Conceived in a trailer park in rural Nebraska, and a product of growing up in rural upstate, NY in the epitome of bygone colonial America, Alek enjoyed a peaceful childhood wrought with climbing trees, scraping knees and freedom to sneeze. Freedom to sneeze? Most infants are born with two heads, a leg and a nose. Alek was born with one head, two legs and NO nose. At least in fact, not the use of his nose. A bilateral coanal atresia (whether correctly spelled or not) is a hardening of the nasal passages during fetal development.

Luckily, Alek escaped infancy without a fear of vacuums resulting from the traumatizing noisy vacuum thingy used to empty his nasal passages in the weeks following birth. However, he inevitably came to fear the noise of a vacuum, especially when they started up their whir; because he knew housework chores were soon in store. Today, Alek is a successful domestic tidy hound...to an extent.

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