Course map -- Prologue: Is it just a cough? -- Introduction: The last great race on eath -- Part 1: A less ceremonial start. iditarod vet -- Journey to the center of the last frontier -- Exam day -- The winnder ain't the one with the fastest sled -- Part II: The first quarter. Go! -- Just smudges -- Fire at Finger Lake -- How accidents happen -- Learning the ropes -- Part III: The hard part. Dropped dogs go to prison -- Rainy Pass and the burn -- A study in rohn -- The great husky airlift -- Honey, there are never extra pies -- Cripple -- Part IV: Almost there. Zirkle and King -- Unalakleet -- Lucy's crime -- 2020 -- Part V: to Nome. The Bellows -- The Mackety brothers -- The Serum Run -- Nome -- Coda: wild dog, first friend -- Acknowledgments -- Illustration credits

"An intimate account--the first from a trail veterinarian--of the canines who brave the challenges of the Iditarod. Few events attract as much attention, or create as much spectacle, as the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Each March, despite subzero temperatures and white-out winds, hundreds of dogs and mushers journey to Anchorage, Alaska, to participate in "The Last Great Race on Earth," a grueling, thousand-mile race across the Alaskan wilderness. In Four Thousand Paws , award-winning trail veterinarian Lee Morgan tells the story of the heroic canine athletes who, using only their muscle and an innate drive to race, carry handlers between frozen outposts, risking injury, illness, and fatigue. From the huskies of Iditarods past to the dauntless dogs of today, Morgan shows how competitors surmount the dangers of the Arctic; how their body language anticipates the race; and how they despair, often refusing to eat, when pulled. In the tradition of Why Elephants Weep , this is an intimate look inside the animal mind--and a thrilling new account of a storied contest."--