When dogs from racing teams are injured, sick or just not running up to par mushers can 'drop' them at checkpoints, and they are flown by the voluteer 'Iditarod Airforce' in bush planes back to Anchorage. Here at the dropped dog lot, between the airstrip and the Millenium Hotel (Iditarod Headquarters), the dogs are pampered, checked out and treated, if needed, by volunteer Vets. Some are picked up by mushers families or handlers and taken home if kennels are near here. Others are taken to a local women's prison where inmates care for them until they can be picked up and taken home.
There were a lot of dogs on the dog lot, as you can see here, on the 4th day of the race. But, when you consider that 70 teams of 16 dogs each started the race, and 5 teams have scratched in the last 2 days, the volunteers are kept quite busy.
Annie from Wyoming, a friend of musherBilly Snodgrass, comforts one of his dropped dogs.
Katie Eldridge "works" the dog lot. Katie is a 'Iditabud' from Virginia, we just met in person for the first time yesterday
Gail Summerville is lovin' on the dogs
"Where am I? And where is my Daddy??"
Dogs are loaded into trucks to be taken to a nearby women's prison for care
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