Patapov’s Travels, pups galore and the passing of some iconic dogs…
Summer 2018 was a time of sad endings and new beginnings on the farm, and the journey of a lifetime for one ancient dog.
Patapov‘s European Adventure.
This summer, one of our iconic Taimyr Russian sled dogs, Patapov, left us for his new home in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. It was an epic relay spanning over 3,000km from Hetta, Finland, through Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland to reach the final destination, where he was to share his new home with another Hetta Huskies retiree, Bernie!
Paddy and Lorin started on the 1st of July by hitching a ride with a fellow musher 240km to his kennel in Kiruna, Sweden. The following day, they boarded the first of what would end up to be six trains and a ferry, departing Kiruna bound for Boden, and then onto the night train to Stockholm. Paddy, being the obliging gentle giant that he is, took to train life without a fuss, with just one problem — he is so big that wherever he lay, he invariably spilled out into the communal aisle space!
Luckily, travelling with pets on trains and buses is a common and accepted thing in Finland and Scandinavia, so in the designated ‘pets allowed’ zone, no one was bothered by the presence of an extremely large dog (except perhaps the cat in the seat in front!).
1,200km and 17 hours later, a four-hour layover in Stockholm meant a chance to get out and see the city, fitting in a visit to Gamlastan — Stockholm’s picturesque Old Town.
Extensive track work around the Central Station meant having to navigate the subway system on local trains to find the next intercity train to Copenhagen. Patapov is now an expert at riding the elevator — just don’t ask him to step on an escalator!
The next leg was 650km with a quick train change in Malmo. Both Paddy and Lorin were relieved to finally arrive in Copenhagen where they were taking a night in a hotel to break up the journey. As expected, Paddy was a model hotel dog and both enjoyed the rest!
In the morning, there was time to sightsee in Copenhagen with a visit to the colourful Nyhavn wharf, and then it was back to work. From here, the travelling got a little trickier, as the Deutsche Bahn (German) trains are not so accommodating to pets, and it was not easy to book ahead of time online. Their website even states that dogs must be muzzled at all times! Lorin did have a Paddy-sized muzzle packed in his supply kit, but thankfully he was not asked by train staff to wear it at any point.
Finally, after 900km which included an unexpected boat ride across the Baltic Sea, they arrived in Mannheim, Germany, where they were met by Josh & Julia (two more of our lead guides) and Luc (another Hetta Huskies guide from the past season).
The next day, Lorin continued her own journey home to Australia while Patapov continued by car with Josh and Julia on the (almost) final stretch!
Their first stop was a campground near to the German/Swiss border for a night, and then onward to Interlaken to meet Luke, a Hetta Huskies guide from the 2014–15 season, who had adopted Patapov’s brother, Drizen, two years ago.
No one was sure how the reunion of these two ‘monster dogs’ would go — especially since they were the main source of each others scrapes and scuffles during their working years — but age seems to have mellowed out the big boys and both guides and dogs enjoyed the quick catch- up.
Finally, the Great Patapov Relay of 2018 reached Schaffhausen. Patapov was introduced to his new home and his adoptive ‘brother,’ Bernie — another Hetta Huskies retiree who has been with Flavia and family since 2015. They have all met before in Hetta so we know that Paddy will settle in quickly and that he will enjoy the retirement life that he deserves.
For more photos and details from Patapov’s journey, follow @hettahuskies and #paddystravels
Meet Our Newest Recruits.
Meet our newest arrivals!
In June, four new girls — Hailey, Laura, Grizzly and Cookie (#2) — joined the HH family from a small kennel in Kiruna, Sweden since their previous owners could no longer look after them. Four quickly multiplied to eighteen when — surprise! — Hailey and Cookie turned out to be pregnant!
Hailey gave birth to her seven pups — two girls and five boys — on the 11th of June. The pups are quite unique in their colourings and we can’t wait to see how they grow up!
Cookie also gave birth to seven pups a few weeks later on July 1st. Like Cookie #1 before her, she gave us a set of completely black and white dogs to add to our collection!
Both mums and all pups are doing well and will be ready to meet and play with summer visitors soon. They’ll grow up quickly and be ready to take their first steps as sled dogs by the end of next winter!
Farewell To Monty, King Of Sled dogs: 2007–2018.
Monty was born on the 14th of July 2007 and was one of the very first 13 dogs of Hetta Huskies, arriving here in 2008.
On Christmas Day in 2010, he lost half of his tongue by panicking when it got stuck to some metal he had licked in freezing conditions. The vet was sceptical that he would be able to eat and drink properly, and their recommendation was that he be put down, but Anna was adamant that he could be given the help that he needed to recover and adjust to life with only half a tongue.
The most challenging accommodation that we needed to make to care for Monty was figuring out how to make sure that he could drink enough water to stay hydrated, given that he had a harder time regulating his own body temperature as he couldn’t stick out his tongue and pant!
One solution was to allocate him his own special bowl for feeding and drinking, deep enough that he could stick his whole snout into the water and gobble up every last little kibble. He later became skilled at drinking from a more regular shallow bowl, by way of a technique that many guides dubbed ‘snorkelling.’ It was a particularly messy endeavour and invariably resulted in a guide chasing him around the house with a towel to mop up the drippings after he had finished drinking!
So that we could make sure he could drink whenever he wanted to, even in the freezing winter, he began to come home to the guide house every evening. He had always been a wise soul but now holding the position of ‘permanent guidehouse dog’ gave him an even more humanlike presence. He was often the first dog that each new guide would remember and develop a relationship with — including quietly invading their beds and sprawling out with his head on the pillows!
Despite his disability, Monty remained one of our top-class working dogs, attaining the rank of ‘Leader A,’ reserved for only the best, most motivated, attentive, and smart lead dogs. During his career at Hetta Huskies he ran close to 15,000km across our stunning arctic landscape on everything from short daytime safaris to the premier five day tours. Monty is survived by his seven offspring, Trouble’s T-pup litter of 2010 (there is some debate surrounding the issue of their parentage, but just try telling any guide that Tarmo and Taiga did not come from him!).
On the 8th of June 2018, Monty suffered a kind of seizure from which he unfortunately never recovered. Later we would find that the cause of his illness was a large tumour growing in his abdomen, an undetected and unknown form of cancer. He passed away on the 9th of June in our arms and we know that he will be keeping his ever-watchful eye over all of us for the next season and beyond.
Farewell also to beautiful Zeus and strong Samson..2 of our strongest dogs. Huge and unexpected losses (to cancer and epilepsy) at relatively young ages…
2017–18 Winter Season Quick Stats.
We like to look back on the hard work of the dogs and guides from each season and pull a few fun facts out…
