Surprise, surprise... it's a puppy!

It was the morning of April 5th — smack in the middle of SHEWild, four days before the solar eclipse. 


Time to feed the dogs.


My favorite half hour of every morning goes like this: I put on my gloves, walk outside and yell, “Gooooooooooooooood morning doooooooooogs!”


They ERUPT.


Our pack of sleddogs start barking, howling, and running circles around their houses — leaping in all directions as they anticipate their breakfast. 


If you’ve never been in a dog yard, the sound is weirdly harmonious and chaotic at the same time. While I can pick out each dog’s voice, I also love how they sound together — losing their minds with excitement, at the same level of intensity they did the meal before.


As each one is fed, the chorus dies down — which is followed by me, scooping poo and giving “morning love” to each dog.


On this morning in particular, I knew something wasn’t right.


We’d acquired three 2-year-old sleddogs a few days earlier, and Yara was still tucked inside her house. In the few days I’d known her, she’d never miss mealtime.

I knelt down to get a better look, and — ope! She was protectively curled around a small black lump… and the lump was moving. It took me a few seconds to process...



It’s a puppy.


OMG. YARA HAD A PUPPY. ​



According to Sean, this is the part where I “scream-cried” for him to get to the dog yard, quick!

We had no idea Yara was pregnant, but Sean and I held that little lump-of-a-puppy with massive grins and tears in our eyes — like we’d just given birth ourselves. I guess she truly is our “first-born” because neither of us had ever experienced newborn puppies before!



Funny enough, I had commented to Sean a few days earlier that Yara looked chubby — we chalked it up to muscle from all her training. I laughed and joked, “Maybe she’s pregnant!”  I didn’t give it a second thought until I found the puppy. Call it a woman’s intuition, I guess!​



Yara didn’t have any more pups after the first — so we named her Eclipse, in honor of the cosmic timing of her arrival.

Welcome to the fam, Eclipse.




Have a great week!
Mollie