Our Grandchildren are 1 Week Old!

     Ok, so they aren’t really "children" they are grand-puppies.  We adopted Zena, a sled dog,  from Black Magic Kennel last winter through their adopt-a-dog program.  While she didn’t help the team win any big races for us, she did have a litter of puppies last week so we can be proud parents.

     Abby is the most excited about the puppies because Mary told her she could come up with the theme name for the litter.  It’s been a struggle to keep Abby away from the puppies this week as she has wanted to go see them since she first heard they were born.  The only challenge is getting her to Black Magic Kennels which is "Off the Beaten Path."   Not only are they off the beaten path but they are also off of the grid for electricity.  They have solar electricity, no mound septic system and no indoor toilet.  While I lived our first 5 years at Voyageur without indoor plumbing I’ve never had to live without electricity for an extended period of time.  I thought we lived in the boonies but I know they do.   From Grand Marais you have to travel North, or East as the locals call it, for a half an hour, then turn off Highway 61 onto some numbered road, follow it until it gets smaller, bumpier and almost impassable.  Then you travel on a wagon trail for the remainder of maybe a mile that takes about 30 minutes.  I know I could walk faster.  

   Anyway, as I was saying, Abby is excited about the birth of the puppies and we haven’t had a chance to visit them yet.  I’m hoping we can make a trip out there some day soon so we could figure out which puppy belongs to which name.  After deliberating about theme names of all sorts including soda pops, colors, lakes, historic people of the Gunflint, we decided on Hiking Trail names from the Gunflint Trail.

     There are lots of great hiking trails on the Gunflint Trail with neat names;  Magnetic Rock, Caribou, Honeymoon Bluff, Kekekabic, Bryce-Breon, Topper, Gneiss, Seagull, Mucker, Crab, Daniels, South, George Washington, Northern Light, Lima and probably more. Zena gave birth to four female puppies and one lone male who is the lightest in color in the photo.  Some of the names we have come up with are Maggie, Boo, Honey, Moon, Kek, Bree, Topper and Crab.  Anyone think of any others that would be suitable puppy names? 

     Congratulations Zena and we’ll soon have names for your babies and our grand-children.