. LOL!

[cyber-sibes]

What do you do tours of? Just curious...

[Bonny]

What do you do tours of? Just curious...

I work at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in a small town in northeast Iowa. Laura & her family lived in this town for a year, her folks worked in the hotel, & her sister Grace was born in this area. They back trailed to this area because grasshoppers had eaten their crops in Minnesota. It was very trying time for the Ingall's family, their son had passed away on the way here. I tell people about the Ingalls travels before they came to this town, what happened while they were here & after they leave. Guests are given a 45 minute tour of the old hotel along with stories of the Ingall's travels.

There is an unpublished autobiography that Laura had written for adults to read called Pioneer Girl that a lot of people don't know about. Our little town is mentioned in there. The autobiography should be fair game around 2018 & then can be legally published is what I have been told.