March 08, 2012

Musher Gives Fallen Iditarod Dog CPR: Iditarod musher Scott Janssen, an Anchorage funeral home owner, was making his way down the Dalzell Gorge Monday night when one of his dogs collapsed. A nine-year-old husky named Marshall fell during what was planned to be his last race. "I know what death looks like, and he was gone. Nobody home," said Hanssen, who began chest compressions and breathed into the dog's nose to attempt CPR. "I'm like c'mon dude, please come back."

posted by rcade to extreme at 11:06 AM - 5 comments

Touching story, but I am still firmly in the anti-dog sledding for sport camp. The quote where the musher decided that the dog wanted to continue on was frustrating. Dogs always want to please their masters. I know the dog went home and is now retired, but that sort of quote is upsetting.

Glad Marshall recovered, and I hope he has a long sled-less life ahead of him.

posted by scully at 11:34 AM on March 08, 2012

Makes me want to go home and hug both my lazy ass dogs who would only crawl up into the sled and crash out, much less pull the damn thing. *sniff* I love those guys.

posted by NoMich at 11:55 AM on March 08, 2012

That's a nice story. My wife and I spent Monday morning at the vet's putting down our last remaining cat. She made it to nearly 15, not bad for a cat, and along with the other 3 gave us a lot of laughs. Maybe that's why the story about saving a dog held my interest so closely. There's a lot of anecdotal evidence that people react more to stories involving animals than they do to similar stories about people. That too could be the reason. Since it happened in a sporting event, and rcade chose to post it, we have seen it, and had it not been posted, we likely never would have known. No matter, it was worth the read. Thanks, rcade.

posted by Howard_T at 03:09 PM on March 08, 2012

Condolences on your family's loss, Howard_T.

posted by scully at 03:33 PM on March 08, 2012

Yeah, sorry for your loss, Howard_T.

Agreed with scully - I'm not a supporter of dog sledding, but found the story touching anyways.

posted by Joey Michaels at 04:01 PM on March 08, 2012

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