Tote-Um Kennels

Tote-Um’s Alaska Snobird, Tote-Um’s Ballard Queen, Orm’s Dorms Moosmoos of Tote-Um are very well known dogs in the Norwegian Malamute breed. Mr. Øyvind Moen imported these dogs, and founded the most important string of Malamutes in Norway. But what is Tote-Um, and who was Dianna "Ross" Rich who owned the kennel? I will try to write down her story.

Dianna Ross came in contact with polar dogs (Huskys) for the first time in 1958. She tried a bit with Samoyed, but chose the Alaskan Malamute. At that time there were not a lot of breeders (ca. 35) and Dianna wrote them all. She bought her first puppy with Erowah kennels in Denver, Siska of Erowah. Just a while later she got three other dogs, Kodara El Toro, Erowah Cinnaman and Pak N Puls Kaltag. These four dogs were the foundation dogs for Tote-Um kennels.

It looks like Dianna was a lady who did something really good after she started. After receiving Siska, the next 20 years her life was around the malamutes. She had as many as 30 mals at a time, three or four litters a year, and participated in every show around. She wrote in different magazines, and started her own magazine "Malamute Tales" (which later was sold to Hoflin and became Malamute Quarterly), and wrote her own book.

In the 20 years as a breeder she bred between 20 and 50 litters. The best litter she bred was when she used the male Voyageur’s Cougar on her female Tote-Um’s Tiger Woman. All nine puppy’s became very good and got used for breeding. Two out of this litter, Tote-Um’s Sno-Star and Tote-Um’s Arctic Panther are dogs who are behind the Norwegian imports.

Kodara El Toro was the malamute she liked best of all. A couple of months before he died (he was 12) they went on a sledding trip in the wood, and met a film group from Walt Disney. They became so impressed that they rewrote the scene, with her team of dogs in it.

Dianne was very secure with the dogs she bred. At that time she was one of the few who HD x-rayed all her dogs, and it was important they were free. It must have been a dreadful experience for her to discover CHD in her lines, and to find out that both Toro and Errowah Cinnaman both were carriers. A heavy time came. The kennel was closed, and all dogs got test-bred. Ill dogs were given for research on CHD, carriers placed with a non-breed aggreement. Dianna had done a lot to get rid of CHD in the breed. After a while she came in a period that all her good old dogs were gone, and she started to miss the interest she had so many years. She replaced dogs and put all the trophys in boxes. It was easier than she thought. She thought that the judges got too much influence in the breed, and she hatet to see the breed change into what judges like. She wanted to keep the breed as when she started, like the old M’Loot and Husky Pak lines from her big ideal Bob Zoller.

Her last to pure Tote-Um dogs were "Shadow" and "Malik". When Shadow died in winter 1981, Malik stopped eating and joined his old friend a couple of weeks later.

Dianne kept one malamute for a while, but it seems that after a while she lost her interest and Tote-Um was history.