The day went to the dogs ~ February 8, 1990
David Heiller The temperature had hit 30 degrees when I pulled into Jim Sales yard south of Askov. It was a beautiful February Sunday morning by our standards, but a little warm for Jim’s family. His family of dogs, that is. Jim Sales owns a bunch of them, stout- hearted, young-hearted, good-hearted dogs. You get the impression Jim is from that mold too. They’re sled dogs, real sled dogs, Malamutes and Samoyeds, and when I pulled up with two kids, they opened up like a pack of kids, jumping and yelling. My daughter Mollie wouldn’t get out of the car at first. She seemed to realize she may have met her match. Even the day care doesn’t sound that loud on a Friday afternoon. It was a musical sound, not ear-splitting like some dog barks; more like the sound of a pack of coyotes on a winter night close up. Jim and his son, Jon, hooked up four of the Malamutes to Jim’s sled while Noah, Mollie (now in my arms) and I stood to the side. It takes a lot of muscle to bring the dogs...