If you only ever pay attention to the foreground of sled dog photos, you're missing great content. I submit this collection of Astro screaming (demanding that I end the photo shoot and keep running) in the background of every photo I took today as evidence of your folly.

@persistencemushing.bsky.social and I still not sure if dogs are excited

@goggdog42.bsky.social and @persistencemushing.bsky.social I talked about you

@ataokennel.bsky.social and I are both signed up for the T-Dog 200!! Let the season begin!! #uglydogs

Annie and Furiosa rode around with me most of yesterday so I could take them to a vet appointment while @ataokennel.bsky.social is out of town. They hung out like the perfect sweet angels they are. Seriously considering kidnapping them regularly for emotional errand-running support. #uglydogs

Pepper is waiting "patiently" for sled season. #uglydogs

On this day, 7 years ago, I ran with @ataokennel.bsky.social for the first time after happening to meet @goggdog42.bsky.social at a theater event. I am so grateful for the last seven years of friendship and growth I've had with you both and the team. I'll never be able to say thank you enough ❤️

It's been a super busy summer/fall but we got our first little dusting of snow last night! It will be a while still before we're on sleds but I am so excited for this season! #uglydogs

Fiona is spending the summer working hard to raise funds for mushing this winter, to go to FFA Nationals and help her Girl Scout troop do cool things! She's out at the Two Rivers Makers Market today! #uglydogs

Hey if you know any gals in Western WA looking for a fun summer activity, they should check out this camp! Between being a camper and a volunteer this will be my 13th year attending! It's through Girl Scouts but kids don't need to be active members to come to camp!

Time for the semi-annual changing of the guard 🫡 The sleds go into storage and the canoe comes out! Stoked for the first float of the season!! ☀️🌊

Our old house was on the north side of a hill and didn't get much sun. Our new house gets incredible sunlight! Gus and Pepper are delighted and happily baking in it. I'm so happy to have been able to get such a nice place for them 💗💗💗

Apologies for the radio silence this last month. We bought our first house and have been super busy getting moved in and settled! We're just about finished though and I'm super excited to tell you all about the last few months in great detail very soon 💗

A younger Girl Scout troop invited Fiona to come speak about her experience learning to mush this season as part of earning their mushing badge! She did a great job answering their questions & their leader tells me the girls were very inspired by hearing a fellow Girl Scout!

Telka and the #T-Dog crew really went all out of this race. I don't think a musher could ask for a better event. The organization, comradery, support, and overall good energy was just top notch. I can't wait to be back again. Fiona and I both plan to shoot for the 100, maybe even 200 next year!

The sunrise was so incredible yesterday. As it was rising it was causing the frozen water particles in the air to sparkle. It was the most beautiful morning of mushing I've ever experienced. #mushersky please enjoy a small bit of it with me:

I'll do more of a race debrief tomorrow after some sleep but the T-Dog 50 was fantastic. I'm so proud of the dogs, so proud of Fiona, and so delighted by everyone involved in helping make it happen. I couldn't have asked for a better day.

Fiona and I are getting some good doggy snuggles in on the way to the race. Rebel, Boomer and Cassidy are riding with us in the cab. Thanks @ataokennel.bsky.social for driving and @goggdog42.bsky.social for coming along to cheer us on and feed us cookies!

Loaded up and headed to Nenana for the T-Dog!

I feel like @weratedogs.com needs to know about queen Pepe and how she finished the Iditarod on her own terms, for the second time, at almost 12.

Just got back from the #T-Dog 50 musher meeting! I drew bib 47! We found out that I'm allowed a second human on my team so Fiona got promoted from Handler to Assistant Musher! Thanks @ataokennel.bsky.social for the pic, for being the only full handler now & all the rest of the help over the years!

The girl scout troop I help lead decided they wanted to work on the Animal Helpers badge this month so obviously I had to bring Rebel & Rey in to be guest speakers at this week's meeting.

I'd like to introduce my niece, Fiona! She's 12 and has been learning to mush with me this season! She'll be one of my handlers at the TDog 50 this weekend and hopefully we can both run it next year!

Iditarod might be over but mushing season isn't! Catch me and the @ataokennel.bsky.social pups at the #TDog50 this Sunday! Our focus this season has been to have fun and I think this race will be the perfect "big" race for the year!

Shout out to allllll the amazing women who took on #Iditarod2025! #InternationalWomensDay #MusherSky #UglyDogs

#Uglydogs — if you DM me confirmation of an #Igivearod donation, I’ll mail you a mushing-themed friendship bracelet like the ones some of us made for the ceremonial start. I can do one per person and will go till I run out of beads or the 2025 @igivearod.bsky.social ends, whichever comes first.

I've still got a lot of #Uglydogs learning to do, but I can now pinpoint exactly when it started coming into focus. That was when I was gleefully handed friendship bracelets & a fun patch. As a #GirlScouts leader, that's my love language 😂 that patch is going on my leader vest asap 💚 thank you 💚

I've got so much to process from spending the last several days helping @quincemountain.bsky.social get on the Iditarod trail and learning more about the #uglydogs community. It's going to take a while but here's a start.

I'm baffled by how I ended up getting to handle for @quincemountain.bsky.social this weekend, ride behind him at the cermonial start and meet some #Uglydogs in real life but holy smokes what a privilege it was! Thank you so much and I hope your race is everything you want it to be Quince!