Name: Supernova

Alias: Nova

Gender: Male

Height: 25"

Weight: 65 lbs.

Species: Canine

Breed(s): Siberian Husky / Gray Wolf

Birthday: April 15th, 2007

How Animal was Obtained: Okay, so, I had wanted a Husky for a good five years before I actually /got/ Nova. I originally wanted a Husky before I got Shadey, who, admittedly is /part/ Husky, though I still wanted an actual Husky, seeing as I have an obsession with Wolves and Dogs, and Huskies are basically the closest thing you can get to a Wolf while still being a domestic animal.

It was the morning of the 26th of April, 2007 when my dad called me out into the front yard because yet another stray had shown up at our house. So far, we'd had a Basset Hound, a Yellow Lab, a Dutch Rabbit, a Siamese/Tabby which we kept, a Longhaired Gray Tabby and a pregnant Russian Blue kitten -- yes, a pregnany nine month old /kitten/. Honestly, people, PLEASE get your cats spayed or neutered if you're going to let them roam wild. x__X

This one happened to be an absolutely /gorgeous/ Malamute/Wolf mix who was covered in foxtail stickers and dirt. After picking as many stickers out as I could, while begging my mom to let me keep her -- because I /knew/ this would be as close as I would come to actually getting a husky until I was old enough to move out and buy my own dog -- my mother finally agreed, as long as I took care of the dog and paid for its food and vet bills, which is the same with all of my others.

I was /ecstatic/. I was finally getting a beautiful sled dog, even if it wasn't a puppy or a /exactly/ a husky, and this one was even part wolf, like my previous dogs, Mariah, Peanut and Shadey. I was up to the point where I was introducing her to my other dogs, when she began to get fearful and mildly aggressive around the others. It was clear from the start that she obviously had poor socialization skills, but I'll admit I was a bit desperate, and seriously was hoping that she would just be a bit shy and not actually aggressive because she thought she had to defend herself.

I tried to get them to get along for a couple more hours, but all I got was a lot of snarling, growling and cowering on the Malamute's part, and a lot of baying and jumping around like lunatics from my beagles.
By now, my ecstatic mood was far from still lingering. I was /so/ close to owning something close to a husky, and it refused to get along with my other animals. I was nearly in tears, mainly because I thought I had finally gotten my dream-dog, and my small-dog-person mother had actually said she didn't mind if I owned it. I had seen the light at the end of that annoyingly long tunnel, and it was so bright, I guess I thought I was already out and didn't think of what the dog's reaction to all of this would be.

Obviously, I, along with my parents, didn't want to go through another 'Peanut and Snowball' incident, meaning having another hundred pound dog who was aggressive and violent towards our others. I sat out in the garage with the Malamute, as she was amazingly friendly around women and children, keeping her company and trying to figure out how I could get her to get along with my other animals, when my mom returned.
She told me that what I already knew, that I couldn't keep a dog who may harm our others, although perhaps she finally saw how badly I really /did/ want a husky, or at least something similar to one, because she told me that there was a family selling Nine Week Old Siberian Husky/Gray Wolf puppies for $250.00 each. They had two males left that were still looking for good homes, and although they lived about eighty miles away, she would be willing to drive there to get one.

I really thought I may had fallen asleep in that pathetic little flimsy chair in the garage and was dreaming about being able to get a husky again, but after staring wide-eyed for a good thirty seconds, I picked my jaw up off the floor, pinched myself and realized that my mom was actually offering to drive several hours away to let me get a husky.
Unfortunately, like most of the other strays that showed up at my house, I had to take the Malamute to our local shelter. The only reason I have been able to do this is because, thankfully, our shelter refuses to euthanize an animal unless it's absolutely suffering and incurable, and not just because the animal isn't finding a home quickly enough.
There's no way you can imagine how badly I wanted to keep the Malamute, although a dog that was two to four years old would be a bit harder to break of dog-aggression issues than a two month old puppy would.

About two hours later after getting lost on a bunch of different highways, stopping at a quickstop and having Rose feed her three month old Chihuahua/Jack Russel mix, Sebastian, a whole eight dollar bag of jerky that I bought to share with my to-be-new-puppy, then driving up about eighteen mountains until we arrived at this tiny shack-like house and kennel, I finally had two little mud-covered rust-red furballs in my arms.
They came from a litter of five, but the other three had already been adopted the week before, when they had turned eight weeks old, and now only two males remained. One had no name, and the other was nicknamed 'Balto'. Balto had two brown eyes, less white coloration, and no 'blaze' or other husky markings. He was a bit larger, and overall, looked more like a wolf cub.


