Came home to some minor tornado wreckage, so I decided to recruit some of the pups for a clean-up party.

“Lol nope it’s too hot”

So I released the horde...

...and we got straight to work.

The maxi puppies have been playing kinda rough with the minis lately, so I decided to keep them separate for the clean-up party. The minis would stay in the garden while the maxis and I tackled the lawn.

Puppies working hard to clean the lawn

I HALP

I HALP TOO

I HALP THREE

“lol lightweights”

Glory was very proud of her stick. Even though she carried it in the wrong direction.

I was proud of my sticks, too

Flame is a Lady who does not carry sticks. She supervised. (She’s also in exile from the house right now because she rolled in something horrifically stinky.)

Some neighbors drove by who were also doing tornado clean up. They stopped to meet the pups and we all took a cuddle break.

Then: back to work!

The branch pile on the edge of the yard kept growing. Glory approved.

Some of the pups were getting tired

“Bler the sun is setting isn’t it time for bedtime stories not carryin sticks”

Pepehead asked me to tell you he loves you

is it bedtime yet

There were many sticks left to carry. But we had carried many sticks, too.

I brought the maxis back to their pen for bedtime. But of course, I had to stop and tell a goodnight story to the minis, too.

Hallo minis

The minis had discovered a cave

I was worried for a moment they were stuck. But nope, they were just enjoying the Cuddle Cave.

“we heard u were carryin sticks and didn’t invite us”

“we are sled blobs we are hard workers”

“we may be smol but we kan work together”

I told the minis that I was sorry for underestimating them. Tomorrow, I promised, they could join in on the stick-carrying party.

“it is ok bler
can u tell us ur bedtime story”

Once upon a time, I told them, there were some very good puppies. They had a grandfather named Hari, and Hari was magic.

Hari was a sled dog who saved his whole team twice. Once, he stopped the whole team after Blair fell off. Another time, there was a blizzard. None of the lead dogs could find the trail.”

Nobody thought Hari could be a sled dog, because he was blind. He even tried to be a pet for a while in Chicago. But all he wanted was to run, and his friends helped to guide him. When the team stopped in the blizzard, Blair had an idea.

She felt her way through the blizzard. It was so thick that she could hardly see the dogs, and had to feel for them in the snow. They were only a few miles from home, but it felt impossibly far away. So she brought Hari to the front of the team.

“Ready?” She said. “All right.” Hari’s ears perked. He sniffed the snow. And then he started leading the team forward through the storm.

The lead dogs needed to see the trail to follow it, and in the blizzard, they were trapped. But Hari didn’t need to see the trail. He could smell it.

That night, Hari kept all his friends safe. But you know what? Sometimes he was the one who needed extra help, because as he got older, he got nervous that he’d run into things. When that happened, his friends helped him, too.

That’s what it means to be part of a team, I told them. But I thought that deep down, they already knew that.

That’s because Hari is your grandpa, I said. And you are his grandpuppies. You are sled dogs, and you have teamwork and courage and magic in your blood.

Sleep well, my beautiful loves.