(That's Master Jack holding onto me while I gaze into the dubbie digi camera for Missy Susan.)
TULLIBARDINE HOWLIN YUKON JANIS is my name, and they tell me that I and my Power Howler bruzz and sissers are the FIRST litter of ANY kind of sleddogs ANYWHERE to be registered with the International Seppala Association. So hooray for us POWER HOWLERS! I was a little puppy with a big dream -- my dream was to go and live in the Yukon where Arthur Walden, who dreamed up us Chinooks, got his sleddog education! I persuaded my Master and Missy, Jack and Susan Murray, that it was my destiny to become a Yukon Chinook, and that SEPPALA KENNELS was the place where they would take care of me and teach me all I need to know. Everybody at Tullibardine Farm and at Seppala Kennels felt bad because there were none of Wally's dogs in the Yukon -- so I set out to fix that!
First I had to get big and strong enough to fly from Montreal to Whitehorse. (My silly sisser Ester said the Yukon is a scarey place and that I gotta be crazy to fly that far to get there; I think Wally would be disappointed in her, but I'M never gonna disappoint him!) So had to get my shots, and learn to stay in a crate all day without freakin' out, and learn to walk on a leash. Lots to do before my big exciting lifetime Journey! And further down on this page, you can read how it was when I was on my way to the Yukon and when I first got there -- I'll just leave those parts exactly like I wrote 'em then, for history's sake!
Until I could get up there to be with my dear lifetime Boss, Master Jeffrey of the Seppalas, he gave me this page on his Seppala Kennels website, to be my Chinook Playpen. He said I could have anything on this page I want. So here are some pictures and things! I want everybody to know about us Chinooks, and how we are real honest-to-gosh historic sleddogs. This page is my little home-on-the-web where I can try to educate folks about Chinook Sled Dogs.
First of all, I wanna tell everybody where I come from, 'cause I'm proud of my heritage! I'm a wild State of Maine gal from Tullibardine Chinooks. Here's a link to all my home folks (and underneath it, some pictures from my Family Album -- the ones of my Momma and Poppa and my Grandparents used to be here but now they are on my new Chinook Family Page):
Well, let me tell ya that life was GREAT in the State of Maine for us Chinooks, 'cause we've been there since the 1920s and no matter WHAT they dragged in from Siberia, WE are the one and only original home-grown New England sleddog breed. And it was great to live on a farm -- except that life kept CHANGING on us! First we were wee li'l duppy-puppies ranged out along Mom's big warm milk bar and it would have been wonderful if it would have stayed like that forever, but it didn't! Momma all of a sudden said, "enough, you guys, there's that big pan over there, you go eat out of that now, because I'm all wore out!" And we had to learn to eat from a cold steel dish! Well, we got used to that, and we still had a great time, because we could go "Skitchin' in the Kitchen" with the big dogs and Master and Missy and we would have fun peeing on the floor and grabbing dish-towels off the rack. And then things changed again! Missy said we was too big for us all to be underfoot on the kitchen floor any longer and we had to learn to go OUTSIDE. Well, I thought the grass outside was a lot of fun, but somehow the grass didn't last too long. And then they said several of us have to leave the farm and find new Masters and Missies -- well, right about that time I got my YUKON DREAM so I volunteered to go. I set out to seek adventure in the Yukon and find my Lifetime Bossie. But I'll always cherish these neat pictures of the way life was when I was a wee Duppet!
That's me right there in the middle with the red collar!
At right: This picture is my mos' favourite because it's got my dear Master Jack playing with ME
and giving ME a tummy rub instead of my dumbo sissers Ester and Greenie.
before we got too big and rang-dang and they had to throw us out.
At right: Here's me havin' a go at the green grass when we got thrown out! (I'm afraid there's not much left of the grass now, it didn't seem to hold up very good.) That's my dear worn-out Mom SPARKLE in there with us and my dumbo bro BABY imitating a beagle and trying to hog the picture.
