HUMAN

Name: Lori Gordon 

Age: The back side of my century. 

Residence: New Hampshire

Occupation:  I am a veterinarian. 

Years involved with Iditarod: This is my 8th year.

Iditarod role: I am a return dog veterinarian.

Current Location: McGrath, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 13, 2020
Temperature: -6F/Outdoors

What, who or how and when did you first get involved with the Iditarod?

I got involved with the Iditarod eight years ago. My day job is as a traveling veterinary surgeon. I was at a veterinary clinic in Redding and the veterinarian there, Dr. Michael Leverone was talking about the Iditarod. It sounded absolutely intriguing to me, like another adventure in life that I can do. Since I own my own business and I’m the boss, I asked myself if I could go and I said, “Yes.” So I put in an application and I already had the qualifications and I was accepted.

What is your Why?..Why are you here today and involved in Iditarod?

I am here today and involved with the Iditarod, because I want to make sure that every dog who has any kind of problem gets home safe, healthy, and happy. My sole purpose in my mind is to treat, help these dogs who are hurting. If they’re hurting, I want to relieve their pain. If they’re sick, I want to make them better. I want every dog to return. I actually don’t really care about the race or the mushers as a sport. I just care about the dogs. They are the heart and soul of why I’m here.

Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences?

One of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was involving a dog, but I must preface this with the fact that I am a surgeon and I see it and I fix it. If it’s broken, I put it together. If it’s a tumor, I take it off. My life is seeing something and fixing it. When I can’t fix something like that, it is extremely frustrating and I feel awful inside. Obviously, life is not like that. You can’t fix everything. You can try. So I think that’s what’s most important. But my whole life is dedicated towards that. But sometimes I get a dog in and you can’t just fix it. So, the most difficult that I see is medical cases. I’ve seen dogs… I saw this one dog come to me with a little teeny cough and with a few hours he was down on the ground gasping for breath. So, I always learn something when I come here, and I do all my medicine and we gave him everything we could. I just watched him like my firstborn breathing in the crib. I mean, I’d never left his side because I couldn’t. Everything I did, he just didn’t get up and was better immediately. However, we did… It’s a team. It’s not just me. We stabilized him and we got him on a plane and I heard that he got to the hospital and every day he was improved, and he went home to his musher. So it’s memorable on a couple of accounts in that I can’t fix everything, but I can do the best I can. I mean, I will fly him home myself if I had to, but it was memorable because it made me humble, always makes humble. But it had a happy ending.

What do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is that life is not black and white. In this life, I want to save everybody. I want everybody to be happy. I want all the animals to be happy. I want nature to be happy, because mother nature is pretty pissed off right now. But I can’t save everybody. So I am sure in life I… You need to pick and choose something that you’re passionate about. So what I know for sure in life other than the typical, I love my family, and I love my dog, and I love my mom and dad and death and taxes, and all the usual stuff, is that I chose dogs and wolves, because I work with wolves, as well. So the canine species of this world comes from the depth of my soul. That’s what I chose to put most of my energies to. I mean, I like the whales, and the sharks, and the birds, and the tigers, and the lions, and the bears. I think they all have a part, even bugs. But for me, down in my heart and soul will always be dogs and wolves. And all dogs came from wolves actually. So I’m honored that I can work with both of them.