Dog'ged Juniors

Hi, I'm Annie.  I'm a college sophomore living in Milwaukee, WI, where I attend UWM as a graphic design major.  I live with 3 dogs: my dog Smush (a little black & white herding mutt, 5 yrs) and my parents' dogs Chopper (border collie, 3 yrs) and Harriet (possibly a schnauzer/cocker spaniel mix, around 8 years).   I grew up with a Siberian husky named Sadie who passed away at age 13 in 2008.  I have dabbled in a variety of sports with my dogs over the years, including mushing (sledding and dryland), lure coursing, herding, agility and flyball.  I've mainly competed in flyball so far, but next year I'm going to be cutting back on the flyball and doing more other stuff - especially agility, which I just started competing in this past fall.  Smush is awesome at it, although I've still got a lot of learning to do.  I also really want to try skijoring, but first I need to buy the equipment and actually learn to ski.

Unfortunately between school and work, I don't have as much time for the dogs as I would like... or money.  Gotta love being a college student...  but unfortunately vet bills are expensive, so I'm going to need a decent job to pay for my dog addiction... and alas, good jobs generally tend to require college degrees  

Aside from dogs, I also enjoy camping, mountain biking, tropical fishkeeping, reading graphic novels, going go renaissance faires (yes I'm kind of a geek, lol), and of course, drawing... at least when I have free time, which is not very often these days.   I have done a few new dog drawings lately; I'll try and post some in the photo gallery as soon as I get around to scanning them.

Hey Annie! I know what you mean about college -- I'm a sophomore, too, and it's hard to find time for much these days, but the time I am able to put into the dogs are some of the best memories I have throughout the semester, and I wouldn't trade that in for anything -- even a 4.0. <grin> I sure wish I lived near the rest of my dogs back in PA, but it's nice to at least have three! Seeing all these dog teams here makes me really miss running the Alaskan collies.

Yeah I hear ya, I'm totally jealous of all the people with teams.  But, I am lucky to live with our 3... and I suppose not being responsible for all of them is a good thing since I've got so much other stuff to do.  I guess if I'm desperate I can always go steal my cousin's 2 huskies for a day... sure, they're not really trained, but they're outta shape so at least they can't run very fast 

So are you planning on bringing any more of your dogs up to Alaska after you finish college?  I don't know what I'm gonna do dog-wise after I graduate... I'm afraid that if I have to live in an apartment, I'll have to leave Smush with my parents, because he's too yappy to live in an apartment     Hopefully that will only be a temporary arrangement though.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about my dogs in PA after I graduate... it would be really nice to travel, and that's hard to do with a lot of dogs. It's also hard to find a cabin to rent with more than a few... as it is we'll have to get someone to watch these three when we want to go on exchange.

It sure would be nice to have more dogs, especially my dogs. I wish I could just drive down there, pick them up, and bring them all back to Alaska. But I'm afraid that they're getting older, too, and by the time I actually have a place for them and an income, as sad as it is, they'll probably be nearing the end of their lives. So for now I think I'll have to settle for visiting them when I can, and saying hi over the phone on bittersweet ocassions.