Husky Dishwashing

A husky's work is never done. We're a very busy breed. After all, we're "working dogs"! I have many jobs around the house. One of my favorites is the dishes. I am the official pre-rinse cycle. That's an important job and not just any-Sibe can do it. Take a look at my form:

This of course takes skill. As you can see, I was still a little guy. I'm a quick learner so it didn't take me long to figure it out. For some reason we no longer have this dishwasher. We had to get a new one since the door wasn't closing quite right anymore. I really don't know why. Since I'm a bigger guy now I don't have to stand on the door to get a good view. I just stick my head inside as soon as I hear someone putting the dishes in. Mom said Merlin used to be the pre-rinse cycle until the day the dishwasher drawer (full of dishes) jumped right out of the dishwasher and chased him clear across the kitchen! (Note: collar tags sometimes get snagged on the dish racks) She said it was VERY noisy and dishes flew everywhere. Mom said he resigned from that job after that happened. But now that I'm here I'll take over. I am Merlin's Echo after all.

What jobs do you have around the house?

Girly Girl and Mary Kay

Today I have an exciting announcement to make! But first I'll tell you a little bit about Shyla. She just recently came to live with us and boy oh boy was she skinny! My Mom and Dad went to get her from an overcrowded shelter. The nice people at the shelter called to see if MaPaw could help them out and help find a new home for her. They really liked her there and knew she would make a great addition to someone's family. When my Dad saw her, his heart melted. That was it. She came to live with us and she fits right into to our happy home. Unlike any of us, Shyla is a girly-girl. Just look....she's surrounded by PINK! Guys don't do pink.

She even has long eye lashes! Shyla has what my Mom calls "natural beauty'. Hrrmpph. That sounds like a girly thing too. Speaking of beauty, let me get back to my exciting announcement! There's a very nice person who loves MaPaw and everything they do. She's a Mary Kay consultant and has a website (kinda like me!) where people that need some help with their natural beauty can buy some great products . They'll be able to go to this website http://www.marykay.com/klanduyt/default.aspx to order anything they like. Here's the greatest news.....she's donating 20% of all of the total order to MaPaw so that they can keep helping Jasper and Dawkin, and shipping is FREE, FREE, FREE!!

We think this is totally cool and give her two paws up! THANK WOO!

My Sister Tela

Hi everypup -

Today I'm going to tell you all about my bewootiful sister Tela. I have 4 bewootiful sisters and Tela is the one that looks the most like me. See......

I'm very proud of Tela. She regularly visits a school for visually impaired children (http://www.sabvi.com/). Without any formal training, she has learned to be very gentle with the children. She gives them lots of hugs and lets them feel her soft fur. Even though she's a husky she makes sure she is on her best behavior when she's there. She doesn't get into any trouble which for members of my family, takes alot of concentration. She even lies calmly down next to the children when it's time to be quiet and listen. Just look at that!

I think Tela deserves a big WOO and two paws up for making these kids so happy!

Mischief Maker

Any of you who lives with a Husky know that we tend to get into mischief now and then. I prefer to think of it as "projects". When I was just a little guy I had LOTS of projects! One day Mom left me alone in the kitchen. Leaving me alone anywhere was risky business. Any Sibe savvy owner knows that when we get bored, we will find something to do. Here I am being bored:


I found a project. The toilet paper needed to be organized so.........


......I took care of it! See how proud I am? Mom really liked my creation and said that I had "endless possibility". You will find my famous "Recipe for Disaster" in the MaPaw Cookbook (www.Sibes.com) so that you can make these wonderful creations yourself.

Husky Play

If there's anything we Sibes love to do, it's playing. Mom says we are extreme players. We really like to play in the backyard but the table with the giant umbrella gets in the way sometimes. Our neighbors say that our backyard reminds them of Jurassic Park when they hear us snarling and the umbrella starts to move around alot.
This is me playing with Shyla. Mom says I have to be careful so that I don't squash her since she's a skinny girl. (We're working hard on fixing that):



Shyla's learning this Siberian Play thing quickly. She didn't really know how to play when she first got here so I had to show her the ropes. Our friend calls her "Princess Runs-Like-Wind" because she chases me all over the place and then nips my ears. She's a funny grrrl!

Now here's some pictures of Meeka and I playing. Some people see this and don't understand it. It's just how we Sibes play. The Lab that lives next door doesn't understand it at all and barks at us when we play:



Mom really likes the picture on the left. That shows how quick we are!






Shadow doesn't like to play with us AT ALL! She just looks at us and shakes her head. Sometimes she gets in the way and we accidentally run her over. She's a smart pup though and has learned ways to stay safe. This is one of her favorites:

I'm so glad I have Meeka and my new sister Shyla to play with. Life is good!

Food!

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I LOVE food! Mom says I'm "food motivated". I'm thinking that's a good thing because it has the word FOOD in it. Whenever anyone is in the kitchen I'm always there to lend a helping paw. Try as I might (and I do tend to turn on the cuteness factor) I hardly ever get handouts. But it's fun trying just the same and those sniffs are worth the effort. I usually sit very patiently waiting for something to accidentally hit the floor. I'm in charge of housekeeping in the kitchen you know.

