The Fan Hitch is the official publication of the Inuit Sled Dog International. It is published four times a year. 
 

Editor-in-Chief : Sue Hamilton
Web Master: Mark Hamilton
Print Version Publisher: Geneviève Montcombroux for Whipporwill Press

The Fan Hitch is available as a print subscription for $10. Cdn ($7.00 US) per year, postage included. Single copy issues and back issues (if not sold out) are available for $3.50 Cdn ($2.25 US) postage included. Send requests, with checks payable to "ISDI", to Whipporwill Press, Geneviève Montcombroux, P.O.Box 206, Inwood, Manitoba, R0C 1P0, Canada.

Contents of The Fan Hitch are protected by international copyright laws. Neither photos, drawings nor text may be reproduced in any form without written consent. Please forward these requests to Sue Hamilton, 55 Town Line Rd., Harwinton, Connecticut  06791, USA or qimmiq@snet.net

The Fan Hitch welcomes for publication your letters, stories, comments and suggestions. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit all submissions.

Former professional dog trainer, author, humorist, and commentator on National Public (U.S.A.) Radio, Daniel Pinkwater introduces the tale of his Uncle Boris, a small time hoodlum from Warsaw, Poland, as a jumping off point about the author's life-long relationship with dogs.  According to Pinkwater, Uncle Boris left Europe to pan for gold in the Yukon.  During those long stretches away from civilization, Uncle Boris’ only companions were his team of malamutes, especially his lead dog Jake, with whom he would carry on two-way conversations in Yiddish.  Unsuccessful in his hunt for gold, and later a talking dog act, Boris ends up settling in Brooklyn, New York. A life long dog fancier, "making a profitable sideline of faking and selling purebreds", he brings to his brother a sort of Pekingese. When the newborn Daniel arrives on the scene, Bobby, appoints himself the infant's guardian, protecting him from being eaten during that period of his life when Pinkwater described himself as resembling a meatloaf. According to Pinkwater, Bobby "and the other dogs, taught me what I needed to know about becoming a human being."

Uncle Boris in the Yukon and Other Shaggy Dog Stories is devoted to the accounts, both hilarious and poignant, of Pinkwater's journey to and through adulthood, and the critters that have shared and shaped his life and outlook; the dogs he and wife Jill have owned, among them three Alaskan malamutes and an Akita cross, as well as the hundreds encountered as professional obedience instructors; also Matilda the Wolf and an Inuit Sled Dog named Puggiq, described as the happiest being ever encountered. Currently,  the Pinkwaters share their home with Maxine, an aging Labrador retriever and Lulu, a five-year-old Inuit Sled Dog.

Uncle Boris in the Yukon  and Other Shaggy Dog Stories is more than just pleasurable reading. Those of us who are familiar with northern breeds in general and Inuit Dogs in particular, will appreciate Pinkwater's keen, if slightly embellished, perception and understanding about these dogs, possibly even recognizing similarities in our own dogs.

With delightful illustrations by Jill Pinkwater, Uncle Boris in the Yukon and Other Shaggy Dog Stories, is recommended as a welcomed reprieve from the generally technical-historcial and  humorless type of books on northern dogs we are used to reading. And what an unexpected surprise to find vignettes describing owning an Inuit Sled Dog from the unique and insightful Pinkwater perspective!  Enjoy curling up with this gem some cold winter evening after the dogs are bedded down for the night.

Uncle Boris in the Yukon and Other Shaggy Dog Stories  by Daniel Pinkwater, illustrated by Jill Pinkwater. 2001, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-85632-8.  U.S.A. price $20.00, Canadian price $29.95.