14 March 2013

An Old Dog's Big Moment

From today's Anchorage Daily News:
After using his famous finishing kick to chase down Kasilof's Paul Gebhardt the first time Wednesday in the final 18 miles of the 1,000-mile Iditarod, Cim Smyth relied on his oldest, slowest dog to catch Gebhardt a second time.

With 10-year-old Squirt in the lead, the Big Lake musher found just enough speed to beat Gebhardt to the Nome finish line by 70 seconds and claim 15th place.

The old dog got his big moment when a younger, faster leader got confused by spectators once the team reached Nome's Front Street.

~ snip ~

He swapped her with Squirt, who has made the trip to Nome before. As Smyth made the change, Gebhardt's team caught up.

"He was halfway gone by the time I got (the team) lined out, and then I also had the slowest leader up there, the slowest dog on the whole team," Smyth said. "He knows exactly where we were going, but he wouldn't do anything but trot."

A slow-speed chase ensued. Undeterred by the noise and activity on Front Street, Squirt guided the team past Gebhardt and under the burled arch at the finish line.

Go here for the rest of this heart-warming story, including a table showing the winnings for the mushers who finished this year's race.

10 comments:

PioneerPreppy said...

I need one of those :)

Moment not the dog.

Rev. Paul said...

Couldn't we all ...

On a Wing and a Whim said...

Good boy. Slow, but steady wins the race?

Rev. Paul said...

Apparently so! Thanks, Wing.

Cathy said...

Great writing and yes, heart-warming.

Rev. Paul said...

Agreed, Cathy. It was difficult not to paste the whole story here, too.

Murphy's Law said...

Woo-Hoo! We're number FIFTEEN!

But they tried and they finished, and that counts for pretty much everything.

Rev. Paul said...

That's it in a nutshell, ML. It's probably Squirt's last race, too, which is kind of sad.

Old NFO said...

Great story, and that old dog didn't NEED any new tricks! :-)

Rev. Paul said...

Agreed, NFO - and good point!