‘Ambushed’ On The Trail

WILLOW — Irving, the one-eyed wheel dog, got the worst of it.”He’s kind of a hard luck case of a dog,” said Alberta musher Karen Ramstead, who will pilot a team of bushy-tailed Siberian huskies next week in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.Irving, a 5-year-old, must remain behind. He’s on the disabled list this year with a muscle tear in his hind leg. The consequence of what Ramstead calls an “ambush” attack during a recent training run on popular dog sled trails outside Willow.Every musher has a moose story. Tales of charging bulls, or shattered sleds or head-on collisions with 1,000-pound cows. For Ramstead, the worst encounter of her career came on a recent weeknight, a saga ending in a flurry of hooves, a screaming husky and three shotgun blasts.Here is her story.Read more here: http://community.adn.com/adn/node/159913