Dogsledding

At a Relief Society brunch in Quebec, Daisy and I were struggling through in French talking to one of the ladies, and she told us she owned nineteen dogs! I thought maybe we misunderstood that number, but she confirmed…oui…dix-neuf! She told us that she was saving up money so that she could take her dogs and drive to Yukon territory to live. I thought she said she was living in her car, or maybe the dogs lived in her car, but I wasn't sure.

Then she said, "If you want to, you can come visit me and ride the dogsleds." 

I said, "Oh, that would be so fun!" but it was one of those moments where I wasn't really sure if that was an actual invitation or just an imaginary "sometime" or if there was some Quebec etiquette about what she really meant. But then she typed into Google Translate on her phone so I could read in English: "It would be criminal to come to Quebec and not do this." 

Well. That seemed clear. I said "Yes! But…we leave next week!" 

"Come on Saturday morning," she said.

So I copied down her address, and she gave me a bunch of qualifiers like "it's near there" and "look for the green mailbox and then turn to the other side" and "there is a road going off the main road…" which I just prayed I would remember. Lots of people in our branch said they didn't speak much English but when I got talking to them and the need was great, they'd break it out! But this lady, Mylène, really did not speak English at all, so I kept repeating everything she said back to her slowly in French as a question, just hoping, hoping I had understood it all correctly. She lived forty minutes out in the country, across the river through Lévis, and I felt there was a good chance we would get lost!

Later in the week Mylène texted and asked if we could help her put up a big tarp/shelter when we came, which I was actually relieved about because it felt like we would be less of an imposition if we were helping her. And she said "I will have a fire in case the children get cold." So, Saturday morning we got up and dressed as warmly as we could. The kids didn't have snow pants or boots (we hadn't had room to bring any), but they wore multiple layers of pants and socks and I hoped it would be enough! It was only five degrees outside!! (That's -15 C.) One of the coldest days we'd had yet.

Clementine did NOT want to wear the lion hat. She was very sad about it.

But we gave her Malachi's bally leopard to hold in the car (he is snuggling in my hat here) and that cheered her up!

And then we stopped at the best bakery in Quebec, which is actually in Lévis, so we hardly ever got to go there. Au bonheur des Pains. And we got some cheese bread for Mylène and some chocolatines and torsades au chocolat and kouign amann to eat on the way.

Kouign amann

Torsades au chocolat and Pain Suisse praliné

Not sure what this was, but it was lemony and delicious

And this baguette cheddar may have been the best thing of all!

Surprisingly, we had no trouble finding Mylène's place! Specialized directions and all. She texted and said "follow the sound of barking dogs" and I thought it was a little joke, but when we got close we opened our windows and sure enough we could hear them just barking like crazy! We went off (at the green mailbox) onto a snow-covered dirt road, past a beautiful frozen lake, praying we wouldn't get stuck, and we didn't!

There were the dogs, each tied up by his or her little shelter. They were so loud all barking together! But they didn't seem mean. Just very excited.

Surprisingly, Ziggy, who loves dogs and especially huskies (he even brought his stuffed husky), was the most nervous about them. He stuck close to me and whimpered every time a dog jumped up toward him. I don't blame him, it's always unnerving to have a strange dog jumping on you, especially when the dog is bigger than you are! Mylene reassured us that the dogs were "friendly" and "not naughty" but dog owners always say that, so it's understandable that Zig wasn't terribly reassured. Still, he was fascinated by the dogs and really loved walking around to see them all…at a safe distance.

Gus, on the other hand (after his initial surprise at being jumped on), wasn't scared a bit.

The fire was going as promised, but it wasn't very strong against the biting cold wind, and we had to keep building it up. Teddy was very proud of himself for coaxing it back to life multiple times!

Mylène had told us she'd have her friend there who spoke English, so he could help translate if need be. (That's the friend there in the plaid jacket.) But I don't think he said a single word to us the entire time! Haha. Luckily, the missionaries and branch president ended up coming too, because the tarp installation was a big project! It turns out Mylene had been living in her car, and was now moving into a little trailer on this property by her dogs. It wasn't a motor home—just literally a little trailer with a bunch of hay and empty cages inside. I think the dogs had been in it before. She was installing the tarp (a big metal-framed shelter) over the trailer and I think she was going to put her little camp stove in there, but it was so freezing outside I kept just wondering HOW on earth she could possibly live there. She seemed cheerful enough about it, matter-of-fact as she told me her plans, and the branch president was talking about gathering some things to help, so I think she was going to be okay. The kids were sobered by the thought of it, and we all felt very, very grateful for our warm house when we went home, though!

The dogs seemed to like Goldie and Teddy especially. They would stand up, put their paws on their shoulders, and hug them! It was so cute. There was one dog who Mylène said was always scared of people, and that dog was snuggling up and being friendly with Teddy, and that made Mylene so happy she almost cried. She loves those dogs.

When the tarp was mostly up (and thank goodness for Sam being the sort of person who will just jump in and start figuring things out, because the missionaries, while willing enough, seemed like they would have just stood around indecisively forever waiting for someone to tell them what to do, haha), Mylène brought out her sleds. She has all sizes and types, and a harness for every dog! Sometimes she harnesses a bunch of the dogs up together, but for the kids she mostly did one dog at a time.

I wasn't sure if Clementine would be scared, but we just plopped her onto the sled and off she went! She loved it, as far as I could tell beneath her hat.

Ziggy wanted a picture of his stuffed husky with the real husky. They look just alike!

Gus and Clementine both had a sitting-down sled to ride in.

Beautiful frozen lake

For Ziggy, there was a standing-up sled, and I was so worried that he would be too nervous to be pulled on it! I knew he would always remember this experience, and look back on it so fondly later—if I could just get him to do it! And luckily, he realized it too. He got on the sled with some trepidation, but determined to see it through!

He did so well! Even when he slipped off for a minute, he was able to run with the sled and hop back on to and keep hold of the dog's harness! And he was so proud of himself and happy afterwards.

Focused, but enjoying himself!

Goldie and her friend

It was SO cold. Everyone's toes were just numb and freezing. The kids got in the car every now and then to warm up. I was, thankfully, warm as could be in my puffy coat, but even in my pretty-good boots my toes were ice-cold. Our faces were cold too, but that got better as the sun got higher in the sky. And if we kept moving it wasn't too bad. But I kept thinking about Mylène sleeping there in that trailer at night and it made me so cold even to think about it! She did have good warm clothes and boots on, thankfully.

Anyway, they were such cute dogs and we had such a fun time! We were so grateful to get to have such an amazing and memorable adventure while we were in Quebec.