I liked both pups, but one of them, the one with husky markings, one blue eye and no nickname, kept following me around, while Balto preferred to hang around his parents.
Speaking of which, both their mother and father were absolutely beautiful. Their mother was three quarters Gray Wolf, one quarter Siberian Husky. Her name was Missy, and she was four years old and about ninety pounds.


The father was a pedigree purebred, AKC-registered Siberian Husky named Meeko, around one year younger and ten pounds lighter than Missy.


The pup who continuously followed me around had inherited one of his father's glacier-blue eyes, and one of his mother's chocolate-brown ones. Okay, so I had wanted either a pure white husky, a silver and white husky or a black and white husky, but...this little guy was /perfect/. He was affectionate, adorable, admittedly a bit clumsy with his massive paws, and most of all, he just /wouldn't/ let me walk more than three feet away from him without scampering along after me.

Although his larger brown-eyed brother was gorgeous as well, there was really no competition -- I knew which pup I was dying to welcome to our family. Another couple of hours and we were home. I was two hundred and fifty dollars poorer, but that couldn't have bothered me more. Watching Nova -- what I had named my new puppy -- romp around with my other dogs and wolf down a bowl of food, I'll admit that I was certainly in puppy-love.

Also, as it turns out, Nova was /not/ rust-red, like I though he was when I first saw him. As it turns out, after a good bath, he was actually a creamy white color with a thick silver streak along his back and a sort of grayish cream-colored head, apart from his traditional white husky-mask and 'glasses', but his gray coloration should spread until it covers his back, like a gray wolf.



Notes: Nova's been home for a week now, and he's adjusting extremely well. He's already nearly housebroken, and has used our house as a bathroom far less than our beagles did at nine months old. He /loves/ Akita and Shadey. This is a great thing, because once he's a bit older, he'll be on my three-dog sled team with them.



For now, he mostly needs to be trained in some basic obedience and then taught some mushing commands, but he's doing very well, with the exception of having to learn that the older dogs don't always want to play with him while they're trying to sleep -- don't worry, Akita never hesitates to let him know that he has annoyed her while she's not interested in playing. xDD

Nova's favorite playmate, other than Akita and Shadey, would have to be Sebastian, Rose's puppy, who, although a month older than Nova, is a fraction of his size, but still manages to hold his own while roughhousing with Nova. To be honest, it's usually Seb who I have to tell to back off, because he constantly runs circles around Nova and trips him up, then pins him down and puppy-mauls him. XD






They also love to play with Buck, who was born a few hours later on the same day as Novie.



The three of them are the best of friends. I find it adorable how each dog is a different size, and that doesn't affect how they act toward one another at all.

Update:
Nova has grown a bit now, and has even become an excellent wheel dog in my three-dog scooter team. You'd be surprised how hard he can pull for just a little guy, and he has absolutely /no/ issue keeping up with the big girls like I thought he might. Just like Akita and Shadey, he absolutely /lives/ to run. As soon as I reach for a harness and my three dog leash, I have all three of them jumping around and yipping and howling at me. ^^



Update:
Nova is now eleven months old. His birthday is next month, and he has grown from thirty pounds to nearly seventy. I think he's at his permanent height, since he's about as tall as his mother was, but I doubt he's done growing yet. He's been upgraded to Lead Dog of my scootering team, as alpha-female Akita has actually allowed him to have full reign while we're on a run.





He's amazing. We're still working on coming to a stop on command, but he will slow down or speed up when told to, and turn left or right whenever you tell him to. He had a bit of trouble learning 'left', but picked 'right' up very quickly and it was only a matter of time that he learned 'left' was the same thing, just in the opposite direction.

He's a wonderful boy who obeys quite well and has excellent manners. He has awful separation anxiety though, and will occasionally devour a fraction of our furniture if he's left alone in the house without any of the other dogs. I'm currently saving up for some nice x-back sled pulling harnesses for him, Akita and Shadey, and I'm hoping to eventually find a better sledding substitute than my scooter, perhaps a quad without a motor or, if I could ever afford or find one, a snowless rig.

Nova has recently hit it off with our neighbor's border collie, Dixie. The two were quite smitten with each other, and Nova just might have gotten himself a puppy-love girlfriend if he plays his cards right. :3



At first, the beagles weren't too sure of him, but although he absolutely dwarfs them now, they actually get along better than they did when he was closer to their own size.




Even Akita and Shadey tolerate him more now. Before, Akita got easily annoyed by his playfulness, but now, she even goes to him and begins roughhousing matches, which she always wins, of course.



Shadey has to be his favorite pack member, though. He actually doesn't playfight with her as much as he does Akita, but they're together more often, and he can usually be found following her around.



All in all, Nova's my good boy. He has a lot of friends, enjoys making new ones, and he loves his family with all his heart.