Whether it’s quitting a job and hitting the road, selling precious gems or jumping out of a plane, the agony of a breakup can spark huge changes – for better or worse …
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he had green eyes that “could see through walls”, Chris remembers, not unruefully. When he and his Russian girlfriend broke up, Chris, originally from Sussex and now living in Maine in the US, admits he had Siberia (Elena came from the city of Novosibirsk) on the mind. He did the obvious thing: went and got a pair of three-month-old Siberian husky puppies: Loki and Freja, brother and sister – also with piercing eyes, but icy blue, especially Loki’s. “People would just stop on the street as he walked by.”
Chris had owned dogs before– labradors. “I figured that huskies were labradors with fur coats on,” he says, talking to me from his pickup truck after an early morning paddle in his kayak. “They absolutely are not.”
The dogs got bigger, and wilder. “I was completely ill-equipped to train them as the role of dominant alpha doesn’t come naturally to me. They didn’t seem to want to reason with me. Despite four hours of walking a day, it wasn’t enough.” Chris even bought a sled for them, because huskies are bred to pull. (Take note of the sled – it will come back later in this story.)
