A Mother and Teacher

I have lots of malamute stories, one of my favorites is about Niki, 
Magnum's mother. Niki was a small Malamute, we "rescued" her from a pet 
store in California about 1985. The store had kept her caged and had only 
fed her small amounts of food, so as to keep her small so she would look 
more puppy-like to sell. They told us she was 10 weeks old when we 
bought her, but when the AKC papers came we found out she was really 16 
weeks. When we fed her she grew so fast her legs bowed from the weight. 
She was short as an adult and only about 50 pounds, black and white with 
a full mask, and way too smart for her own good. Niki had a litter of 9 
puppies. Malamute puppies are absolutely adorable, and oh so active, and 
their mother has so much to teach them. She was busy with them 
continually, grooming them, feeding them, "telling" them what to do. One 
day, when the puppies were about six weeks old, I looked out back and 
saw Niki sitting in the middle of the back lawn with all the puppies 
surrounding her in a circle, most of them laying down or sitting in the 
grass. All their little eyes were on her as she sat there and talked. 
She was always very vocal, and was going on and on, roo, roo, roo, woo, 
woo, roo, roo. It looked like she was giving them instructions just 
before they were headed to new homes of their own. Sometimes I sure wish 
I could speak Malamute.