No Haircut - Even In Summer Heat

It's been a hot Summer in Atlanta. August is usually hot, but Luky says this has been the hottest August he can remember. Of course, he may be 53 in dog years but he's only seen seven Augusts.

The Malamute who replaced Piitok was Pioyok (picture at right - we pronounced his name, "Pie-Yawk" - the Inuit word means "is good" - and his middle name was Pikattar which we pronounced, "Pick-a-Tar," and which means "companion" - so his Inuit name, as near as we could translate without really understanding the language, was "A good companion"). Anyway, Pioyok was a big boy - about 125 lbs. He was born in Nashville, TN and became an Atlantan when he was about four. That was 1985. I've already admitted I'm not sure I was a very good dog parent back then, but I do know that Pioyok benefited by a quality of parenting that was magnitudes better than Piitok received.

However, Luky's comment about the heat reminded me that Debbie (she was my wife at the time - well, for a long time actually, but like so many diversions that's yet another story) . . . anyway, Debbie and I arranged for Pioyok to be shaved a couple of different Summers. Pioyok knew we did not mean any harm by that. We were only trying to make him more comfortable, but he got kind of pissed off. I can't blame him, though. In the first place, it was very humiliating.

Malamutes are supposed to look like giant Huskies - you know, sort of wolf-like. They don't look like bears, but "bear" is a popular name among the professional Malamute kennels and breeders. Think of it as a name of respect. So here's this somewhat regal, maybe slightly predatory-looking, black and white, plus a color I've heard called "seal grey" (I don't know if it has anything to do with seals, and for all I know it's a mispronunciation of "steel grey" which would certainly work just as well) . . . and all that proud cloak of thick undercoat and guard hair gets clipped reducing him to a look that is significantly wimpier.

Pioyok was probably being courteous. He never expressed any real frustration with us, but he clearly did not want to go out in public shorn like a toy poodle. And on top of that, I don't think the shaving made him feel all that more comfortable. I learned later that a Malamute's thick hair is as protective in the heat and Sun of Summer as it is in the snow and cold of Winter.

But then, as Luky will tell anyone who cares to listen, Summer is for lying in front of the air conditioning vent and waiting for humans to open the refrigerator.