Hi, my name is Shakti.  I am a female Alaskan Malamute.  I was born in New York, August of 1990.  The lady that bred my parents gave away all my brothers and sisters, but she couldn’t find a home for me.  After about 4 months, she finally talked her sister into taking me off her hands. Her sister tied me up outside, and fed me, but never played with me.  After about 6 months, she got tired of feeding me, so she gave me away, to a man who lived in an apartment.  She didn’t tell him I had never lived inside.  The first day in my new home, the man went off to work, leaving me alone.  I got bored, and hungry, so I opened the refrigerator, to get something to eat. Everything was in these plastic containers, with the words Tupperware on them.  I couldn’t get them open, so I just used my strong, sharp teeth to chew through them. When I finished eating, I gnawed on a couple of table legs to get the bits of plastic out from between my teeth.  When I got tired of that I started looking around the apartment for something to do.  I saw something move outside this huge window that went from the floor to the ceiling.  I tried to walk through it, but it was glass.  I tried to open it, but it wouldn’t open.  Then I saw this thing that looked like a table leg stuck at the bottom of one side of the window.  When I pulled it out, I could open the big window.

It was so fun outside. I chased squirrels, and tried to catch birds. One bird flew down the street, so I followed. At the end of the street there were these really big animals. They were brown and white, and fat, with really long tails. They slobbered a lot, too. When I got close to them, the started walking away. I tried to follow, but then they started running. I thought they wanted to play tag, so I started chasing them. We ran all over that field. They were kind of slow, but there was a bunch of them, so I would chase one for a while, then another. After a while this man showed up, screaming and yelling. He started throwing rocks at me, so I ran home. I got home just as my new human got home, ant the man started yelling at him. He said something about shooting me if I chased his cows again.

That night we went for a ride to the Connecticut Malamute Rescue League. The lady there led me to her back yard, with a big fence around it, and my third owner drove away. After several days, this new man showed up at the lady’s house, and they talked for a long time. After a while they came out and he played with me for a while. The lady put a leash on me, and said goodbye, and off we went, my new human and me, to Boston. When we got to my new home, there was already this other dog there. He was a brown Chow, and thought he owned the place. I, of course, had to show him that just wasn’t so. We fought and wrestled, but not viciously. I just had to show him I was the dominant being in the house. While we were fighting, we knocked over several of the man’s things, like lamps, and vases. They kept breaking. The man got really mad, and yelled at us to stop, but he didn’t seem to understand that it was not my fault. I was the dominant being, and this smaller male would not submit to my authority. After several days, he called the lady from the Rescue League, and told her he wanted to take me back to her. She said she knew someone who wanted me. Several hours later there was a knock at the door, and this man came in. He was really nice. He petted me, scratched my neck, and talked to me. After a while, my human put a leash on me, and gave it to this new man, and away we went. We got into his truck, and drove to a new home. This was about one year after I was born.

This new human was different. He petted me all the time, talked to me, combed me, and took me on long walks. The first night I stayed in the house, but the next day he built me a fence around the yard. Every night when he got home from work, I don’t know what time it was, they never gave me a watch, but the sky had been dark for hours, he would come outside, and put my leash on, and we would walk down the street to the beach. There was this little harbor, and no one was ever there. He would take off the leash, and let me run around. He would sit down on the sand, and pet me, and talk to me, telling me about his day. He hated his job, so I think my being a good listener helped him out. It started getting cold as winter came, but we never missed our walks. Even if it was raining or snowing, my human would put on his long overcoat, and we would still take our walks.

One time when we got to the beach, we saw these two white birds swimming in the water. They were really big, with long necks and black faces. Shaun, my human, called them swans. They just swam around in the water going no where. They looked really tasty to me, but Shaun said they were pretty, and that I couldn’t try to catch them. Since he fed me every day, and took such good care of me, I agreed not to try to eat the birds. They were kind of pretty now that I think about it.

After about a month of living with Shaun, and his wife, Maria, we started going to this class to theach Shaun what to say, and how to act, so that I would know what he wanted from me. There were lots of other dogs there, big dogs, little dogs, yappy dogs, and even some slow lazy dogs. It was lots of fun. I looked forward to class every week. There were two other malamutes that this lady named Susan Conant belonged to. I heard that she wrote some books about dogs, called mysteries. In class we would lay down, sit up, walk in circles, and lots of other fun games, as the instructor told the humans what to say when we were suppose to do each thing. Sometimes to make it more fun, we would do the wrong things, and see what would happen. One time a big fight broke out when one dog got a little obnoxious towards another dog. Before long there were dogs and people everywhere, leashes wrapped around legs, both dog and human, and lots of barking and yelling. It was so fun.

