(waving hands wildly) I LOVE THIS BREED! I have a Husky, and he is the BEST!!!
My boy is part Husky, part Golden...but he appears to be mostly Husky...he has brown eyes though (some of them do, did you know that?).
Huskies are WONDERFUL pets, but you are all correct about the shedding. I have to vaccuum about once a day with my Max...only twice a year does he shed though, and we live in the hot South! ;-)
They are FABULOUS with children. I have a grand niece who is a year old and who just hugs on him and kisses him and lays on him...he just nuzzles her and licks her on the head from time to time. LOL! The neighbor's kids like to chase him, hug him, pet him, and use him as a floor pillow...hehehe....he puts up with all of it....they are one of the sweetest, most gentle souls you can have in a dog breed.
I can tell you this though...they LOVE to run...you need to have a WELL fenced yard if you are going to have one or else they WILL either dig under or go over the fence and run and run and run forever...it's in their blood...
They are VERY VERY intelligent though. I am currently training Max to be my hearing ear dog (service dog) and he goes with me when I go places at night since I can no longer tell what direction sounds are coming from. (someone could come up behind me to hurt me and I wouldn't know it...) He's really great to stick close to me, and stand in between me and strangers. He rides well in the car...like a little human...hehehe....he likes to sit in the passenger seat and watch all the other cars go by. (giggle) He's good in the house to let me know when someone is at the door by coming to get me and take me to the door when the doorbell rings.
He also will pick up his water bowl and bring it to me when it is empty. LOL! Like "hint, hint"....hahaha
He gets nervous during thunderstorms though...not terrible...but he does stick to me like velcro when we get a bad storm. He also doesn't like to have his toenails trimmed so I take him to the groomer's for that.
He weighs about 90 pounds and it's all solid muscle. When he stands on his hind legs, he's about 5'7" tall! Yep, he's a BIG BOY....but in my eyes, he's a beautiful one...I love him sooooooo much, can you tell? (grin)
There are a lot of really great Husky websites out there that can describe in detail all about them if you are interested in getting one for yourself...but I do recommend you read up about them beforehand because they are hyper and need room to run and someone who will be active with them. ;-) They LOVE to play chase...where YOU chase THEM...it's their favorite game! LOL! They also love any toy that makes a noise...which tends to make them good hearing dogs.
Here is my Maxie Dog:
EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot to mention...they are VERY easy to housebreak. Most dogs are, actually...you just have to be consistent with them. Max was already housebroken when he came to us. He wouldn't dream of going in the house...I think he'd "hold it" til he popped as opposed to having an accident in the house.
Also, we have neighbors who have two beautiful full blooded Huskies...one of them is a little red girl, with piercing blue eyes, and her brother is like the one in the picture at the beginning of this thread. I have no idea WHO they belong to...but I assume they live nearby because they are always wandering the neighborhood and they wear collars with rabies tags. I can't IMAGINE letting dogs that beautiful run loose though...that's just irresponsible. They could get run over by a car, or in our case, a train...we have a train about a block from us! YIKES!