Xapka of Seppala is a small, conventionally-marked grey and white Seppala born almost four years ago, sired by one of my imports from Spain, Cocu de Sa.Ra.Be. de Cal Segu, out of Darka of Seppala. He is the grandson of Ramon Rojas’ Siberia import leader Shapochka iz Solovyev, and great-grandson of my own Siberia import Shakal iz Solovyev. Dog show people like Xapka because he’s nicely marked and looks more like “their kind of dog” than do most Seppalas. Well, let me tell you, the resemblance ends there!

Xapka has been one of a group of dogs that got backseated by circumstances. He was a youngster just as we were moving Seppala Kennels from the Yukon to Manitoba. He was never harness-broken when he should have been, in his first year of life. He has just vegetated in the kennel, never been in the house, never had any of the advantages. Not good, as he was a very shy pup to begin with. Nevertheless, somehow he seems to have transcended his lousy upbringing.

Xapka has decided he’s my boy; turns himself inside out when I approach his stakeout (he will still just barely touch my wife with the tip of his nose at feeding time). He puts out great waves of delight and affection towards me. A couple days ago I took him for his first walk on a thirty-foot line, and he seemed promising, so today on a hunch I did something crazy. I put a harness on him, brought my leader Lizzy Lineout out of the house, harnessed her, and put the two of them ahead of the mountain bike.

Lizzy was feeling sulky; the weather, or maybe she’s coming in season or something. She didn’t seem to be in the mood. But her mere presence gave Xapka all the confidence he needed, and to my amazement he took off at a strong lope. He went off the lane into the tall grass a time or two, and I told him to get back in the trail — he did! We gee’d out of the lane onto the grid road, and off we went, Lizzy just barely keeping up, Xapka loping strongly. Went half a mile down the road and stopped. I said, “Come on, Xapka, let’s turn around and go home, come, boy!” Lo and behold, he turned and came to me, went past me, and I easily got the two lined out for the return without leaving the bike.

On the way home Lizzy loped; she wanted to get back to the house. Xapka was a little winded by then and we went more slowly, but still strongly and in good order. All the way back to the house.

I haven’t seen anything like this since Tonya was a youngster! Hard to believe that this timid young male could turn in that kind of performance on his very first run in harness. A natural leader — how do I know? Because he *listened* to me every step of the way, and he tried to do what I asked of him!

I’m going to go get a bowl of yoghourt and try to recover from the shock.