The Greatest Race Ever started this morning.
The dogs are running!
The 43rd running of the Iditarod.
Fairbanks is awash with dogs and snow. (Lucky them!!!)
As you watch the teams take off, everyone of them have dogs with dog booties on each foot. That's typically 64 booties at a time.
Squirt had a bootie for each foot and getting him dressed was a challenge. Sixty-four dogs at one time - WOOF!
And then, just imagine how many get lost on the trail. If I remember right, each team goes through about 1600 booties during the Iditarod. They do wear out but dogs also tend to throw them off. (Not on purpose of course...just a hazard of running.) I'm pretty sure the mushers don't stop for bootie pick up if they even see one fly off of a foot. Too much time would be wasted.
After the end of the race, there must be a bright trail of pink, green, red, black, orange - mostly neon colors in the snow. If it doesn't already exist, this calls for a bootie patrol to follow after the race to pick them up.
I'm sure there would be LOTS of volunteers the first year!
(PS - I know the correct spelling of "booty". That tends to mean something else these days though so I specifically used "bootie".)
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