Mojo & Tiaga with Ron in Alaska

Mojo &Tiaga were imported to Alaska and sold to 2 separate owners.  After 2 1/2 years, Tiaga's owner (who had apparently kept her in his yard) decided he no longer wanted to deal with her and passed her on to Ron, who bred her to Mojo.  Ron had never dealt with a bitch in whelp and once she was out of season Mojo resented having to share his space with her, so Ron sent her on to me.  We have no idea what the original owner fed her, but she was definitely malnourished.

This is Tiaga when she arrived here 9/27/04, extremely sway-backed from the imminent litter, exhausted and with her coat blowing: she was not a pretty picture.  Ron told me he had tried to cut off the matted coat she arrived in at his house and attempted to make her look presentable.  He definitely had his work cut out for him, especially given the poor nutrition she had had.

The afternoon of her arrival, after nine hours of flying and another 3 1/2 hours' drive to get home.

Mojo

Tiaga "helping" me work on more kennels 02/05

TIAGA'S LITTER, OCTOBER 19, 2004

I have never seen a bitch with this level of exhaustion after whelping.  Tiaga had 9 puppies, of which 3 were stillborn. Of the remaining 6, 4 died during the first two weeks of something that looked almost like sudden infant death syndrome: they just quit breathing, usually in their sleep.  It was a horrifically traumatic time for all of us, but especially for Tiaga, who kept looking for the missing puppies. An autopsy was inconclusive, finding pulmonary edema, but no cause for same. The best guess for a cause was the malnutrition combined with stress from all the changes she had experienced in such a short time.

The six living puppies on 10/20/04

Tiaga with her 2 surviving puppies 11/11/04

Play break 12/05/04

Kolya 12/05/04

Play break for Kolya & Ivana 12/10/04

Ivana 12/05/04

Kolya 12/21/04

Kolya & Ivana exploring 12/21/04

Ivana 12/21/04

Kolya just before leaving for his new home 12/27/04

Ivana with an attitude 01/09/05

And yes, she talks back all the time.