IncredibleShrinkingViolet

Petunia was a good hunting dog, flushing grouse at just a few months old. Her mother was a black occker spaniel and her father was a black lab. Great all 'round hunting dog, but 4-wheel drive over the old logging trails made her throw up on my new suede gun case! This is an old picture, but will serve as inspiration simply because one of my main goals for losing weight is to be able to hunt again.

One of my favorite artists!

The resort I grew up on.

This is where I am from, deep in the northwoods of Minnesota.

Karelian bear dog from Finland. Tuuli Tahti (means windy star, in Fin) is now 8 years old. Karelians are a sptiz breed, an arctic dog whose sense of smell is greater than most other cirtters. They are used for tracking and hunting bear, moose, wild boar (even squirrels!) or even people for search and rescue. They are stubborn, hearty and very intelligent. Tuuli has had one litter of puppies and we still have one of her sons, Taivas Taht (blue star). They both weigh about 70 pounds. Bear dogs are very people-friendly, unlike the Russo-European Laika, which is often confused with the Karelian. They will hunt until they drop from exhaustion unless the game is dispatched quickly, and they never give up.