we just discovered that when we went to chicago to run the marathon our dog sitter left the dogs alone for two of the three nights that we were gone. i suppose some dogs can deal with being left alone, but our dogs have never, ever been alone for that long. it’s particularly traumatizing for a quintessentially pack-oriented animal like a malamute. malamutes desperately need to be with their pack and they can get very, very vocal when they aren’t, which can be hell on your neighbors. luckily, we have understanding neighbors.

one of them told us that mauja cried and howled like a very, very, very sad and lonely wolf all night long. and now he gets stressed whenever we leave since he’s probably not sure when we’ll be coming back. what’s even more aggravating is that we specifically told the dog sitter that he needed to stay the night. i guess he didn’t count on mauja letting the whole neighborhood know that he hadn’t.