MORE LATER, FOLKS! My new Boss said I could have this page, permanent, if I wanted to use it to tell folks about how a New England Chinook meets up with Gold Rush country in the Yukon, and Gold Rush sleddogs like his Seppalas. So you can expect to hear more from HOWLIN YUKON JANIS! YEE HAW, and a ROO-ROO-ROO!
HEY, BOSS! HERE I COME! I'M ON MY WAY!
THEY SAY I'M GONNA FLY! PLEASE CATCH ME!
Oh, dearest Lifetime Boss, here I come and I'm all butterflies in my tummy and my great big ears are trembling, because to tell the truth, it IS a little scarey, but I'M GONNA DO IT! I already been to the vetamarian and got all kinds of shots and he said I'm in great shape, and I weigh sixteen and a half pounds already. So here goes, and with my dear old Master Jack to look after me and get me across the border and put me on the airplane to you, I don't think he would let anything go wrong. It's gonna be a LONG trip and I can't even imagine what flying will be like. But they say I'll be in YOUR arms by Wednesday night, so I'll just concentrate on that. WISH ME LUCK! HERE I COME!!! (Shiver-shake, shiver-shake, shiver-shake.)
AWOOOOOOOOOOOOO! AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'm sittin' on the ground at Geary's Air Services in CALGARY, ALBERTA!
I DID IT! I'M IN THE YUKON NOW!
Are you my new Boss?"
THAT WAS THE SCARIEST THING that ever happened in my li'l life! When that old airplane landed in Whitehorse it roared so loud I thought the world was ending, and I peed all over my beautiful new blue blankie, I was just SO scared! But I made it to the Yukon! Gee it sure doesn't look much like Maine! The trees don't seem to have any leaves, and there's a cold wind blowing most of the time, and the doggies all have thick coats and funny ears and speak with a Russian accent!
BUT I'VE MET MY OWN DEAR LIFETIME BOSSIE! Also the wonderful Food Lady who gave me delicious hardboiled eggs out of the palm of her hand the minute I got out of my crate! And I LIKE the food in the Yukon! I ate up all my little supper, and all my breakfast, and then I got a delicious little piece of raw chicken that had lots of fat on it! I think I like it here already.
I met some very tiny little puppy people this morning! They were not even half my size. Three of them came out of the cubby next to mine, and they went "yip-yip" in little high voices and we touched noses. I think we could be great friends. I was afraid the Yukon might be a lonesome kind of place, but now I don't think so.
I'm SO GLAD that long airplane trip is over! I miss my dear Master Jack and Missy Suzy, but I sent them an e-mail to tell them I got here and I was safe and I miss them, and now I feel much better. I'm still catching up on my sleep -- I never thought I could be as tired as this. And I guess I have a lot to learn to be a real Yukoner -- right now they are all calling me the "Cheechako Chinook," but I'm gonna become a SOURDOUGH DOGGIE real fast, just you wait and see!
OH GEE! Me and my big mouth! No sooner than I went and boasted about how fast I was gonna get to be a Sourdough Doggie, Bossie took me for a long walk through a sphagnum bog -- and it was HARD to get over all those hummocks, and my little tootsies got all wet in the low places! When we finally stopped, here was this HUGE pile of firewood. Boss said it was cut to stove-lengths but not split yet -- and guess what? some of those chunks of wood were BIGGER THAN ME! Then Boss says that he didn't have any way to get all that back to the shack where it could be used to keep us warm, except by dogsled this winter. And he told me I would have to help haul it! Like fun -- I mean, how's a little person like me gonna haul a sled full of them huge chunks of wood? What kinda place IS this old Yukon, anyway?
That was two or three days ago and at least it was sunny then. But you know what, I had to spend the last two nights OUTSIDE in that great big doghouse Boss put outside his shack special for me, all full of wood shavings and straw. I thought that would maybe come later and I could keep on "rackin' in the shack" whiles I get used to the Yukon -- but Bossie and I had a difference of opinion over where I can pee (I mean, what's wrong with peeing on the blankets in one of the dog-cubbies in the shack, it's not like anybody goes in there to look around, I thought it was a smart choice). So I get put outside on a li'l chain by my doghouse at night now. And when I woke up yesterday morning, IT WAS SNOWING ALREADY! Big, hard pellets of snow!
