Voices from the Flats – LoveMyDogs!
Mudflatter ‘lovemydogs’ is having a busy week. She’s caring for the kennel of Iditarod musher Colleen Robertia. Love my dogs commented on the day of the race about Colleen and her kennel:
Some of them are [rescue dogs] and some of them are children of retired + rescue dogs etc. Her kennel is very mixed in terms of where the dogs come from. But she is definitely an advocate for rescuing dogs.
Her lead dog Penny was the smallest dog to start the Quest last year. She finished the race in lead. They are very careful about breeding and most of their dogs are spade or neutered. Joseph is constantly bringing dogs home from the pound. They also have a Golden, a pug (both rescues), a German Shepherd and numerous dogs with various health problems (a “wheezer”, a sled dog born with a liver shunt, etc.) who inhabit their home. The German Shepherd was Colleen’s before they ever had sled dogs. One of her goals is to be competitive with a small kennel of dogs that may not come from top bloodlines. I was standing in their house last night and looking around at all of the dog beds and dog food bowls and laughing because there are more places for the dogs to sit than humans. Their Golden thinks my lap (wherever it is perched) is the only chair in the room.
Lovemydogs has kept us all up to date with frequent comments on how the team is doing on the trail, and how she is doing back at home base. Colleen’s husband Joseph also has a blog he’s been updating with information on the team.
Colleen’s team is one that I picked to follow, before I even knew about the connection with Mudflatter ‘lovemydogs.’ Serendipity.
I asked her to contribute as a Voices from the Flats writer. Here is her first contribution. Thanks lovemydogs, and here’s to a successful run for Colleen and her dogs.
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~Robertia’s team at the Iditarod start in Anchorage wore jackets that read, “Until There Are None, Adopt One.”
The River
by lovemydogs
It’s -40 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s dark. You’re alone with your dogs. You haven’t slept more than 3 hours for days. You cut your own sleep last night/day to massage the shoulder of one of your best dogs.
And now you are seeing things. Was that a big gigantic barn that I just drove my dogs through? What is that doing out here? And why wasn’t it warm inside?
You come into a checkpoint thoroughly demoralized and wonder why everyone around you seems to be drunk. Your dog might be hurt but you can’t leave her with these people. You think about putting her in the sled bag and carrying on. You need to feed your team and get them bedded down somewhere where they can use the calories to recover. You decide to stay. You do your chores. You call home. You cry. You get mad at your husband. He tells you that you are tired and everything will look better after some sleep. You yell that he isn’t being supportive and he doesn’t understand. You hang up. He goes back to his chores at home and his own private world of insanity where he can do nothing more to help you.
The river is one of the biggest mental obstacles in this race. It is HUGE, it is long and it is boring. Running for hours on what is essentially an ice road that never seems to end. The dogs don’t like running in the middle of the day but they need to retain calories to run and not burn them to stay warm. Getting them and yourself out there from every checkpoint is a gargantuan test of will. Once you get going they warm into it and then you have to stay on the drag to keep them from going too fast and injuring themselves.
This is the river.
Colleen said during the Yukon Quest “If this doesn’t throw you into adult onset bipolar disease, I don’t know what will”. Being a friend, handler or significant other of the musher is hard. They come into some checkpoints ecstatic and joyful and others as down as a person can be. You try to tell them that their attitude infects the dogs (because musher and his/her team are as one by now). Most of the time all you can say is, “I love you”, and hope that it gets through. Aily Zirkle once tapped Colleen on the forehead and told her “It’s all up here”. I think that she is right.
Joseph, Colleen’s husband, is going out of his mind. He sits in front of his computer and watches her GPS tracker incessantly because the updates of the standings are hours behind if you aren’t at the front of the pack. He gets frustrated because he wants to see more news coverage of her. He thinks she is beautiful and brave and running this race with the right ethical philosophy. I don’t blame him.
Most of the coverage is of those at the front or the back of the pack. There are 71 people who started this race with their dogs. Each and every one of the mushers left is racing as hard as they can within the limits of their dogs and themselves. Every day is a test. As one of my friends said to me today “Every one of the people who finishes that race is a hero”. Personally, I have no idea how they do it. Lance’s wife used to tell me “they’re all psycho”.
I’m cheering Colleen and Penny and all of her little family on with all of the positive energy I can send her. I’m trying to help Joseph keep his mother hen instincts from causing him to have a nervous breakdown. “It’s the river” I tell him.
