March 1, 2003 Ceremonial Start

One half of the circus down - 1/2 to go. :) Actually, it was a whole lot of fun today at the Ceremonial Start. I got to renew a lot of friendships, make some new ones and put some faces to names.

The dogs had a WONDERFUL time smoozing with fans - especially my adorable, 6 year old Iditarider, Meagan. The dogs were totally in love with her :)

I'm going to have to cut the email short tonight, as common sense is telling me that I need to get to bed, but I did want to share with everyone the list of dogs that participated in the Ceremonial Start. They were:

Ch. NorthWapiti's Guy Smiley	NorthWapiti's Mr. Snuffleupagus - 'Gus'
NorthWapiti's Freya	NorthWapiti's Valkyrie Kara
Chuchinka's Nikolai 2nd	Chuchinka's Pathfinder - 'Chester'
Ch. Innisfree Pirate's Treasure	Ch. Kainai's Anchorman - 'Mannie'

And finally, the list of dogs that will be heading to Nome with me on Monday.

NorthWapiti's Super Grover	NorthWapiti's Draco
NorthWapiti's Orion the Hunter	NorthWapiti's Oden
NorthWapiti's Loki	NorthWapiti's Mr. Snuffleupagus - 'Gus'
Chuchinka's Nikolai 2nd	NorthWapiti's Sir Galahad - 'Surge'
Alaskan's Olena of Anadyr	NorthWapiti's Camilla
NorthWapiti's Denali	NorthWapiti's Nahanni
NorthWapiti's Valkyrie Kara	Chuchinka's Pathfinder - 'Chester'
Chuchinka's San Antonio Rose - 'Kaylinn'	NorthWapiti's Robert E. Lee - 'Squeaky'
Note: For pictures of these dogs, please visit our Sponsor-A-Dog page

The 4 dogs that were cut from the team were:

Ch. NorthWapiti's Guy Smiley - This was ABSOLUTELY the hardest cut of the season, but Smiley has a few injuries bothering him. Nothing serious, but enough to keep him from a 1200 mile race! I sure will miss you out there Smiles!

Ch. NorthWapiti's Anchorman - Another hard cut. Nothing 'wrong' with Mannie's performance this season, he was just beat out by some younger dogs in the yard. 

NorthWapiti's Freya - Freya has been having a wonderful season, but her blood work showed that she may be feeling a little under the weather, so I've decided to leave her behind this time.

and 

Ch. Innisfree Pirate's Treasure - I have to say that Pirate has performed beyond my wildest expectations this year - his first serious season in harness. I' m very pleased to announce that Kanzler's have agreed to let him hang around her for another season. Don't count out seeing this boy with the main string next season!

Anyway, I must sign off now!! Mark will be taking over my diary entries until after the Race.

Thank you all for your interest in our team and our adventures. See you when I return from NOME!

:) :)
Karen