One of the great mysteries was solved last night, but first a little background.

Siberians don’t exactly shed, but blow coat twice a year.  For those of you without Siberians, blowing coat is an amazing period.  In a period of a week or two, the dog loses its undercoat – the thick coating that keeps the dog warm.  In a Siberian, this is an absolutely amazing amount of fur.  While there are many great examples on the internet, the post “The fur was flying” on the blog at Karen Ramstead’s great site gives you a feel for the amount of hair.

But even when a Sibe is not blowing coat, you can usually “pluck” some undercoat.  When I am asked if a Siberian sheds, I usually will just reach down and pluck out a thick blob of undercoat.  The look of horror on the interrogator’s face usually tells me that person has just lost all interest in owning a Siberian.

And the birds around my house all have the warmest, fur lined nests you have ever seen.

Like most multiple Sibe families, my Sibes conspire to alternate coat blowing times so that someone is always blowing coat.  That way they can stretch the fun into a much longer period.  I get even by belting them into the back of the jeep with all the windows out and let the wind help me through the period (though I do pity the poor drivers behind me).  This year, Rusty started it, followed by Natasha, Kiska (nothing like a wooly coat in blowing season – oh my!) and now Kodiak.  But Qannik has never really blown coat this spring.

So to the mystery of Qannik’s lack of coat blowing.  Last night, I was sitting on the couch surrounded by Sibes.  Qannik had claimed the prime spot to my left so that he could get great ear scratches.  After a while, I realized he was not asleep, but was – plucking himself!  Yes, the rascal was reaching around and pulling out the big tufts of hair and swallowing them.  Over and over and over.