Frost covered holiday tree outside Denny's in foggy, frost Anchorsge, Alaska
Frost covered holiday tree outside Denny's in foggy, frost Anchorsge, Alaska
J Tatro & S. Horton meet their favorite author.
Alaska Dogs Gone Wild Spring Fever Flyball Fest
May 2-3, 2009
Races at regular intervals from 10 am - 3 pm (with a lunch break)
Location: Wasilla, Valley Canine Camp & Training Center (next to Lowe's)
Come watch the exciting and fast-paced dog sport of flyball! Flyball is a timed event involving head-to-head racing of 2 teams of 4 dogs each, jumping 4 jumps to trigger a ball from a spring-loaded box then returning over the 4 jumps to their handlers and a fun reward. The fastest team with the fewest errors wins! This sport involves dogs of all sizes and breeding - so come root for your favorites!
Link: Why sled dogs are super dogs - Pet health- msnbc.com.
Alaskan huskies that participate in the grueling Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race must run 1,100 miles while enduring heavy blizzards, temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit and winds up to 60 miles per hour, all of which earn the hearty canines status as the world's premier ultra-endurance animal athletes.
How do they do it? New research suggests the canines are superior to most other mammals, including humans, in at least three key areas: They are unusually adept at adapting to exercise, they have superior aerobic capacity and are unusually efficient in using food as fuel.
Michael Davis, a professor at Oklahoma State University's Center for Veterinary Health Sciences, and his team have been studying Iditarod-racing dogs for 10 years.
Read the rest at the link above
Read the whole story from the Alaska Journal .
Teen struggles on after loss of service dog
CINTHIA RITCHIE The Seward Phoenix LOG
SEWARD, Alaska — The first few days were the hardest.
That's when Breeann Campbell missed her dog the most. Ingram Gerard Shay-Campbell, as he was formally called, died of vascular cancer June 24.
"We bawled for three weeks straight," said Angela Campbell, Breeann's mother.
Campbell, a shiny-haired young women about to leave for college, had Ingram for five years. The 9-year-old golden retriever entered her life as a service dog her first year in high school. Ingram was to help Campbell, who has cerebral palsy, carry books, pick up dropped pencils and open doors.
See link above to read whole story
Dog detects chemicals in ruins of restaurant: Alaska News | adn.com
An accelerant-detecting dog sniffing through the rubble at Peter's
Sushi Spot has detected chemicals in several areas near the fire's
point of origin.
Investigators are not using the word arson.
Samples are on their way to a laboratory for analysis, said Anchorage
Fire Department spokeswoman Jen Klugh.
The
fire broke out early Saturday morning at the Midtown restaurant near
its east wall by an entrance that leads into an office, Klugh said.
Investigators have been unable to determine conclusively if the fire
started in the office or outside the exterior door on a walkway, she
said.
"The investigators are not
indicating that they think it's suspicious, but since Jodi did get some
hits, they decided to get the samples to a lab," Klugh said. "It could
turn out that it's suspicious, but at this point the investigators did
not indicate that it was."
Two
Anchorage fire investigators, accompanied by the dog, Jodi, and her
handler, have spent most of the week sifting through the ashes and
pumping water out of the restaurant's basement as they search for the
fire's origin.
Though Jodi is
trained to detect 25 accelerants, her getting a hit does not
necessarily mean the chemical she detected was used in an arson, Klugh
said. The chemical could have been there - in a bottle, for example -
before the fire broke out.
The
cause of the fire will remain under investigation until results from
the lab come back, likely within a few weeks, Klugh said. If results
indicate the fire's cause was not arson, the cause might never be
established, she said.
In the meantime, the scene is sealed off in case investigators need to revisit it, Klugh said.
The
fire was reported at about 5:30 a.m. Saturday, when passers-by called
911. It was unclear how long the restaurant, at 4140 B St., had already
been burning, but by 8:50 a.m. the structure's east wall collapsed.
The
blaze drew a two-alarm response and was burning so fiercely that
firefighters had to pull out of the building shortly afer arriving and
attack it from the outside with power hoses.
The
building had a tar roof, foam insulation and no sprinkler system -- all
of which worked to the fire's advantage. It is considered a total loss,
with damages estimated at about $2 million, according to the department.
There were no injuries.
Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.
