The Markovo Kennels Rescue Project: 1969 - 1975 Copyright © 2003 J. Jeffrey Bragg

The Hiatus: December 1971 to January 1973

THE LOSS OF DITKO did rather demoralise me. I had every intention of breeding him to LYL and ANISETTE in spring of 1971, but both bitches had mysteriously failed to come in season, and by midsummer my cherished McFaul stud dog was dead. It may legitimately be asked why I did not do more over the next year and a half than simply producing the one litter by MIKIUK TUKTU TORNYAK out of LYL OF SEPSEQUEL.      At the time there was still no notion in my mind of anything so comprehensive as a "rescue project" for Seppala strain. Also I was still confused about the strain itself. The J. M. McDougall dogs, most numerous at that time of the surviving Seppalas, seemed to me so different from DITKO and DUSKA that I questioned their legitimacy. I had yet to understand fully the diversity of Seppala strain. And I was in the midst of exploring the diversity of "alternative Siberians" outside the show-dog category!

Ne-Tuk's Vulcan of Manahtok, 3/4 Seppala (bred by Gary Egelston, by Mikiuk Tuktu Tornyak out of Nenanah of Natomah)

Shortly before the move to eastern Ontario, I had acquired TONTO OF CALIVALI from Don Hazlett, a racing driver in New York state. TONTO was bred by Roland Bowles and was, when I bought him, a burnt-out racing leader. He was a sweet, intelligent dog, but something of a nervous wreck from several years in front of twelve to sixteen-dog teams. Having lost DITKO, I now tried to use TONTO to lead my growing collection of disparate Siberians. I did some local-area racing, including even daring to enter the Ottawa Dog Derby; I can remember being passed by J. M. McDougall! I acquired CHEENAH'S THRUSH, a white New England racing bitch bred by Steve Tassey, and STAR OF CALIVALI, a grey bitch bred by Ruby Bowles. I bought another Anadyr male from Earl Norris -- FOX OF ANADYR. From Gary Egelston I acquired a young male, NE-TUK'S VULCAN OF MANAHTOK, three-quarters Seppala, sired by MIKIUK TUKTU TORNYAK out of NENANAH OF NATOMAH. I even picked up from an Ottawa area racer an amazing 25-inch-tall tricolour Siberian male out of Marlytuk, Tassey and Bryar lines, WARLOCK'S HECTOR OF KADATUK, crazy to run and ready to breed anything that would hold still for three seconds. (I really did have some esoteric Siberians in the Tadluk days!)
 

I bred my then companion bitch CH. TROIKA'S BOIKA (who was not a bad sleddog) to IGLOO PAK'S JAN at the Bryar kennel in New Hampshire; I bred STAR OF CALIVALI to MALAMAK'S OKLEASIK (with great difficulty -- never have I seen such an inept stud dog). Before moving east I had mated CHEENAH'S THRUSH to SEPP OF ANADYR; LASKA OF ANADYR had been bred to CH. SNOW RIDGE CHIEFSON (whom I co-owned); a Bow Lake/Huskie Haven bitch from Lance Heald, KENATIM'S STAR OF MER-LAKE had been bred to my first Siberian CH. RACECREST'S OPENWOOD THUNDER, producing a rather decent litter. So I had a great deal of young stock to train, with the assistance of the few experienced sleddogs that I had acquired from others.     At that time I was experimenting like mad with various strains of working and racing Siberian Huskies. Between that first experimental breeding of DITKO to SNOW RIDGE KODA and the three Markovo litters of early 1973, I bred some sixteen very varied Siberian litters apart from pure Seppala stock (i.e., the H and N litters)!

