Interesting pets; Bear a Husky

We had just been robbed and I said that I would never be robbed again!

I decided to get a Husky dog as we had just been robbed in our store (we owned an all around store - Northern Outpost) and the only dog we had was a miniature dachshund and she wasn’t big enough to do anything about intruders. We looked around for a bigger dogs, when a friend told me about a liter of Siberian and Arctic cross Husky puppies. The couple brought their liter down for me to take a look at them.

I had never had anything to do with Huskies and asked if they were good watch dogs, because that was what I was looking for. They assured me that Huskies made a good watch dog, so we purchased one little Husky puppy, he was so cuddly and cute and reminded us of a cuddly bear and that’s how he got his name – “Bear.”

I found out that Bear was an excellent ‘watch dog’, for he never let a strange dog in our yard that he didn’t attack!

He grew up among all the other different dogs that we purchased at that time, a male and female Doberman, a mixed male German Shepherd and a male Weimaraner. So I was sure I had my ‘watch’ dogs. But watching people? People were different, he loved everyone and anyone could come in our place as long as they petted him.

Bear was a loveable Husky and a beautiful dog. He was a powerful male dominating dog and ruled the roost among any dogs. Although the male Doberman thought every day he should be the top dog, he found out over and over again that he was not. Bear would take him down faster than you could blink your eye and would hold him down with his teeth around his throat until I would tell him to release him. He would look at me with those beautiful eyes and release Knight, the male Doberman as soon as I told him to. As soon as Knight was up, he would immediately attack Bear again, but before he could do anything Bear would again have him down on the ground with his teeth around his throat and he would look at me as if to say; “See what I mean? I have to do this.” Knight never learned and Bear never stopped schooling him.

When they got out of their cars if they didn’t pet Bear, he would grab them by the arm and hold on until they petted him.

Most often, these people didn’t know all you had to do was give him a scratch on the head and he would be so pleased he would wag his tail and release his hold on their arm.

Bear loved to be petted and he would wait in front of our store for our customers so that he could get his petting. There were so many people scared to death of Bear that sometimes they wouldn’t get out of their cars and instead would honk their horns to let us know they wanted out of their cars.

Unfortunately for our customers sake we had to eventually put Bear on a chain, because our customers were too afraid of him. Bear really didn’t bark, he howled at times when the wolves were howling, but never barked, he did not like being chained up anymore than we liked to chain him up.

He did not like to be in the house as our other dogs did, it was too hot for him. He would come in give everyone a lick and wait for us to pet him and then he wanted out again, panting and wagging his tail, telling us it was too hot inside.

Bear loved being behind a sled, and when the winter came the kids would rig him up to their sleigh along with the other dogs and away they would go.

The kids would put Bear right in front of the sleigh and the other dogs ahead of Bear, Bear would make all the other dogs run because if they didn’t he would just run over them and how they would run to keep ahead of him! They made a sight to behold! The kids would have a the two Dobermans, a mixed German Shepherd and a Weimaraner in front of Bear and running loose ahead of all this would be the miniature Dachshund. Most of the time the only thing you saw of her was when she jumped up to get over the snow, you saw her ears flopping!

They would run this rag taggle bunch of dogs over the snow, up and down the gravel road. The only way they could stop Bear was to grab his tail. Then he would stop to see what was pulling his tail!

In the summer time the kids would rig up bikes or the wagon or anything else they could find that they could hook Bear and the other dogs up to and away they would go. They had a lot of fun and what a sight they made!

Our oldest son used to love roaming around in the bush by himself or along with Bear. But if he thought Kip was roaming to far from home, he would grab him by his arm and bring him back home.

I would hear “Mom.” If I didn’t answer, Kip would yell again; “Mom, would you tell Bear to let me go?” Kip would keep yelling until he got my attention.

Bear would bring him to the back door and would not let him go until I came out the door and told him to release Kip. He would not let Kip open the door, he had to wait until I came to the back door. This made Kip very annoyed, but Bear brought him home every time he thought he was wondering too far from home and more times than Kip or I can remember.

Another thing Bear would do, when we would stake our horse out along the big transmission line for grazing. Bear thought that Pixie was too far from home and would go and untie her and bring her home, he would lead her home with the rope between his teeth right up to the back door and hold her there until I came out of the house to get her.

When we finally had to start tying Bear up, we keep going to bigger and stronger chains, because he would break every one. We finally ended up with a huge logging chain, that was the only one that he didn’t break. I hated having to chain him up, he was not a mean dog just a very big teddy bear of a dog, but he was so big and powerful that he frightened everyone.

We do not know what happened to Bear, he disappeared one night. We speculate that someone saw him and stole him, for he was a beautiful specimen of a Husky, he had beautiful markings and was a large powerful dog who loved to be petted. Anyone could have gone up to him and petted him and stole him. What we found the morning he went missing, was his collar and chain on the ground with no sign of Bear around. We hope that whoever took him loved him as much as we did.

One summer he was loping across the logging road across from our store and a logging truck hit his right read leg and broke it. We took him to the vet and had it repaired. It was very costly, but then how can you put on a value of what your pet is worth?

The vet had to operate on him and shaved all his hair off that right side, so he was a bare Bear. When we took him home, the vet told us that we would have to exercise that leg until it grew the nerve back, but it would be very painful for Bear. We had to do this every day until Bear could walk on this leg. Every day, we would bring Bear into the house, I would have the kids hold Bear down and I would rotate that leg as if he was walking. This hurt him, and Bear would lay there growling. He never once tried to bite us while doing this, I believe he knew that we had to do this, but it was so painful and he let us know by growling. It did not take long for him to recover and he was able to strengthen this leg and become the Bear that we knew and loved.