Betsy LeSueur Bush (Isa Boucher)

Betsy LeSueur Bush became a Seppala Siberian fancier while she was a postgraduate student in veterinary parasitology at McGill University in Quebec. She visited the kennels of Constantine Dello and acquired a small three-quarter Seppala bitch, Dello's Keewatin Chukchi, whom she bred to Gagnon's Spot, a piebald Seppala male owned by Dello.

Betsy visited Jeffrey Bragg at Oxford Station, Ontario, in early spring of 1973, wanting to acquire a young female to mate to her male Keewatin's Kodiak who was all that she had left to show for her early efforts (her bitch "Kee" had died of distemper and another son "Jude" was shotgunned by a hostile neighbour). Bets thought she wanted a dark puppy with blue eyes. At the time, the Z-Litter was much too young to go; the one female puppy Bragg was prepared to part with was Xaire of Markovo, who was light grey with bicolour eyes. Betsy grudgingly accepted what was on offer.

On a return visit about a month later, she got her dark puppy with blue eyes, Zeita of Markovo, given to her by Bragg to keep the other pup company. Matters moved quickly from that point onward, and by mid-August of 1973 Bragg and Bush had joined forces in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where she was employed as a departmental assistant and demonstrator in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.

Betsy was a faithful steward and caregiver of the Markovo dogs throughout the latter phases of the Markovo rescue project. Today she remains steward and caregiver, as faithful as ever, though she now goes by the name Isa Boucher.