After I lived with Shaun for about 6 months, he moved to a new home, and I got to go too. This home had a bigger yard, so I had more room to play. It had real grass. My other yard was small, and mostly dirt. The grass was a lot softer on my paws, and easier to sleep on. One night this ugly, nasty opossum snuck into my yard. I started growling and barking at him, but he wouldn’t leave. He just hissed back, and showed me his little sharp teeth. I pulled back my lips, and showed him my big sharp teeth, but he just stood there, hissing, spitting, and looking ugly. I knew I could take him, but I didn’t want to mess up my pretty fur with those teeth of his. I heard the back door of the house slam, and looked out of the corner of my eye, and saw Shaun coming. He had a big blanket, and a bat. I think he thought that he was going to try to protect me. But it was my job to be the protector. I couldn’t risk my human getting hurt, so I lunged to the right, then quickly brought my head over, and back to the left. The rodent bought it hook, line, and sinker. With a twist of my neck, I clamped my teeth down on it’s scrawny shoulders. I bit down as hard as I could, and heard the bones break. After a few seconds, I felt a hand on my collar, and my human asked me to open my mouth. It was mine, my trophy! I had killed it, so it belonged to me. But after having lived in 5 different homes, this human wanted me, and treated me nice. He fed me every day, went for walks with me, talked to me, and played with me. I now knew what love was. I realized when he came around that corner, that he was going to try to protect me, and that I would do anything to protect him. So, for all the things he had done for me, I agreed to do what he wanted, and dropped the opossum. I made sure he was dead first, though. My human threw it in the garbage. I guess that was for the best. It was awful ugly, and smelly.

We kept going to the classes together after that, but now it seemed like it was OUR class. We were working together, learning from each other. One day Shaun brought me into the house, and put me in this deep indoor puddle. He put stuff on my fur that made bubbles, and then washed it off. When he finished he used a big towel to dry my fur, and I looked beautiful. Then we went for a ride. When we stopped we went into a place that looked kind of like where we had our class, but it was different. We did the same stuff that we did in the class, but it was with different dogs, and people, and it did not take as long. When we finished, they gave Shaun a piece of paper, and a ribbon, and Shaun gave me a big hug and a chew toy, and told me I had done great. He said he was so proud of me. I don’t know what the fuss was about. I just did what we did every week, but Shaun sure seemed happy about it. About a month later the same thing happened. Shaun told me that these classes were called trials, and that I had passed with a score of 182 out of a possible 200. He told me that most malamutes don’t do very well in obedience trials. I guess most other malamutes are too impatient to teach their humans how to do all the stuff correctly. I enjoyed doing it though. It made me feel good for Shaun to be proud of me.

We then moved to a place called Topeka. I got to ride in this big truck for three days to get there, with Shaun driving. I shared the yard there with two other dogs. They both came to live with us as puppies, so I got to teach them to respect me as the dominate being. They were young, and liked to play all the time, but as I got older I enjoyed just sitting and watching them. I have to admit it though, when Shaun came out to feed me, I would act like a puppy, and jump around a little bit. Sometimes he would comb my fur, especially in the late spring when I would shed the undercoat fur. My hearing and site began to fail me, but I could always tell when it was Shaun coming into the back yard, because he would call out, "How’s my Girl?" These last few years my joints began to hurt me, and I didn’t feel like getting up and walking around as much any more. Shaun finally sat down next to me one day, and told me that it was probably time for me to go to Heaven. He said that it was a place of meadows and forests, as far as I could ever run, and I would be able to run like I did when I was young. He told me that one day in the future he would appear, and we would be able to play again like we did by the harbor, when I first lived with him.

I am writing this story for anyone who would like to open their hearts, and homes for a new family member. If you are willing to make a dog part of your life, not just something to have around, you will never look back with regret. The pain of loss will eventually go away, after you finally have to say goodbye, but the memories will be with you forever. And your best friend will then be able to enjoy an eternity of meadows, forests, and beaches. And if you might be able to join us someday.