Lady Emilee's Lady Ruff House
Whelped March 11, 1987
At the Rainbow Bridge March 9, 1998

In the spring of '87, my daughter, Emilee, wanted to raise and train a dog of her own during summer break. We decided on getting an Airedale puppy. My summer work assignment was in the Kenny Lake area, a small rural farming community 90 miles north of Valdez, Alaska.

Emilee found a local AKC Airedale Terrier breeder and went to Anchorage with her friend to pick out a puppy. She returned with a cute little terrier puppy she named Emilee's Lady Ruff House.

Lady was a quick learner and Emilee taught her many tricks. Lady loved to run back and forth with the horse, Jake, in the exercise pen. Lady would chase Jake barking while he would kick out his hind hooves like she was a wolf attacking him, then he would run after her until she ran under the fence, then it would start over again. They would play like this for hours.

When we moved to the cabin at 84.5 mile Richardson Highway in '88, there was a peak year in the population of snowshoe hare. I thought Lady would run her legs off chasing the bunnies! She would no sooner chase one out of her yard, then another came in from another direction and off she would go!

Lady was fiercely loyal, loving, and intelligent and guarded her pack and den like in true Airedale Terrier fashion. She never thought she was too big to sit in her Poppa's lap. She became known as my "laptop Airedale". She also helped me on the hunt for game. On three occasions while on the way out to hunt moose, her alert senses spotted our quarry. Her favorite game to hunt was snowshoe hare.