Robin and the Sled Dog Race
by Sara Machetanz
Robin walked through the snow, carefully carrying a pan of fish soup to the pole where Nubbin was chained.
Then she carried pans to Flip and Flop.
The Sled dogs did not touch the food. Their eyes followed Robin, but they sat straight and still. Only their tails moved, making nests in the snow behind them.
"All right," Robin said - and three black noses darted into three pans.
The soup was made from fish Robin had helped catch in the summer. Robin hoped it would make her dogs run fast. Tomorrow was the final "Three dogger" race at the Alaska Snow Fair. And Mark Woods's time was two minutes and ten seconds better than Robin's.
Robin went over to Nubbin and rubbed the soft fur behind her ears.
"You're the best leader in all the world," she told Nubbin. "Tomorrow we'll more than make up the time we're behind."
Then she looked closely at Nubbin's paws to see if there were any cuts - they were fine. She looked at Flip's and Flop's paws and they were fine, too.
As Robin looked over her dogs, she thought about the months she worked to make them a team. She thought back to when they were small and followed along beside a team of grown dogs.
She remembered the first times they had been put in harness - Nubbin beside a leader. That was the way they had learned to go right when she called "gee" and to go left when she called "haw."
Robin had wanted a team that obeyed, so she had worked hard to teach them to follow commands. And she had toughened them up with runs to the mailbox three kilometers away every day.
"Time to eat, Robin." Her mother stood in the door, the lamp shining gold behind her. Robin jumped to her feet. "I'll be right in," she answered.
On her way to the house, she picked up an armful of wood. She'd been so busy with her dogs she hadn't even thought of wood to fill the woodbox. In the house Robin put the wood in the box and said, "I'm hungry!"
"So am I," said her father, coming to the table. "How are your dogs, Robin?"
"Fine," Robin said. "They're eating well and their paws aren't cracked at all, so I'm sure they can make up the time we're behind."
"Mark's dogs are larger than yours," said her father.
"I know," Robin said, "but that doesn't mean they're the best. My team follows commands better than his."
"That's very true, Robin." Her mother came over and patted Robin's hair. "We just don't want you to be too unhappy if you don't win."
"My team'll make up that time," Robin said, "They'll win tomorrow."
The next morning robin climbed out of bed before the fire was made.
"You must be trying to make up that time right now," her father said.
"I just wanted to get up early," Robin said, laughing. "I'll light the fire." But really, robin hadn't been able to sleep; now she was so excited she couldn't even finish eating.
The dogs were excited, too. When Robin and her father went out for them, they barked and her father went out for them, they barked and howled and then ran in circles and dug at the ground. They pulled hard on their collars as Robin pulled them toward the truck. Their front fee lifted up from the ground and they danced along on their back legs.
On the drive to the Snow Fair, the dogs quieted down, They curled themselves up like snail shells and went to sleep. But when Robin's father parked in the field beside the Fair, they woke up.
Other teams were barking and the dogs grew more excited than ever. They pulled against their chains and barked back.
While Robin's father lifted the sled off the top of the truck, Robin laid out the harnessed. She unchained Nubbin and out she jumped.
"Whoa, Nubbin, easy, girl, easy," said Robin, holding Nubbin and slipping on her harness. Once in harness Nubbin stood still while Robin harnessed Flip and Flop. Then - her father holding Nubbin tightly and Robin riding the sled - they brought the dogs to their place behind Mark Woods's team.
Mark's dogs were ready to go, too; Mark and his keeper could hardly hold them while the timer counted off the seconds. At the count of "one" Mark's team was off.
After a two-minute wait, it would be time for robin's team to go.
Father looked back at Robin. "Just catch up to Mark, and you've made up two minutes. Then you have only ten seconds to go. good luck, Robin!"
The timer began to count, "One minute, thirty seconds," and Robin suddenly heard sled dogs barking behind her.
"Thirty seconds ... Twenty seconds ..."
Then Robin heard nothing but the counting.
"Five, four, three, two, one!"
"Let's go!" Robin souted, Nubbin and the team shot ahead.
