wasn’t retiring because I still loved racing as much as any other dog, but I felt the same after the serum run: It was a bit too much for me and it was time for me to settle down for a while as well. Besides, after the serum run I had got everything that I wanted: Respect from everyone and a wonderful dog to love; which would give me the chance to start a family of my own. The point is that family is more important than anything. Whatever you love in life is never worth more than the individuals of your own blood. They always come first. So at the time I was just semi-retiring to take care of Jenna and give some time to raise my future children. After that period was over, I would then probably consider sledding again.

After you became a hero you still decided to roam on your boat instead of finding a new and comfortable home inside a house where humans might have accepted you this time. Is there any particular reason why you stayed on your boat?

Well lets just say first of all that I had been living on this boat my entire life, and because I have been living on it for so long I have thought of it as my home, event though it may not sound like much of a home. I still go and visit Jenna at her house and see my friends in the boiler room every now and then, but the old abandoned boat is where I grew up, and this is where I was raised; so I treat it as a place that I have known for so long that it becomes important to me and it cannot be left alone; and because of that it is so special in that sense. So it is really that lifelong connection that you don’t want to leave behind. It is like when you have come out of prison after being sentenced to 20, 30 or even longer years: You live in prison for so long that you become so attached to it because it has become your home for life. Even though it is one of the worst places in the world to call home; when you are finally released you feel so mentally blocked because you are entering an unfamiliar world that you have not known for a long, long time; and you feel that you can’t fit in and you just want to do anything to break the law again and go back to your “home in prison that you have been living in for so long that you cannot let it go”; because it is the only familiar place in the world that you know and that you are used to. I feel exactly the same way about my boat. Even though it is not one of the best homes in the world, I have been attached to it for so long that I cannot leave it behind. Second of all, a lot of mushers leave their husky dogs to sleep outside so that they grow a really thick coat and get used to the really cold temperatures. Huskies are working dogs and have always been trained to handle extreme negative temperatures in the wilderness. Personally, I have both husky and wolf blood and I love to run, so I am able to endure absolutely freezing temperatures out in the wild. After living outside for so long I barely even feel the cold, and so I don’t even need to go inside very much to survive. Again it is the wolf in me that allows me to endure and survive the cold weather. Plus it has prepared me for further sled runs and journeys into the wild more efficiently. So the bottom line is that I treat my boat like the home I can’t leave behind because as I have stuck with it for so long; and I am capable of enduring the coldest temperatures because I have been living outside for so long.  I might just conclude that someone once said, “Anywhere you roam, where you lay you head is home”.   

It was the year after the serum run when you and Jenna had your first litter of pups. How did you feel about becoming a father?

I was feeling like I was about to start a loving family. If there was anything or anyone who I wanted more than Jenna, it was children of my own. I was so exited about becoming a parent; yet at the same time I was a little nervous. I was really hoping that our pups would have all dog in them and little to no wolf features, both on the inside and outside. It was only a one in four chance because Jenna and I both had mostly husky genes, but there was still a possibility of one or a couple of quarter wolf-featured pups. That would also depend on how many pups we would have. I just didn’t want my children to suffer what I had gone through: Pain, exclusion, and prejudice. I know better than anyone that being different is painful, and it would make things worse for me to see what my children would have to go through. The other thing was that we would have to give them away to other humans for adoption, and if one or a few of our pups looked like a wolf, how would humans ever want them? I’ll tell you what, I was really scared, but I had to keep the faith because of my mother’s words to me about not letting others think differently of you because of who you are. You would have to show them who you really are on the inside and what you are capable of. Therefore I decided that I would have to tell this to my children when the right time came. They might not like it and they might get scared or angry, but it had to be told or else they would never understand what would be going on around them, and who knows what they might do then. The bottom line is that no matter what, I would have to do what I could to become a good father, because I wanted my children to look up to me.

Could you tell us just a little bit about your children?

We had a litter of six puppies; three males and three females. Four of them were red with white underbelly and white snout, and one was red with a red face and snout and also a white underbelly. The sixth was mostly grey with a white underbelly; and that was the one that turned out to look like a wolf. The five red ones all looked like Jenna, because I assumed that Jenna’s external and internal genetic features were dominant and my wolf features were recessive. Yet the one that looked like a wolf inherited my recessive genes, and she turned out to look more wolf than me. It was exactly what I thought would happen, and I started to worry about her. Anyway, we named the males Kodiak, A.K.A Kodi, Dakota, and Dingo; and the females Kiona, Saba, and Aleu; who was the wolf-like one. Kodi was very passionate about racing, like me, and he loved to run; but he also loved to make new friends. He very much wanted to follow in my footsteps and become lead dog.  Dakota also loved to run, but he was never as fast as Kodi. He was more concerned with doing the right things in life and being loyal, like me. Dingo was very mischievous at times but very friendly and playful to everyone. He also loved to sing, like Jenna, and he did have a very good singing voice. Kiona always wanted to make new friends along with being loyal to everyone. She believed that life is all about love, friendship and honoring your family legacy; and she would choose to live life in the way that eventually brings you to heaven when you die. Saba looked up to me as one of her only hopes in life. She was a little scared about what life was going to bring to her, and that is why she needed my guidance. I would always be there to guide her, and because of that she felt better about herself and more confident about life. And as for Aleu, she was very playful, but she also had this cheeky attitude towards everyone; not to mention a knack for correcting bad grammar. I think that she was just trying to show a sense of humor, which is what I think everyone wants to see in a good friend, because someone without a sense of humor may seem boring to some of his or her friends. She also had a beautiful signing voice, like her mother.

Did you feel like you raised them well?

I gave them all that they could ever expect from a good father. I would see them as much as I could, take time with each of them to educate them into the ways of life and what life holds in store, play with them, and support them in the way that they deserved to be supported. They all seemed satisfied and they loved me very much as a father, even though we only had them for a short period of time before giving them away. I was only hoping that after we gave them away I would still see them around so that I could have time to talk to them and play with them when possible. I also hoped that they still loved me as much as I loved them.

Did you find it hard to give your puppies away?

It is always a very tough thing giving your children away. Jenna aside, I love my children more than anything else in the world. They and Jenna mean everything to me. I really have such a soft spot for them. Mainly because of the fact that I was separated from my mother when I was young and I never got to spend more than 6 months with her. I really didn’t want to have my family separated from me again. But on the bright side of things I would still see them around town as all their adopted humans would live in Nome. As long as I would get to see them again was all that mattered to me.

Aleu was the only one of your puppies who wasn’t picked up by a human because of her wolf features. Did you feel that something might happen to her if no human would ever want her?

I was really starting to worry about her. I knew that she wanted a home and a human as much as her brothers and sisters, but she never really understood that she looked like a wild animal or that she had wild animal instincts. That was my fault. I never told Aleu about being part wolf or the fact that no human would want her because of that, because I was scared for her and I wanted to protect her. If I did tell her sooner she might have freaked out and ran away; which is pretty much what she did when I finally told her. I also felt that hunters might even try to hunt her down. I therefore could not let her go by herself. I loved her too