Life with Forty Dogs Quotes

“All puppies have a reputation for kinetics, but huskies are in a league of their own. They’re like cans of energy drink come to life.”
― Joseph Robertia, Life with Forty Dogs: Misadventures with Runts, Rejects, Retirees, and Rescues

“To me, it’s not that pound dogs don’t have worth, or to be more specific, inherent worth as sled dogs. It’s just that to succeed with them you have to be open to finding their very individualized skill sets, and that’s what we did with all of our rescues.
Pong, while she can’t sustain sprint speeds for very long, can break trail at slightly slower speed for hours. Ping’s digestive processes move at a glacial pace, so much so that I think she could put on a few pounds from just a whiff of the food bucked, and this proved valuable when racing in deep-minus temperatures when dogs with higher metabolisms shiver off too much weight. Six, while small, can remember any trail after having only run it once, which I relied on whenever I grew disoriented or got lost from time to time. Rolo developed into an amazing gee-haw leader, turning left or right with precision whenever we gave the commands, which also helped the other dogs in line behind him learn the meaning of these words and the importance of listening to the musher. Ghost excelled at leading of a different sort, running at the front of a team chasing another which is also useful for not burning out gee-haw leaders. Coolwhip’s character trait of perpetually acting over-caffeinated made her invaluable as a cheerleader, where an always barking dog late in a run can, and does spread enthusiasm to the others. And Old Man, well, he was a bit too decrepit to ever contribute much to the team, but he always made me smile when I came out to feed the yard and saw him excitedly carrying around his food bowl, and that was enough for him to earn his keep.”
― Joseph Robertia, Life with Forty Dogs: Misadventures with Runts, Rejects, Retirees, and Rescues

“What I do know for certain is that there are moments in time that resonate, staying with you forever. For me, that infamous training run stands out as one of them. I glimpsed divinity and understood – possibly for the first time at that spiritual depth – the perfection embodied in Cyber and Zoom. I appreciated, truly, the caliber of athletic performance they emanated. I valued the privilidge of not just knowing a once-in-a-mushers-lifetime lead dog, but knowing two of them.”
― Joseph Robertia, Life with Forty Dogs: Misadventures with Runts, Rejects, Retirees, and Rescues

“The wail of the savage winds devoured all sounds, including any commands to the front of the team, and the snow – getting deeper and deeper – felt on the verge of swallowing us. Even the dogs had a cupcake-thick icing of white to their fur. I began to feel not just lonely, but very only – the only one brave enough, the only one stupid enough, the only one to be mushing on a mountaintop miles from any humans. Even the ptarmigan I had seen hours before had the sense to stick together.”
― Joseph Robertia, Life with Forty Dogs: Misadventures with Runts, Rejects, Retirees, and Rescues

“Basically, the formula for success requires – demands, really – truly getting to know the dogs on such a personal level that when you look at them, you begin to look past the flaws and see what their strengths are and create success with what you have, not what you wish you had. You don’t see tools that are disposable; you see teammates that are indispensable and irreplaceable.”
― Joseph Robertia, Life with Forty Dogs: Misadventures with Runts, Rejects, Retirees, and Rescues