~Emilie, a dog handler gets some pre-race love from a member of the team.
(((AKM and lovemydogs and Colleen and teh doggies)))
Spayed not spade. Great post!
The stories, the dogs and the people are amazing.
This is a great Alaskan event and thanks for the update and info. Learning about all the fantastic people in the ‘middle’ is just special!!!
Very touching all around… beautiful story. (thank-you so much lovemydogs for writing it and sharing)
Colleen is doing well. She’s 38th and looks like she is hanging in there for the finish. First Iditarod at that!
I read an article Thursday about Sam Deltour, who is a 25 year old medical intern from Belgium running as a rookie. I think he’s #51, but he’s been stopping taking care of people’s injuries and fixing sleds. Nice story too.
http://www.adn.com/2010/03/11/1179817/at-back-of-the-iditarod-pack-problems.html
correction, this is Deltour’s second race, not a rookie. you know people have to love it, if they come back.
((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((LOVE MY DOGS)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
I loves them lil’ doggies too. Thanks AKM for featuring LMD in today’s post. She makes it all real for me. AKM your pictures, as always, put me right there next to you. I can hear the dogs barking, speaking, telling the world of their joy. I can feel the icy cold FRESH air filling my lungs and making me feel my youth again and strength infusing my body and soul, making me eager to run my course and finish my own race to VICTORY.
Thank you. Thank you. You have given me a picture. As someone who is so far removed from prior knowledge of all the bits and pieces, I am learning from you. Beautiful writing. I felt it.
What a fabulously touching post.
“You come into a checkpoint thoroughly demoralized and wonder why everyone around you seems to be drunk.”
This is definitely written in the “musher person” perspective. One mid distance race I helped on, mostly on the road system so one can meet their musher at almost every checkpoint – our friend withdrew from her gang more at each one. At first, she even joined us in a rented cabin for some sleep, but decided it was too much work after that to undress so you don’t overheat, then dress in all those layers again when you go back outside into way below zero weather. She didn’t want to go into any building for any length of time after day two, and just began to eat and sleep with her team only.
Later, she told us something like we seemed like people from outer space. The checkpoints were too busy, she said. She was in the groove and the rest was all a distraction to her. I found this fascinating!
Lovemydogs – you are doing a wonderful job of advocating for, and teaching about, running dogs and their kennels just by sharing your day to day activities!
Go Colleen! Go Penny!
I felt it too, Jimzmum. Thank you, lovesmydogs!!
(Aside: Why is the whole world crooked all of a sudden?)
Awesome post. I love that little Penny’s picture. What a doll (from her website… I don’t have the link at hand).
Best of journeys, Colleen and company. And Dogspeed to you all!
MonaLisa @ 10. I think somebody didnt do the [/i] thing.
i wish them all the best
MonaLisa, I was wondering the same thing…I don’t usually lean to the right.
thatcrowwoman, neither do i
Very well said.
lovemydogs – thanks for the writing. It brings the whole race alive to me in a way that I’ve not felt before. I did watch the beginning of the race many moons ago (like close to 4 decades), but it was a crazy start as snow needed to be brought in as there was not enough in Anchorage that year!
lol, crowwoman: me neither!!
AKM, you have birthed another great writer! LMD you have a calling, I see a book in your future. “The Little Dogs Who Could”?
Wonderful guest post, thanks. I expect Colleen will enjoy reading this too, later on. After she is into Nome, and has decompressed from the race.
Thank you LMD for bringing us up to date and keeping us in the know.
Mudpuppy Alex is twittering the Iditarod while working on a film about the race: http://twitter.com/coldfootfilms
Thanks for the fascinating and heartfelt post, lovemydogs!
Thanks lovemydogs for letting us feel the excitement and craziness of the race! Great writeup!
Here’s the story of Penny that someone posted a few days ago, in case anyone missed it. I keep hanging onto it because it’s just so sweet:
29-pound lead dog has right stuff
http://www.adn.com/2010/03/07/1172821/29-pound-lead-dog-has-right-stuff.html
on an extremely happy Iditarod note,
“After being lost more than four days in sub-zero cold, Whitey-Lance, the 3-year-old dog of Iditarod rookie Justin Savidis, was found late Sunday.”
http://www.adn.com/2010/03/14/1183461/missing-dog-finally-shows-up-in.html