The Deer and the Devils

• After Marge left, the rest of the "first long run was full of small wonders, little miracles" (47).
• A chickadee stayed on rim of coat hood for half day, peeking/eating meat scraps.
• Came upon - snared deer - 4th day.
• Snare traps - cable loops - only tighten - animal caught - stangle itself to death.
• Paulsen has turned a trapper in.
• Saw doe, tied dogs, cut snare, deer fell to his lap, gained conscious, look up curiously, didn't struggle/thrash while he petted her.
• Stood up, watched, walked away calmly.
• Continued run - thought/perceived the world differently.
• Went home, wife Ruth said he's different - he agree - say he saw things from the way the dog saw them.
• Consider entering Iditarod.
• Drove to Canada with wife - got three new dogs - Devil, Ortho, Murphy - mutts.
• Halfway to home, Devil and Ortho chewed up cage.
• Paulsen rode in back of pick up with dogs, Devil, Ortho calmed down, stared.
• Wife said it'll be fine, as soon as she said that, dogs started fighting, playfully/seriously.
• First atttempt - put together - Iditarod team - need strong dogs - run long distance without injuring self - extremely rare.
• Had good team, good leaders/runners, but not enough, need 8/9 more.
• Looked everywhere, good dogs, but not good enough.
• Found Canadian dogs - have no good connection with people, but could run.
• Hooked a bike with dogs - classical way of home training.
• Ran great until Canadian dogs saw a hare, not used to it, dragged the whole team off track, Paulsen thrown off bike, followed team into swamp and many miles.
• Lost them, exhausted, went home, wife told him lead dog Cookie brought them back hours ago, and Canadian dogs were friendlier.
• Dogs back home, but Paulsen has numerous bug bites from the swamp.