Robin started out running behind the sled. When she was out of breath, she jumped on the runners where she stood on one foot and pushed with the other. As soon as she caught her breath, she jumped off to run again.
Uphill, downhill, over snow and ice, and across roads that were closed to traffic, Robin ran and raced her team. When she came to the pine forest that was just halfway on the five kilometer course, Robin could hardly believe it. She didn't feel at all tired.
But Robin was worried. She was pushing her team more than she ever had. And still she had not caught up with Mark.
"Run, Nubbin, run, run, run," she urged. Up the steepest hill Robin pushed until she was panting as hard as the dogs. And then, just over the top, she saw something that made her hold onto her sled and catch her breath.
At the foot of the hill were Mark and his team. But they weren't running straight ahead. They were turning left into the bushes. Robin could hear the dogs barking and Mark yelling. She saw Mark jump off his sled, turn it over, and run to his lead dog. Then Robin saw why the dogs had turned off-trail. In the bushes stood a large moose.
Nubbin, Flip, and Flop caught sight of the dogs and the moose at the same second Robin did. All at once, all together, they shot ahead, flying down the hill. Flip and Flop began to bark wildly and Nubbin's ears and tail went straight up. At the place where Mark's dogs had turned off, Nubbin began to go left, too.
"Gee, Nubbin," Robin yelled, "Gee!"
Hearing Robin's voice, Nubbin turned back on-trail again. Not Flip and Flop. They pulled towards the moose with all their might, and Robin knew they would finally pull Nubbin along with them.
"Gee, Flip, gee, Flop," she shouted.
Flip slowed down.
"Gee," Robin urged, "gee, gee, gee!"
At that Flip pulled back in line and Flop, feeling the pull on the harness, followed.
"WheW!" Robin said loudly as she passed Mark's team.
Robin saw that Mark was having problems, for his dogs seemed to be tangled in their harnesses.
Here's my chance, Robin thought. "Let's go, Nubbin," she sang out. Then suddenly she had another thought. The moose might go after Mark and his dogs; it could hurt them.
Once Robin thought of that, she knew she had to send help back to Mark, even if she lost several seconds - even if she lost the race.
Robin saw four men watching the race and called "Whoa," to Nubbin.
Nubbin turned her head. "Stop," she seemed to ask, "when the finish line is ahead?"
"Whoa," Robin called again, and then she said to the men, "Mark Woods's team went after a moose and got tangled up."
"We'd better go help him," one man said, starting to hurry down the trail.
"Wait," another shouted after him, "here comes Mark now." He turned toward Robin and said, "Get going, girl!"
But Robin was already going.
"Run, Nubbin, run," Robin shouted. She jumped off the sled and ran until she could run no longer. When she jumped on again, she turned for a quick look and saw that Mark was getting closer!
"Faster, Nubbin, faster," Robin cried as she came to the home stretch.
She didn't look back again, but she knew Mark was close because she could hear him calling to his team. Any second she thought that Mark would call "trail" and she would have to pull over.
Up ahead Robin saw the crowd at the finish line and heard them cheering and yelling.
Then she heard the announcer's voice boom out, "Here they come now ... it's Robin Stone and Mark Woods. The teams are very close, but Robin Stone is in the lead. Now Robin is crossing the finish link ... this will be a close one ... Mark Woods is coming up fast ... Mark is over ..."
Robin stopped her sled and leaned across it, trying to catch her breath. She had crossed first, but had she made up the time needed to beat Mark? The announcer didn't say. He was calling off the other teams.
Nubbin was panting so hard she shook. robin went to her, dropped to her knees, and put her arm around Nubbin.
"You are the best leader in all the world," she told her. "And you are the best team," she said to Flip and Flop, "even if we don't win."
"Robin!" She heard her father's excited voice. "Robin, you won by just two seconds!" Robin's father hugged her. "The best trained team turned out to be the best team after all, didn't it?" he said.
Robin felt warm all over. "Sure did," she said ... for that was something she'd believed since her first "gee" and "haw." | 
