Page 75 of A Winter in Wonderland
Chapter 34
‘Iwould love to have eyes like him,’ I said to Esteri, staring into the most beautiful set of peepers I’d ever seen. One eye was iceberg-blue, the other log cabin-brown, and it gave the husky puppy the most interestingly appealing face in the world.
Esteri was too busy smooching her own puppy to answer, so I buried my nose back into mine. His name was Juno and he was ten weeks old. His fur was a marble of snow-white and charcoal-black, his nose splotchy pink and black, and his ears little concaves.
Esteri and I were both, separately, leading groups on husky tours today, so had arrived early to the farm because who would ever give up a chance to sneak in some snuggles with the pups?
‘Oof, Juno is heavy,’ I commented, shifting my weight and hoping not to topple back in the snow. With his long legs dangling down from my arms, he kept trying to wriggle in order to lick my face, which meant my skin kept beingtickled by gloriously lustrous and soft puppy fur, so thick to keep them warm, even at this age. Around me, husky dogs spread out into the distance, howling and yapping and eager to stretch their legs on a lovely long run.
‘OK, our groups will be arriving soon, come along,’ said Esteri, putting her own puppy down and looking over at one of the husky men. ‘We will come back under the cover of darkness for more kisses.’
With one last stolen peck on the top of Juno’s head, and in turn one last lick of my nose for him, I put him back in his enclosure and followed Esteri to where the husky team were setting up the dogs that we’d be taking out today.
Rows of excited huskies stood in the snow, looped together with a long harness. Happy howls continued to ring out loudly as they all bellowed at each other and demanded to get going. They loved to run so much, and it was nice knowing that when visitors took the husky sleigh rides, the dogs really were having a great time.
Some of the more mellow dogs were chilling in the snow, occasionally dipping their noses in to graze a little. Others were standing with their heads tilted right back, seeming to go off on some kind of monologue they were forcing the others to listen to from start to finish. Some wandered out of formation and spaghettied themselves in amongst the harness.
I went down the line for the sled I’d be part of, saying hi to all the dogs and giving them all equal attention and ear-strokes. If this were a longer excursion, the husky guides would take the guests out, but for shorter loop trails we took them ourselves.
When my guests arrived, a middle-aged couple from Brazil named Davi and Lucas, both men were so entranced by the line of dogs they had to have photos with every single one and I promised they could meet the puppies on our return.
‘Shall we get going?’ I said, coaxing the men onto the sled, sensing the dogs were getting restless.
‘Yes, yes, absolutely,’ said Davi, and then quickly took another ten photos.
‘Come on, Dav,’ said Lucas, rolling his eyes at me with good humour, and pulling his boyfriend by the hand where they took their places, seated on the sled.
Lucas turned back to look up at me. ‘Do we say “mush”?’ he asked.
‘Well, who wants to start?’ I asked.
‘You?’ Lucas suggested. ‘I think we’d quite like to just sit back and let you do the work.’
I laughed, and made my way to stand at the back of the sled. ‘OK, no problem. I’ll get us started. It can feel a bit funny to begin with so we’ll have you enjoy the ride and the scenery and get a feel of it all first and then I’ll teach you some commands and if you want you have a go in a while, if that’s all right?’
‘Definitely,’ said Davi, snuggling back against Lucas and pulling the thick blanket over them both.
I stood on the back of the sled, held on tight, and instructed the dogs to get going. On my command, all eight dogs started trotting forward, happy as Larry, and Davi let out a happy cry.
As we began to slide along the trail, the sledbump-bumping over the snow, the fresh, cold air whipping at my cheeks, a smile spread across my face. Back here, nobody could see me as the smile turned into a grin.
The trees rushed past, the dogs brushed their noses in the powdery snowy drifts either side of the trail for on-the-go slushie drinks, their tails whooshing, bottoms wiggling, the wooden sled creaked against the packed snow trail in the most satisfying way, the sky overhead was muted pinks and mauves, and my lips were freezing.
I loved this. Itrulyloved this. This was the best part of my job, and I never would have known how much I loved working outside in somewhere like this if I hadn’t quit my latest office job.
Come to think of it, if I’d still been in my ‘dream job’, I also would have never known how much I could enjoy something like this.
Like an icicle drip, the thought dropped into my mind that maybe, just maybe, I’d been wrong about my dream job being the be-all and end-all.
After a little while, we stopped to give the dogs a rest and a chance to have a snack and eat some snow, and I went through some of the techniques with Davi and Lucas, so that they could have a go themselves.
I took a seat behind Davi, while Lucas tried to begin with. It always felt a little odd snuggling up to someone else’s partner at this juncture, but usually everyone involved was just pleased to keep the body heat sharing going.
‘All right, Lucas, so say “Mush” and the dogs will start to pull forward. Remember to hold on tight and lean yourweight in the direction you want to turn. Say “Whoa” to stop. And remember to have fun!’
As we set off, I was pleased at how quickly he’d got the hang of it. The dogs were off on their fast trot again, relaxed and happy, and Davi kept holding his camera in the air to take photos of Lucas, standing up at the back.
It was all going so well. Until …
