Paulsen was torn -- the idea of running the Iditarod, what he states as1,180 miles of Alaskan wilderness, snow and deep cold, “cold like I had never even imagined, winds beyond belief, roaring waters and deadly dreams — a world, a whole world beyond my knowing” or living a normal life. He also thought he was one of the least qualified dog drivers on the entire planet. But his training took on a comedic quality that had me laughing until tears were streaming down my face. Once he acquired more and more sled dogs, his different modes of vehicles/sleds had to change because of the increase of power that more dogs provided — until he ended up with an entire body of an old car -- an old English Ford — and then that didn’t even slow them down. 15 dogs could pull that old clunker six miles per hour.

On a test run one night, he was reminded that skunks were nocturnal — and they were everywhere! “We hit the first skunk at 9:00 o’clock…by the time I recognized it for what it was, it was too late.” He writes, “I locked the emergency brake -- almost needless since the team had stopped pulling and were fighting over the skunk — and ran to the front of team.” His lead dog, Cookie, was winning the fight until his new dog, Devil, who was at the back of the team, pulled the whole rig forward -- brakes locked and all --and grabbed the skunk away from Cookie. “Without thinking,” he says, “I jerked at the skunk to pull it away from Devil… who was trying to swallow the skunk whole. Grabbing Devil’s food amounted to suicide.” He ended up grabbing the tail which swung the rear-end of the skunk to point directly at his face — where upon the skunk let go….”and it blew like the winds of death directly into my face.” After taking about 30 minutes to get his vision clear and his breathing straight, they took off again and hit their second skunk within a mile. All in all, they hit six skunks before he turned around and went back home.

When he got home, he walked into his house and his wife, Ruth, asked him what happened and he told her about the skunks. He told her how Devil had eaten six of them. “You couldn’t stop him?” she asked. “Not without artillery,” he answered. He started to get ready for bed but she made him sleep outside. It was one of the best things that happened, he says. He slept out in the kennel with his dogs and it was the beginning of a great bonding — even with Devil. 

In her book, “Inside of a Dog,” Alexandra Horowitz talks about us turning our dogs into humans. In this book, Gary Paulsen was morphing into a part of his team of dogs. This book is hysterically funny and incredibly sad all in one. Paulsen did run the Iditarod and his amazing descriptions of every one of the 1,180 wilderness miles — the beauty, the danger and the deadliness — of the Iditarod is like nothing you’ve ever imagined. In the end, Paulsen did become one with his dogs. His lead dog Cookie saved his life many times — and he makes you wonder how you could ever live without dogs. 

This book has photos and a map. 1995 Harvest;