December 2020

Huskamutes and Malamutts, the Original Pack, started as a bonded family pack and evolved into a part family, part rescue haven for wolf dogs and a few other domestic pups that migrated their way to the packhouse. Our pups are full members of our household, walking with us each day and sleeping inside on the puppy end of the house. The den has sofas, a massage table and a king size bed that the people camp out with the pups on each night. 

When people ask how this came to be, Ann Marie replies that this pack was created through a strange combination of ignorance and commitment, in that order. She didn’t know better and she followed through anyway with tenanciousnes and support from others who fell in love with Tatoosh’s pack. 

In 1998, Ann Marie (age 28 and previously terrified of any type of canines), was introduced to the 8 week old pup who would become Tatoosh, the original alpha male daddy dog of the pack. She took him home that day followed closely by his brother Tieton. Soon after appeared the “mama’s” Kolta and Kyrla who promptly at only 14 months old,  reproduced like tribbles: 2 litters, 20 pups within 3 weeks. 

At that point, Ann Marie’s life took a sharp detour from better homes and gardens and mainstream lifestyle to acreage and containment systems. Facing the reality of the incredibly high abandonment and mortality rate of lupine/canine crosses, she determined to only adopt pups out to homes she knew had had experience with raising a woofer or woofers for their natural life expectancy. She found homes for 13 of the 20 pups, keeping 7 plus the four adults and the original pack was formed. She moved out of her suburban condo into the mountain valley of packwood, WA and hand carried water to her camper for nearly 18 months and commuted to work three hours daily as she learned to be pack leaderess and mamawolf. Patrick Joined her pack as the puppies were born and our extended people pack has enlarged and contracted as life brings the winds of change. In 2002 they purchased the property in Graham that became the packhouse and den. 

The original pack sustained @ 11 original members until they adopted Bandit in 2003, opening the pack up to more complex integrations. From that point forward other critters have adopted “us”. These critters have come from various venues and some have been well loved and well placed fosters while others joined us for the remainder of their natural lives, and one other lived with us until she could spend her last year with her original mama again. 

Tatoosh’s pack: Tatoosh, Tieton, Kolta, Claire, 

Spartacus, Max, Kiona, Kiantee, and Iki shared our world until his last living daughter Chinook was recalled to join him in the Beastlands in 2016. Aja, Bandit, and Kona, original adoptees as well as Rambo, Zenya, Lady Louve, Hercules, Senty, Sweetie & Red were all so very deeply  loved until their very last day and breath. 

H&M 2.0. 

In 2012, While Tatoosh and his fuzzers, and Tieton and Kolta were still alive and active, Nathan stepped into the role of woofer puppy daddy when He and Ann Marie brought Morinoko home. Nathan had shared the pack life for over 2 years beginning in 2010 caring for the originals. Kuma, her baby daddy to be, joined us the following November and the two waited to create their intentional, planned, keeping all of them, family until their five fuzzy potatoes, Mal, Inara, Sparkles, Kaylee, and Zoe hatched in March of 2017. 

In 2014 we adopted 3 “Songdogs” (rescued from Songdog rescue in CA)  to balance the genders and ages of the pups from the original pack’s attritions. Kiba, Jack and Blizzard joined us and have been with the pack 6+ years as of this calendar. Tiva joined us as a baby at the behest of our vet. Shortly thereafter Maxx  and Fanndis merged into our world in october 2016. The “Redemption Pack” our most challenging and harrowing rescue ever brought us 4 babies and a Mama Rosie. Her daughters Tsuki and Silver are permanent pack house pups and will be 3 years old on Nathan’s 30th birthday August 2020. Mama Rosie was adopted out to a gentleman who passed suddenly, came back to share a year plus with us and this summer went to her forever home and the perfect couple for her. Her boys Havi and Ocho were successfully adopted by a wonderful couple in Idaho and are happy and well loved. Our most recent rescue is the infamous, stunning Aya who had a crazy lot of life before she came to us at approximately 7 years old and ready to drop in and become an instant well loved and Tiktok famous part of the pack. 

Of our original rescues before Mori, Ipu the little Hawaiin dogga is still with us. Kanita, who came to us the same year Nathan did, is still our blue eyed stunner and a pack anchor. This brings us to our current full house of 17 amazing beings.

The pack includes 2 full time live-in people (Ann Marie and Nathan), Remote puppy daddy Patrick, and our  “We could not do it without her/She can run the whole shebang”: Nikki. Mori proved us wrong and fell in love with Nikki, a human she met after maturity, a very rare occurrence in woofers: Nikki is her second Mama human and she will come to her like she does to us. Nikki has been with us a full year and has stood with us through trials and “travel-ations” during the time vortex of 2020. She has been with us through the loss of 5 pack-members, including her beloved “Jack Jack”, helped us integrate Aya, and release Rosie to her new world. She has been her for the full range of ins, outs and health challenges without wavering and we could not have done this year without her. 

Our extended pack of people who have supported us through this strange year of 2020 is vast and some prefer not to be in the spotlight. We know and they know how much they have been the glue that has kept this pack together through the pandemic year and how deeply grateful we are to them. 

From our pack to yours: we wish you the best 2021 and 2022 possible and hope our calendar brings warmth to the walls of your den.

• Ann Marie, Nathan, Patrick and Nikki 
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• Ipu, Kanita, Moriko, Kuma, Sparkles, Mal, Inara, Kaylee, Zoe, Blizzard, Kiba, Maxx, Fanndiss, Tiva, Aya, Tsuiki and Silver