Rogues Gallery Kennel Blog

Good morning all. At last check, Cole was into Kaltag, although I’m not sure if she’ll be staying there or moving on to camp at Old woman Cabin just outside of town. Some have noticed she cut two more dogs loose in Galena. That was Quigley and his brother Rowdy. She said both probably could have gone on further, and in Quigley’s case he really wanted to, but they both had ailments that seemed risky to keeping in the team any further.
The snow that far north is quite a bit different than ours. We get a warm, sticky, type snow that can hurt dogs by balling up between their toes causing tiny little splits and tears, which is why we use booties. Up where cole and the gang are the snow is much more drier, course and abrasive from the colder temps. This snow poses a different time of challenge, as the dogs run they kick the snow up on the back of their ankles and legs and over time if can wear down the hair, and if left unattended or not noticed, it can wear down the skin and even ligaments in the worst case scenario. This is why some of you may have noticed pictures of some dog team wearing what look like leggings or leg warmers , in addition to their booties.
This is still an evolving sport and those legging haven’t been around long, We didn’t get any in time for the race, since it would have had to have been a custom job to get them. Instead Cole takes a pair of booties, slices the bottom out, and slides it up their ankle, then holds it in place with another booties on the foot. Anyway, long story shorter, Rowdy started having this trouble, even with the double booties and she didn’t want him to go on further with any injuries to his limbs.
Quigley had the problem I described earlier, he over ate, which caused him to puke, and Cole thought he just didn’t sound right after that. The vets listened to him and gave him the green light to keep going at every checkpoint, but she was worried doing so would risk injury to his throat or lungs.
She said she miss him though. With Cyder gone, Quigley had stepped up to be both team cheerleader when leaving a checkpoint, and the only dog who wanted to be up front and pull her out. Some of the other dogs are leading once on the run, but those first few steps of the comfy, warm straw beds are a tough one for them to take. Like us, they’d rather hit the snooze button and stay a bit longer if they had their druthers.
As to some good news, Cole said Zoom has really stepped up this race to fill the niche left by so many leaders coming home. Zoom has always been a lead dog in 200-300 miles race, but she had only one rule, she does not lead during the day. I don’t know why this is, if she gets too hot, or the sun reflecting off the snow hurts her eyes more when not blocked by another dog’s behind in front, not sure. All I l know is she leads at night almost exclusively until now.
Cole said out of nowhere Zoom stepped up and in single lead, which is even more amazing, ran in front of the team for two 70 mile runs during the day time. GO ZOOM! With all the bad luck Cole has had this race, it was good to hear one thing go her way. Hopefully it will continue for the remaining 346 miles they have left.