Honorary Tripawds Spokesdog III
Nellie wishes everypawdy a very hoppy and festive howloween. Here’s a song she made just for her dad on his birthday!
Hey pawty peoples, it’s here! My human’s favorite day of the year, Howl-o-ween! I made this song just for my Dad, whose birthday is tomorrow. Hoppy Birthday pops, I love you!
There’s so much to tell about all we’ve been up to. But for now my humans are going to trick or treat — without me!
The thanks I get for making this video. Sheesh.
I’ll give you my latest pupdates real soon. Until then, may you get tons of tasty treats and candy tonight!
Love, Nellie
Nellie of the North, Jerry (Rene) and Admin Guy (Jim) wish you and your Tripawds furmily a very hoppy new year!
On behalf of our Tripawds Spokesdog Nellie, a very hoppy new year to you and your furmily!
We hope your season has been beautiful and peaceful. And cheers to fresh start in 2024 for everypawdy!
Nellie has had quite the white Christmas here. Even a couple of Krampus monsters came for a visit but she managed to convince them she’s been a good girl all year.
The Krampus (Krampi?) left, and Santa Paws visited instead. Then Santa brought Nellie the most incredible gift ever.
It’s so hard to believe another year is mere hours away, and even harder to believe that we are doing it from our little cabin in Alaska. We are getting into serious snow removal time, and Nellie is being a terrific supervisor when we break out the shovels.
As dark and cold as it looks here, life is beautiful in frozen North. There is so much to do and see when you put on the right gear and get outside.
This California girl isn’t always a fan of gear or cold, but she’s learning how to adapt like we are. Some days she does really well outside and wants to keep going on the snowy trails.
Other days she just wants to play indoors. Sometimes her aches and pains are obvious, but they appear less now that she’s on the Librela medication for OA. We can already see a difference.
As the temperatures go into the sub-zero range (it’s -20 outside as I type this), we play it by ear to see what she wants to do once we gear up and head outside. She is a great sport and we are following her lead.
It’s time to get outside and see some daylight before it goes into hiding again. So from our pack to yours, may 2024 bring you all that you want and then some. Thank you for being part of our Tripawds family. We’ll see you in the new year!
Our Alaska winter is on and Nellie B. is getting more used to playing in extreme cold (and so are we!).
It was zero degrees today, and I guess that means winter is here in Alaska. As it gets colder, I feel more guilt knowing that we hauled Nellie up here to a place that might as well be on another planet. Remember, this is a doggie from California who has never known anything but mild weather.
Nellie had no clue what lay ahead when we arrived in August. And if I have to admit, we were pretty clueless too (and still are!).
But we also know how much she loves the freedom up here. There’s lots more off-leash wandering, and crazy smells she’s never enjoyed before.
Like anything, there’s a price to pay for all this adventure. And right now, it’s the temperatures. Nellie has made it clear that she isn’t a fan of extreme cold or the dark days of winter.
Every morning it takes at least 15 minutes to get us, and her, dressed to go outside. Layer after layer we cover up, and then put on a headlamp because now it’s dark until about 9:30 am, and (then returns about 3:30 pm).
Finally, we make it outside to take her out to potty, and almost every time our walk lasts about 10 minutes at most. Without fail, she wants to come back inside as soon as she’s done.
Still, on other days, she has a blast. Especially when she visits the local teams of sled dogs. At the advice of our expert mushing friends, we are trying to let her coat acclimate. The colder it gets, they tell us, the more her coat will thicken and keep her warm. As a double-coated dog, we are supposed to be doing her a favor by letting her go outside naked!
But I can’t do it, at least all the time. So as a compromise, she only wears her Ruffwear Climate Changer fleece sweater when temps dip to about 10-degrees. And when it drops down to sub-zero, she wears her Ruffwear Powder Hound puffer jacket. Our musher friends say that’s totally fine.
We suspect that osteoarthritis could be why she isn’t a fan of cold. So we found a great vet nearby and started her on Librela, the prescription monoclonal antibody therapy for OA that just made it to the US. She is also taking a new, interesting joint supplement called Jope. We’ll fill you in on both very soon.
Another crazy thing we’ve learned is how to walk her on ice. WOW that has been an eye opener. I’ll save that for another post, because we have learned a LOT about ice and dog booties. Anyone with a Tripawd, or other special needs or senior dog who lives in icy conditions during winter has my deepest respect and admiration!
Nellie plays in her first snowfall in Willow, Alaska, October 2023
We are pretty sure this Northern California girldog has never seen anything like it.
The white stuff rained down from the sky last week, surprising all of us. “What? Already?” we thought. All of us woke up to see a wintery wonderland in our yard.
Nellie was curious, and with her best brave German Shepherd attitude, went out on our deck to investigate.
She LOVES the stuff! Only thing is, she tried eating it up too. Mouthfuls of it!
We remembered how Wyatt Ray did that when he saw snow. Well, he pretty much thought anything was edible. Once we took him to the Pacific Coast and he wouldn’t stop eating sand. He started shoveling tons of it into his mouth and pooped sand for weeks!
We hope Nellie is more discerning. And we also hope the snow doesn’t pose too much of a problem for her wonky leg and arthritis. That’s something we will keep a close eye on this winter.
She had a blast though, and so did we. There’s nothing like seeing a dog’s reaction to snow, especially when they’ve probably never seen it before.
The snow stuck long enough to toss a few snowballs around. But it disappeared by the end of the afternoon. I can’t say we were sad about that.
Nellie was bummed though, she wanted more playtime in the white stuff.
Don’t worry Nellie, there is plenty more where that came from. Just you wait little Snow Princess!
