Happy belated birthday Crayola! What a good pupper you are!

My dogs have never saved me from a burning building, but I rely on my lead dogs alot when I am running the dog team. Pingo has great ice sense. If she won't cross ice, there's a reason. I never argue with her anymore. I did once and I ended up in lots of overflow--open water above a layer of ice.

Before she retired, Sleet always knew the way home. I got lost once several years ago running a small team. I ended up about 50km from home, if I had been on the road. I think the team ran about 30 on the trails. It was getting dark, I wasn't prepared for a night run or a night outside in the Yukon winter. So I got off the sled, told Sleet I had no idea how to get home and it was going to be up to her.

When I pulled the hook again she ran a few hundred yards and then turned up a trail. Turned out that trail was a driveway, the only house for miles and they had a phone. The couple that lived there let me in to warm up, gave my dogs a snack and I used their phone to call home. Stuart wasn't home so I waited there for a bit. Eventually, the man, Werner, loaded up me, my dogs, my sled into his SUV and drove us home. I don't know if Sleet really knew where she was going, but her decision to turn saved me from a long cold night!