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Written by Nancy Duresky<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Wednesday, March 21, 2009<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n When you work in the dog lot and then go back the next day, some of the dogs you cared for are gone.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>After a musher and the dogs have recovered and rested, Alaska Airlines ships the dogs back to Anchorage for the mushers.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>(Alaska Airlines is one of my most favorite airlines, not just because they support the Iditarod mushers, but because of the wonderful way they have treated me over the years.)<\/span> <\/span><\/span>So, a dog that you cared for, that you petted and bonded with, is gone.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>And it’s a little loss.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Several years ago, I had a dog, Vicky-dog, a terrier mix.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>I got her in Texas and every day while I was writing my dissertation, Vicky-dog and I would walk for an hour beginning at 4 pm in the Texas hill country.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>That wonderful dog saw me through a marriage, two children, a divorce and a re-launch of my career.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>With that dog, I bought my first car myself, bought my first house myself, and moved five times.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>And then she was 17 and had a seizure. One of my sons and I took her to the vets.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>I held her in my arms and the vet injected her with the medicine that would put her to sleep and she died in my arms.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>It’s been 12 years and I still puddle-up when I remember the love I had for that dog and the love she had for me.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Think of how much more the mushers feel for the dogs in their kennel and on their team.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>What I went through with Vicky-dog by my side created a bond. And the mushers probably feel so much more.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>There are countless times on the trail that the dogs are not only at the mushers side, but the dogs are keeping the musher safe.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>Great lead dogs are able to follow the scent of a trail through a blizzard.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>They pull the musher up hill, across rivers, through overflow, and over the ice of the Bering Sea.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>The bond they have with the musher is beyond even the bond I had with Vicky-dog.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>Imagine what the feeling is when a musher loses a dog from his kennel.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This year, a few dogs have been lost on the trail. I don’t know the details of what happened on the trail.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>That will be investigated.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>I do know that the cases I have seen with my own eyes, where a musher loses a dog, the musher looks as if his or her guts were ripped out and yet, has to go on living.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>There is a grief and a sadness I cannot describe here because it is beyond words. <\/span><\/p>\n Back home, when I have talked about the Iditarod, some people have commented that they have heard others say something about cruelty to animals. I’m no expert, and I’m no great judge, I’m just a lady who comes to Nome every year to volunteer.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>What I see are dogs that love to run, love to pull a sled and love to go.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>In fact, even thought I loved Vicky-dog, after seeing the dogs in harness, I won’t have another dog in the city, because I know how dogs are supposed to live – and it’s not cooped up alone at home while I work long hours every day.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>The mushers give up all the comforts I have to live next to their kennel and care for their dogs, do hard labor for their dogs, every day of their lives. They give their dogs a life that is heaven on earth.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n So, as some of the dogs that I have fed, and petted, and for whom I have scooped poop, leave me, I feel a little sadness.<\/span> <\/span><\/span>And I share one part of the sadness that all of us experience who have loved dogs and lost them.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our brave local correspondent, Nancy Duresky, is sending back dispatches while working in Alaska as an Iditarod volunteer. You don’t want to miss these stories!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4370"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4370"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/i304.photobucket.com\/albums\/nn191\/LBPOSTphotos\/Sports\/2009_03_Nome_doginbox21.jpg\")
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