Tadluk's Kotlik and Tadluk's Kobe, 1973 (half-Seppalas, by Malamak's Okleasik out of Star of Calivali)

It was an appalling pile of experimental breeding; some of the resulting animals proved totally useless. (Others went on to become much-valued stock in other Canadian kennels, though.) The broad experience I gained during that period of experimentation with different Siberian bloodlines has stood me in good stead ever since.      It should be obvious, though, from the foregoing facts that I was still not concentrating my efforts on Seppala strain; my apprenticeship was still in full swing. The fact that I bred MALAMAK'S OKLEASIK to a Calivali bitch and bred NE-TUK'S VULCAN OF MANAHTOK to FROSTFIRE ANISETTE demonstrates that my commitment to pure Seppalas was as yet undeveloped in 1971. I found that of all these breedings, those that were closest to pure Seppala were the best dogs. (Others seemed to think so, too; I was told by one young woman that I was no Rhett Butler -- but OZERO was!)

Tadluk's Ozero, 1973 (7/8 Seppala, by Ne-Tuk's Vulcan of Manahtok ex Frostfire Anisette)

Searching for Options

A  YEAR OR MORE after I had lost DITKO, Earl Norris sent me photographs of two brothers, VODKA OF SEPPALA and BORIS OF SEPPALA (C.K.C. was less than careful about numerical suffixes of these late McFaul Seppalas -- they ought to have been VODKA IV and BORIS III). The two males, sired by RUFFO OF SEPPALA out of GAGNON'S VIXEN, were very big long-coats. I turned them down, which may have been a mistake. Little harm could have come of trying a litter or two from them. Had I had only the Seppalas at the time, perhaps I would have taken them on, but I was running two kennels then -- TADLUK and MARKOVO, with around forty dogs on the property not counting pups! I had visions of hairy monsters eating me out of house and home.
     Other Seppalas were around at the time, that might have been used for breeding, but they were not readily available. Verner Zoschke of Arnprior, Ontario, owned GAGNON'S VIXEN and GAGNON'S NANA (both born 4 January 1961); he would never have sold or leased them. Zoschke finally came to me in 1972 with GAGNON'S NANA, aged eleven years, whom he wanted to breed to DITKO, then dead for a year! I talked him into trying a mating to DITKO's son HAAKON OF MARKOVO; as in the case of Prado and his XIPE, the bitch was not quite ready, the owner refused to leave the bitch for breeding the next day or two, so no mating resulted. Human nature seems to have been one of the Seppala strain's worst enemies.    
     Norris also offered me FRITZ OF SEPPALA; FRITZ was out of DITKO's dam ZAZA OF SEPPALA and had a tipped ear. I had no idea whether he might throw ears that were not erect; breeding him to DITKO's daughters seemed like a bad idea. I turned FRITZ down, too.

SEVERAL PARTIES in western Québec had MALAMAK stock in the early 1970s. Johanna Wilson in particular might have founded her own unique Seppala bloodline had she wished, for in addition to MALAMAK'S EGO and MALAMAK'S JET she had acquired the fine Nordholm bitch EMBER OF SNOW MYTH and her litter by EGO; she knew J. M. McDougall well and had no difficulty buying stock from him. She had the use of DUSKA OF SEPPALA for a litter by MALAMAK'S EGO, presumably on similar terms to my own lease of the same bitch. Yet Permafrost Kennels founded no Seppala line of its own.
     James Orr, Pierre Trempe and Earl Kellett (all in western Québec) had various individuals from McDougall or from McDougall-derived lines. I might have had one or another of the Trempe "Valecho" dogs (bred from the foundation mating of MALAMAK'S ECHO and MALAMAK'S INCA) had I pursued the matter. At the time I was still not fully aware of the scope and seriousness of the breeding vacuum, nor of how many dogs would eventually die without pure-strain issue. The Malamak bloodline seemed then to be in no danger. I was less than enthusiastic about the Trempe dogs and about the MAQUOIS OF SEPPALA branch generally. (Having started with show dogs, I still had a few prejudices about general appearance in those days -- mea maxima culpa! ) I had FROSTFIRE ANISETTE, whose double-grandsire was MAQUOIS. MALAMAK'S OKLEASIK was a MAQUOIS grandson as well. I did not wish to swamp the McFaul breeding with the MAQUOIS-based Malamak stock, so I sold OKLEASIK to Gary Egelston. I was still trying to keep my dogs close to the basic McFaul type which in those days I saw as being quite distinct from what the McDougall line was producing.