WHAT HAVE I GONE AND GOT MYSELF INTO?
MAYBE I JUST FREAKED OUT when it started snowing last week! There still isn't any snow on the ground yet. It rained hard last night and Boss said if it would have been a couple degrees colder we woulda had BIG snow, though. I believe it, 'cause when I look up at the mountains they are all snowy, and it seems to be coming down lower into the foothills. I'm not so worried now, though, 'cause I've decided I LOVE my big roomy doghouse with its deep bed of straw and shavings. Bossie carries me out there last thing in the evening after I'm already just about crashed out, and I dream happy dreams until dawn. THEN I start to peep and titter 'cause I would like everybody to come outside and play with me, I'm such an early bird.
When Boss is at home in the shack, I generally get to come inside and sometimes I can sleep RIGHT ON THE BED. Here's a picture of ME sleeping in HIS place! Nuna and BJ and Baby and the other Howlers have got nothin' on me, you betcha! Bossie sez he likes this picture 'cause it shows off my BEAUTIFUL EARS and my LOVELY BLUE MASK, and he says I'm the Most Beautiful Howler of them all. As well as a Howlin Blues Gal!
Speaking of my career as a performer, just after I arrived in the Yukon I wrote the title track for my planned debut CD -- "Howlin Janis' Yukon Chinook Blues"! I was feelin' down and out just then because Tonya and Lizzy and Pia were all telling me to buzz off when I was only tryin' to make friends with them. I don't feel that way much any more, but all the same, I feel to post my song here, 'cause it has a real nice bluesy feel to it and I think it definitely establishes my credentials as a performer. I mean, it shows my participation in the Universal Blues Experience! Goes like this (I put the guitar chords in the first verse for ya):
Howlin' Janis' Yukon Chinook Blues
[guitar chords in brackets]
I'm [G] rackin' in the shack
'Cause I [D] can't get back to [G] Maine [G7]
Yeah, I'm [C] rackin' in this shack
'Cause I [D] can't go back to [G] Maine [G7]
It's [C] cold here in the Yukon
But I [D] can't get back to [G] Maine. [D]I used to be a farm dog
Lyin' in a warm soft bed.
Yeah, I once was a farm dog,
Lyin' in a warm soft bed.
Now they say I be a sled dog,
Don't know what lies ahead!They's lots of other dogs here,
But they ain't like me.
I said, lots of other dogs here.
Lord, they don't like me --
Growl and show their teeth,
'Cause I be strange, you see.I flew to the Yukon
To follow Wally's trail.
Yeah, flew up to the Yukon,
Tried to follow Wally's trail.
Steel bars befo' my face now,
Lord, they put me in jail.So I'm rackin' in the shack
'Cause I can't get back to Maine.
Yeah I'm rackin' in this shack here,
Can't go back to Maine.
It's so cold in this old Yukon,
But I can't get back to Maine.(Finish up with one verse of Janis' famous "Power Howl" - AWOOO, AWOOO, AWOOO, etc.)
So how's about that for some real authentic gut-bucket blues, huh? I think I have some real talent, and the Yukon's gonna hear from me! What's more, Bossie thinks I have "beautiful smokey eyes," sigh . . . gosh, I love that Man!
MY BOSSIE SEZ this old page has got rather L-O-O-O-N-G and maybe I oughta reorganise my website and get a new page started. I guess he's probably right about that. So I'm gonna ask TONYA (who is the SSSD Project Assistant Webmistress and helped Bossie put that big old site together right from the ground up) for some advice and assistance to get a new page started! I will keep this old page 'cause it has lots of precious memories of when I was a little Duppy Puppy Girl and of how I got to the Yukon, but I think I'll move some of my family pictures to the new page.
HERE'S THE LINK FOR MY BRAND-NEW "CHINOOK FAMILY" PAGE!
Puppy photos courtesy of and Copyright Tullibardine Farm.
The Latest from Howlin Yukon Janis!
