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Copyright © 2003 J. Jeffrey Bragg |
Oxford Station and Lyl of Sepsequel
JUST AS THE H-LITTER was being weaned, we were suddenly turfed out of our house in Pefferlaw, which we had been renting by the month. At this point I was getting fed up with southern Ontario anyway, with its snooty dog-show people and the constant backbiting that went on within the Siberian Husky Club of Canada, where there was little or no serious interest in working Siberians. I phoned our friend Nancy Scarthe, who had owned SATAN OF SEPPALA IV, lived south of Ottawa, and was a real estate agent. I told Nancy that we needed a rural property within one month. Amazingly, she was able to deliver! Nancy found us a 100-acre decrepit dairy farm at Oxford Station, ON, just west of Kemptville, 35 miles south of Ottawa. It was on back roads, and there was a nearby conservation area that offered tempting trails for winter. But the retiring farmer and his wife were still living there, had not had their auction sale of farm stock and implements, nor had they yet found a house near Ottawa in which to live. I pointed out to Nancy the urgency of our situation, with a growing kennel, 6-week-old puppies, and no place to go. It was November, and winter was setting in. In the end, since the old couple were very anxious to make the sale, we simply moved in a few days before their auction; we all made the best of it together for two weeks while Nancy found them a house and they sold their farm implements.
A few
days before we were scheduled to move to eastern Ontario,
Johanna Wilson called. She told me she had just acquired an
ageing Seppala bitch (EMBER OF SNOW MYTH, bred by Joel
Nordholm) and her entire litter of young adult Seppalas
sired by MALAMAK'S EGO. Johanna said that she hadn't space
to keep them all and wondered if I would be interested in
one of the females. I made a fast trip to Québec and
came back with LYL OF SEPSEQUEL, a lovely white bitch,
blue-eyed, with a very light silver saddleback pattern.
EMBER was a doll, very similar to DITKO, friendly with a
lively personality; I had already met EGO at Johanna's and
knew him for a fine sleddog. I was thrilled to acquire
LYL. |
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The Death of Ditko
THAT
WINTER EARL NORRIS visited the farm and took his pick of the "H"
litter pups according to our lease agreement; TADLUK'S HANS, HOONAH,
HUSLIA and HELGA, all OF ANADYR, were shipped to Alaska in
mid-January 1971 -- nevermore to contribute to Seppala strain. (I had
by then applied to the C.K.C. for the kennel name MARKOVO but had not
yet received permission to use it; hence I used the kennel name that
Mary and I used for other Siberian stock to register the four Norris
pups that had to leave immediately). DUSKA OF SEPPALA left my farm
with Norris, but only for a short journey to Québec, there to
be bred to MALAMAK'S EGO, the ex-McDougall leader then owned by
Johanna Wilson, on a lease arrangement similar to the one just
fulfilled with me.
The following spring (1971) DITKO
started to show signs of discomfort in his hindquarters. The local
vet sagely told me that it was probably hip dysplasia, or else
arthritis! We x-rayed him, and sent the films to the Ontario
Veterinary College scrutineer at Guelph. The verdict was that DITKO
had the soundest hips they had ever seen on a twelve-year-old dog.
The x-rays also failed to support the diagnosis of arthritis, but our
vet treated him for arthritis symptoms anyway. He did not improve. He
was obviously hurting, but maintained a friendly, cheerful attitude
anway. On the 10th July, 1971, I went outside in the morning to his
doghouse and found him lying dead. A necropsy revealed adenocarcinoma
of the stomach; his hindquarter discomfort had been "referred pain."
I was heartbroken. DITKO had become my best friend, and I would be
desolate without his cheerful grin and his annoying "Dit, Dit!"
double yap at suppertime.
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That
DITKO OF SEPPALA left me only three pure-strain progeny --
HAAKON OF MARKOVO (male) and HELEN and HOLLY OF MARKOVO
(females) -- was entirely my own fault. I ought never to
have allowed a question of personal inconvenience to prevent
the earliest possible matings to LYL OF SEPSEQUEL and
FROSTFIRE ANISETTE; I should also have moved heaven and
earth to find other females on whatever terms were possible.
I blame myself for the failure to this day. |
(by Bryar's Silver ex Bryar's Queen) |