Stirling O’Hanluan is Dog Tired…
You won’t see this very often…
Yesterday we got up before… well, I was going to say before the break of dawn. But this is the land of the midnight sun, so dawn and dusk are largely indistinguishable at this time of year. That being the case, I will simply say we got up early for our trek to Fairbanks. Now the six hour drive may be long, but it is nothing short of spectacular. But as always, we were in too much hurry to stop for pictures.
Sometimes I think we monkeys overlook just how stressful all of this can be on a dog. In Anchorage we seldom drive further than 5 or 10 miles, so the trip alone is a novel experience. …And then there are the new digs. I doubt you have ever made the mistake of yelling down one of those dark narrow hotel corridors; but a bark is loud. So surely you can understand why one bark is probably not enough. …Then there is the show scene where there are hundreds of dogs in close quarters, all with different attitudes. The smell alone must be bemusing. But as if all of that wasn’t enough, the ring steward dropped one of those wooden group signs on the concrete floor right beside Stirling.
To say I am proud of my Stirling hardly covers what I am feeling. The Terrier Group 4 ribbon is huge and beautiful, but it pales in comparison to my boy’s loyalty. We have turned a corner with all of this, as now we are an aligned team …finally.
