#akayumbay

[darkwood-sleddog]

oh! how did you get into sledding? what do you do in the summer for sledding?

Dogsledding is probably one of my earliest obsessions. In my first grade or kindergarden class we had done an Iditarod unit where we followed the mushers from that year and I was very intrigued. Not only would I go on to force my cousins to play sled dogs with me but later as I grew I would still hold on to that fascination, going through multitudes of sled dog books. It didn’t help that Vermont has a small but active dog sledding community and we would sometimes see mushers at the ski mountain (which i would point out every time).

Later in elementary school (i can’t recall which grade) I was supposed to attend a sprint race with my family for the first time, but caught the flu and my cousin ended up going in my place, I was so jealous. Eventually my now fiance would take me dogsledding with a local musher for our first year anniversary and I was still hooked.

As soon as we knew we were purchasing our house I started looking into breeders, first starting off with working sibes and adult alaskans which I was a bit concerned would be a lot for me temperament wise, but I wasn’t about to give up on my childhood dream. I then met an Alaskan Malamute in real life and I really adored the temperament so I switched my search to Malamute breeders. It proved a lot harder to find Mal breeders working their dogs the way I wanted to work dogs, I actually found my breeder by accident. I had been contacting some breeders near and far with little response. I was browsing youtube for videos of working Alaskan Malamutes for fun and found videos my breeder had uploaded. When I went to their website they checked all the requirements I had for a responsible breeder (Titled in work, health tested with public results & OFA # visible to the public, producing litters pretty much only once a year, good pedigree with high value placed on diversity, etc.). I contacted our breeder and she had a quick response, she thought we would be a great home for Malamutes since we wanted to work them. We went to visit her and we got to put our hands on those beautiful working dogs and experience their wonderful temperaments (they were seriously all love bugs).

Eventually in 2017 we got Sigurd and my dreams started to slowly become reality. With the mentorship of our breeder I set up a training timeline and Sigurd began to pull light weights behind him as a puppy. Even though she is across the border she is always ready to provide training advice and has helped me a lot. My parents then gifted me our dog sled for my birthday that year and I have only accumulated a mass of supplies from there and given Sigurd some experience in harness that winter, he quickly got the idea but we kept our mileage short since he was under a year. As you all know we got Zombie in 2018 and she already had significant mileage in harness. I’m going to admit that training my dogs to sled has been pretty easy, they just want to pull naturally!

In the summer it’s a little different. Summer is their season off, I really don’t like to run the dogs when it is above maybe 70 degree F. Even though they are white they get hot very very fast and it gets pretty warm here in summer, it’s important not to let your dog overheat. It does benefit the dogs to have some time off to rest and rejuvenate as well (my dogs were like fluffy white carpets all summer, barely moving). While it is still in the low to mid 70′s however we do like to continue to pack with them to keep good muscle tone. Once the temperature drops and we have no snow that is what the scooter is for! (some people use rigs or carts). We just got a go-pro so it will be easier to shoot video to both show you all and to send to my breeder/mentor so she can continue to tweak our training and give advice!

[nabsthevulture]

hey Nabs! I just got a couple deer skulls that still have some hide and sinew and such on them, how would you suggest i get that off of them? there's no meat left, just tough hide and sinew, and a good amount more stink than i'd like going in my drum room (which has my other vulture stuff and gets really hot and stuffy in summer). I've heard of carnivorous beetle larva i think? and i know you've mentioned maceration? any information would be amazing! thank you in advance!

I am very deeply sorry for not answering this sooner, I’ve been slammed with so much b.s. lately that I haven’t even gotten the chance.

I would personally go for maceration with them! That way you know for sure that it’ll rot off rather than having to play the guessing game about whether or not the bugs will eat them. I actually have a guide specific for mummy maceration, I think it’s linked on my links page. When I get home I’ll link it here as well, though!

[shadowthorne]

akayumbay reblogged your photo: Hex is so blue and grumpy T^T she hasn’t left her...

hOLY FUCK THATS SO BLUE WHOA

Haha I know that going into “blue” is a general, catch all term for snakes going into shed, but BRBs really take it to a whole new level XD

Before shed (in blue):

VS After shed:

It’s amazing that this is the same snake, only days apart at that!

[thecrackedamethyst]

when will my recent anxiety spike calm down?

Soon my dear.

[puraiuddo]

sTOP TEMPTING ME TO GET INTO FREE I HAVE NO ATTENTION SPAN FOR SUBS AND I HATE DUBS

this is old as fucking dirt b/c i’m horrible at replying to asks but

JOIN ME

and do not watch the free dub whatever you do

[i-m-snek]

I'm hoping to get a mex black sometime, where would you suggest getting one? I'm in central cali, pretty much anywhere from bay area to la area I can get to pretty easily and stay the night with some of my family. Any good breeders or conventions or anything?