This is Meeka:

He likes food too. His idea of food and mine are different. I like things like Peanut Butter and Hamburgers. He's about to get into BIG trouble here. He's visiting the gerbil and he's probably thinking about food. Mom says his intentions are less than honorable whatever that means. (Note: no animals were harmed in the process of obtaining this photograph). He likes to peek through the fence at the birdfeeder too. He's a sneaky guy!


Lately, Mom has been very worried about what's in our food. She must be mighty worried because she and our girl are baking our treats from scratch now! Yep! That's the best because that means the Peanut Butter jar comes out and I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER!
She said she is so glad she has the official MaPaw Recipes For Rescue Cookbook. It has pages and pages of recipes for dog treats. How cool is that? This is what it looks like:




It has recipes for people food too, and lots of cool pictures of rescue dogs. But that's not the best part! Every penny that is paid for this way cool book goes to help their rescue dogs. They have some real sick guys right now so they would love to sell more of these cookbooks. It's real easy to get one. Just visit their cool website (www.sibes.com) and you'll see it on their front page. Pssst.....Mother's Day is coming up fellow pups! Mom would LOVE one of these! But hurry, they'll be gone soon! Tell em Echo sent you.

Synchronized Napping

We would like to bring to everyone's attention our new hobby.....synchronized napping. This takes skill....and practice. Lots of practice! Not just everysibe can pull this off but with a bit of work it is possible.

This is Shyla. She's new to our napping team so she needs some extra practice. Here she is on the sofa with Dad, working hard.

Meeka thinks this should be an Olympic Sport. We're going to ask Siren, our official Siberian Legal Counsel to look into just how we should go about making this request.

In the meantime, we'll be working hard to fine tune our napping skills. Sweet dreams!

Gardening 101

Since we've established the fact that spring is officially upon us, it's time for some gardening. For those of you who don't already know, Siberians are proficient gardeners. We're quite creative (that's the free-thinker part of us) and we often take matters into our own paws. We like to help our humans. Last year I helped Mom do some weeding. She was pleasantly surprised (well, maybe just surprised) at my creativity and my ability to take the initiative to "help".

I do hope that this little tip inspires all of you pups out there to get out, enjoy the weather, and help your humans garden!

Siberian Springtime

Spring is in the air! This is Meeka and I, sniffing. Siberians LOVE sniffing. Some would think it's a funny thing we do but it's a very important skill that we Huskies have. After this particular day of sniffing, we can officially say that spring has finally arrived in Pennsylvania!

This is Shyla. She just learned sniffing today.

This is Shadow. She says this is the way any good Lab/Whippet sniffs.

So that's what we all did today. It was a good day for sniffing!

Echo's World

My name is Echo. Well, that's not my real name but you'll find out about that later. I am a 3 year old Siberian Husky and I was adopted from MaPaw Siberian Husky Rescue (www.Sibes.com). Here's how it all started.....

Many years ago my Mom and Dad adopted a Lab/Husky puppy. His name was Merlin. He grew and grew and he finally stopped when he weighed about 95 pounds. Mom said he was a "handful". I'd say so if he was that big! I don't know how he even fit in her hand! He didn't have a very good start in life and wasn't real socialized. They worked hard with him and eventually he came around but never really liked other people. But he loved them and they loved him even more so they kept him. When Merlin was 8 he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. They were told to take him home and love him which they did. He lived for another year when they realized it was time to say goodbye. Mom said she cried so many tears that there weren't any left and when he went to the Bridge he took a piece of her heart with him. Dad said it was the worst day of his life when he had to say goodbye. They were all very sad. They realized that they simply couldn't live without the joy of a dog in their lives so off to the SPCA they went. They came home with Shadow - a bewootiful Black Lab/Whippet mix. They loved her very much but something was missing. Could it be that they, like many others who have endured the Husky personality, were missing all of those strong personality traits that only a Husky or Husky mix has? They did some research and found MaPaw. They filled out an application and were soon introduced to (cue trumpet fanfare) Meeka! It took three visits before Shadow realized that Meeka wasn't going to eat her. He just wanted to play. She finally gave in and let him stay. They quickly became friends and all was well in the household. In the midst of this happy harmony, Mom and Dad became volunteers with MaPaw. One day they were notified of a huge rescue in NJ that involved all of the area Husky rescues. Among several others, a very pregnant female Husky was brought into MaPaw's loving arms. Her name is/was Sissy.....and that's my Mom! On July 24, 2003 my 4 sisters and I were born. 5 bouncing baby Siberians!

My Mom met me when I was only 2 days old. She couldn't resist my cuteness and within 10 minutes realized I was meant to be a member of their family. The next time they visited me they came with some very important news. I had a name and it was a BIG name for such a little guy. I became Merlin's Echo. I knew I had big paws to fill. Lucky for me, Mom says I'm doing a very good job. Shadow said she was moving out when she saw me come through the door but I promised not to tug her tail too hard so she stayed. Little did she know, a few years after that we would have another addition to our pack (Mom is calling it a small herd). Mom and Dad went to pick up a dog who needed to come into MaPaw. Dad took one look at this beauty and that was it. He failed Transport 101 and then failed Fostering. Shyla is now living with us. We're teaching her how great it is to have 2 big brothers. So that's the story of how we came to be.