Zach & his girl or Katie & her boy

There are many terms when referring to this pair, dynamic duo, Katie and her boy, Zach and his girl, and recently someone said "my competition". The last was quite a complement considering it was someone Zach competes against in the conformation ring, an adult. Zach and his girl are quite a pair, and as Laura says "Katie's handler of choice". They have only been a pair for a little over a year now in the junior ring making their debut last year in Prescott, and


beginning in February '08 Zach started handling her in the competitive conformation ring with the adults. During the last 10 months they have taken 7 Reserve Winners Bitch, including two to majors which one came from the Mission Circuit shows with them taking 1st in the open class of 10 total competitors, and their second one to a major over this past Thanksgiving weekend in Yuma. How they came about being a pair is still a very lucky chance of events and not only has Zach benefitted from it, we have also been fortunate to have made some great friends.

Now as some have seen Katie is quite accomodated ("not spoiled" as the Kaos Grandma Sharon will tell you), and of course her boy is just as accomodated. They have matching Chairs for when they are ring side with Katies being pink and Zachs being blue. Then there is also the extra crate pad that is now part of Katies x-pen for Zach to sleep on, since he is still small enough he likes to nap in there and since crate pads are only so big there wasn't enough room on them for both, so now there is two. There is nothing more cute than a boy and his Siberian, but Zach and Katie have taken it to a whole new level.

The Sled

There comes a time where something starts to make you think about the past. Today was one of those days for me. You see, today was the day I started taking some of the parts off the sled that was given to me last week. Some of the parts were put on after it was purchased and some bolts haven't been touched since Frank Hall made it sometime in the 70's. The parts that were later put on for the original driver of the sled were also put on in the 70's. This sled is nearly as old as I am if not older, and the dogs that pulled it have long since passed. One of the original owners of the sled was the person who handed it down for another shot to run on the snow, and come this winter it will be back on the snow. It's still in great condition and there isn't anything some sandpaper and varnish won't be able to do for this sled, but I know I will be thinking of the person who once rode this sled. When I picked up this sled last Friday I was stoked, it's not easy to come across a sled in southern California. I didn't realize what I was really in store for. I arrived at the residence and a really nice elderly gentleman named Chuck answered the door. He took me to his garage and showed me not only the sled, but a beautiful picture of his wife Fern on the sled with 5 German Shepherds in x-back harnesses pulling the sled. He talked about how much fun they had running their dogs. He talked about their races that they participated in and what an amazing thing it is to stand on a set of runners behind a dog team. The one thing that hasn't changed is that it is still an amazing thing to stand on a set of runners behind a team, the sound of just the runners as they glide along the snow, surrounded by trees that have been dusted with the last snowfall, there is really nothing that can describe it. It will take a little time to sand down the sled and varnish it up, but is going to be a lot of fun.