So I would join mexican black kingsnake groups on facebook, and ask to be put on a wait list. I don’t know a single breeder of MBKs who doesn’t have a wait list. However, I am pairing mine and will have eggs and babies this year! If you want to you can keep an eye on my blog for them :)

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

hey! my stepdad had an encounter with an octopus at an aquarium where he put his hand to the glass and the octopus came out from the hole it had been chillin in and splayed out on the glass on the other side of his hand. do you have any idea why it would have done that? he and mum are pretty spiritual and that's their take on it, but i'm curious if there may be a more sciency reasoning? thank you in advance!

There could be all sorts of reasons, and there’s really no way to know in this instance. It could have been curious, or it could have already been planning on moving and the timing was just coincidental, or it could have been a totally different reaction I can’t guess at because I don’t have all the data you guys did from seeing it. 

Honestly, though, as much as I’m a stickler for data and not being anthropomorphic things? If it’s important to them to feel like the octopus was specifically responding to their actions and that there was some sort of connection there, and you’re certain they’re not going to go harass other octopus at other aquariums to get a similar response (y’know, like the reasonable people I’m sure they probably are), then I’d just let them have that. I’d harp on it as misrepresentation or not-science if it was, say, a video online that was going to reach more people, but in absence of more information, I say let them feel happy about however they interpreted it. 

[lildeathbug]

@akayumbay maybe? I reblogged bc there are actual people in my city that do this, though.

WARNING: ANIMAL CRUELTY

Apparently people have been adopting dogs and either killing them themselves or dropping them to a kill shelter (and one even said they were flying them to poor Asian areas to be eaten) under the Twitter hashtag #pitbulldropoff

This is completely cruel and evil and word needs to get around about these demons so everyone knows what these demons are planning to do to dogs once they get ahold of them.

If you know someone or if you yourself is planning to give away a pitty by craigslist soon, DONT and wait for awhile!!!! They act like they’re going to adopt them and act all nice then they get rid of them, don’t be fooled!!

DM me for uncensored names!!!!!!!!

[digitaldraik]

Movies!

itsadragonaesthetic mentioned you in a post

…@polishedscales @akayumbay @tiny-flying-lizard @ sonoranscales @zethany @catalystic-dragons

This was SO HARD to do! I LOVE movies!

[darkwood-sleddog]

do you have any cute puppy stories to share? :D (first thing that came to mind to ask >.>)

A lot of cute stuff comes to mine....when Sigurd & Zombie were still with their breeder at like 7 weeks old the puppies dug this huge hole...or should I say Zombie dug a huge hole and got super muddy. Sigurd remained clean though!

When we first got Sigurd it look a couple of WEEKS for him to go downstairs on his own, and he probably weighed a good 25 pounds at that point. He’s still a big baby.

The night we got Sigurd we had been waiting for days for the CDC to approve our containment agreement and when we finally got approved we both left early for work to immediately go pick him up in Canada. When we first saw him we were like “Oh my god he is so big” and our breeder kept laughing at us bc obviously he was not that big at the time. He sat on my lap the entire ride home, but when we left the breeder he cried and we felt so bad, he settled down by the time we went through the McDonalds drive through to get coffee however. It was probably the last time he was easy in the car...

(If you go back to the beginning of this blog there are a LOT of baby Sigurd adventures to explore!)

[nabsthevulture]

hey! random question that google didnt give me an answer for and im not sure who to ask, but have you ever heard of any instances of animals lacking secondary sexual traits? is that even like.... possible? figured since you've seen some stuff and have a wider reach you may know something, sorry if this is a bother though! love your work!

You know, I’m actually not sure? It would make sense that some animals maybe do? Because they wouldnt necessarily need them? But yeah I’m not sure. @shadyufo is more knowledgeable about animal anatomy and characteristics than I am for sure, so she might be able to give you a more definitive answer.

[whatthefuck94]

@akayumbay

Thylacine ;-; they deserved better

[shadowthorne]

ahhhh there's a couple grimm/ichi fanfics i really loved but can't seem to find again and i was wondering if you could help me? one was like post-zombie apoc and grimm finds ichi while on a mission and ichi has no fkin memory and then near the end it sorta loops into bleach itself again with weird shit? the other two i think may have been from you? i loved them enough lmao. grimm was some war weapon dropped on ichi's porch, and the other grimm was a panther god and there was grimm/ichi/hichi >.>

I… can’t help you with that first one. I have zero ideas. Sorry OTL  The second one is mine, it’s Dangerous. The third. Was also probably mine lmao and I think you’re thinking of The Scent of Summer, in which Grimmjow is the panther god of autumn and decay, Shiro is the wolf god of winter and death, and Ichigo becomes the new jackal god of summer and life.

[murderlight]

we've talked and i love you

[puraiuddo]

D: I hope you find your kitty and they're okay!

thank you! i know you sent this yesterday, but i didn’t get a chance to respond.

we did find him!!! he was covered in spiderwebs from the creepy basement, but unharmed. c’:

[i-m-snek]

hAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DARK CHILDREN, I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH

Luckily, their care is simple and they make fantastic starter snakes! They do have incredible feeding responses, which can be a worry for new keepers because they often strike before seeing if you are food or not. I recommend slow movements while getting used to the snakes personality :)