at last, the North Pole ......Day 12

Boy am I glad that balloon ride is OVER! Note to dog friends ... (and cat friends) ... balloons are not for pets. You can't go poddy in them and they can break so you have to be really careful with your claws. Gheesh, I am glad that is over!

We arrived safely at Zach's house.

He lives in North Pole, Alaska. We knew we were at Zach's house because we saw these pretty lights in the sky from the balloon.

The lights in the sky were nice because they gave us some light to read our map

and they helped Mona not be so afraid of the dark. Zach took us straight to his house where we met Chani and his baby friend.

Zach treated us to some mammoth bones and some ice water .... (they have a lot of ice there!) The baby reminded me to tell Zach that we were looking for my best friend Hershey because he has a baby too and she needs him to come home and take care of her. Hershey lives far away from me now and I almost never get to see him AND he has not blogged in a long time. I told Zach that I had seen a picture of Hershey with an elf hat on his head and I had figured out that he MUST be at the North Pole in elf training! The North Pole is the only place I know that has elves.


Well, as it turns out Zach knows all about the North Pole. He knew exactly where the North Pole was and said he could take us there! Imagine that! I asked him if we had to pull a sled because of the snow and he laughed at us! He told us his mother could drive us there in her car! All that worrying about sleds and deep snow was for NOTHING! So we all jumped in Zach's Mom's SUV and off we went. His Mom was so very nice ... I think her name was Glinda. She let me sit in the front with her and Zach while Hana, Mona and JB sat in the back. We drove and drove and drove. We saw lots of things along the way. We saw a funny white rabbit

and a pretty red fox.

We saw a big tall animal with antlers that Zach called a moose

and we saw a big brown bear.

We DID NOT see any POLAR BEARS!! Once again ... a lot of worrying for NOTHING!! The big brown bear didn't even look our way and he didn't look scary at all. In fact, he looked very nice. Zach told me he eats fish ...... not black and tan long haired dachshunds.... or any dogs or cats.

A little more driving and we came to a big giant red and white striped pole.

There at the bottom of the pole was my best friend Hershey!!! Yes ... Hershey WAS at the North Pole!!!! He didn't have the elf hat on. He wasn't in elf training after all. He told me he had just run away from home because his mother tried a funny hat on him when it didn't fit the baby. When he saw that Hana and Mona and JB and I had gone on an adventure to search for him, he was very touched. He barked a "Thank You Bark" and wagged his tail. He told us that he had decided he missed his Mom and Dad and his cat brother Nixon and most of all his baby .... and he wanted to go HOME! But how could he get home? He had been at the North Pole for days and now all he wanted was to go HOME!!! Poor Hershey. I wonder how we can get him home????