The flight home went much better than the one going. It was mostly overnight and the children slept.
We arrived in Anchorage at 4:30 Alaskan time, having lost four hours during travel. It was so good to see the familiar scenery and the hoarfrost covering the spruce trees, and drive the quiet road.
We weren’t very far out of Anchorage when a moose stepped out on the road in front of us. Andy reacted quickly and stomped on the brakes while punching the horn. Thankfully the moose sped up a bit at the sound of the horn and we were able to avoid hitting it. We continued driving with our hearts still pounding from adrenaline.
3 hours later we arrived at our cabin to find that one of our neighbors had kept our driveway plowed for us, and another neighbor had started the fire early that morning to take the chill off. We have nice neighbors!!
We had left our dog, Sunny, with Matt Snader’s family while we were gone and she had ten mini Goldendoodle puppies about a week after we left. Matt’s were getting a little tired of taking care of them, so now that we were home we figured we’d better pick them up sooner rather than later.
The only problem was that our outdoor dog shed had not gotten finished before we left on the trip and the only place to put the puppies was in the house.
Our house is 16 by 32. Not huge by most people’s standards, but we like living small. But boy, it sure felt crowded with a mother dog and ten puppies underfoot! Saturday night Andy put together a box for them to sleep in, but otherwise they just ran loose.
By Sunday night we were all tired of living with dogs. Particularly ones that are not house trained. No amount of cuteness makes up for cleaning puppy pee off the floor times ten!
Monday and Tuesday Andy worked hard getting that dog shed insulated and dried in, and I helped during the children’s nap times. Finally Tuesday evening Andy moved all the dogs out to the shed where he had made pens with a doggy door and rigged up a heat lamp for the the puppies.
Wow! No more dogs in the house! Suddenly our little cabin felt very roomy and spacious. I immediately began cleaning and vacuuming to get the last vestiges of dog hair and dirt out of our house. It was so nice this morning to come downstairs and the house was still as clean as I had left it the night before with no puppies running loose!
Puppies are cute, but they need their own space and so do we!!
So cute! But yes, I would be happy to get them out also.