Читать книгу Big-Enough Anna - Pam Flowers - Страница 4

ALASKA NORTHWEST BOOKS ®

Anna was the smallest and youngest puppy in her litter, born in a winter deep with snow. Walls of white edged the path to the dog lot, where the puppies snuggled against their mother.

Anna’s owner, a dog musher named Pam, checked frequently on the new arrivals. That first month she visited the puppies often, talking to them, petting them, and watching them play.

Soon they wriggled with happiness to see Pam coming.

One day, when the puppies were about four weeks old, Anna peered over the edge of the doghouse. She wanted to go exploring, but her three-inch legs weren’t nearly long enough to reach the ground.

Plop! Anna scrambled headfirst into the snow.

Roald and Sojo, her brother and sister, were not so brave. They waited several days before following Anna out into the big, white world.

At three months, Anna was the first to wear a dog harness. Pam attached a string tied to a twig for her to drag around. When the other puppies saw Anna, they wanted to practice being sled dogs, too. Soon all three were pulling twigs, then sticks, then small logs.

When they were five months old, the puppies tried mushing for the first time.

Each week, Pam increased the distance they traveled: one mile, two miles, three. By six months all the puppies could pull a sled for five miles.

Little Anna always pulled the hardest.

The puppies didn’t know it, but Pam was preparing for a long and difficult expedition. Next winter she hoped to become the first woman to mush alone across the Arctic. It would take about six months, she thought, to travel 2,500 miles by dogsled.

Pam decided to let the puppies train with the older dogs. She watched them carefully to see if they were strong enough to join the expedition team.

Anna was still the smallest dog in the lot. But she always tried hard and paid attention.

Anna just loved to run!

One winter day they met another team training on the trail. When the musher stopped to chat, Pam told him about her plan to mush dogs across the Arctic.

“Get rid of that one,” he said, pointing to Anna. “She’s too little to pull much weight.”

“Anna’s tougher than she looks,” Pam argued. “She works hard and never quits. That’s more important than size.”