Stage
One -
Normality (or whatever passes for it!) is compromised by initial infection -
often caused by direct exposure to Siberian Huskies in the street, at a dog
show, or infection-by proxy as a result of exposure to televisual,
cinematographic or photographic images (for example a viewing of "Snow
Dogs" or "Iron Will"). An incubation period (this could be
weeks, months or years long) is followed by:
Stage Two - purchase of cute husky puppy
Stage Three - conversion of house/garden into puppy-proof
bunker.
Stage Four - consideration of acquiring second pup (to keep
first pup company)
Stage Five - exposure to and infection by the showing/working
bug (worst case scenario - both infections concurrently)
Stage Six - Gradual acquisition of more dogs (justified by the
fact that you "need" them for your team, or you need better dogs
to show)
Stage Seven - you suddenly realise that none of the friends you
had before Stage Two ever visit any more and that all your current friends
have multiple dogs.
Stage Eight - You exchange your posh car for a caged-out Transit
Van so you have more room for the dogs (and the rig etc etc)
Stage Nine - You exchange your big house with tiny garden for a
smaller house with a huge garden.
Stage Ten - you notice that an increasingly large proportion of
your income goes on the dogs. You start to shop for your own clothes in
Charity Shops.
Stage Eleven - If employment and finances allow, you move from
your pleasant urban/suburban semi to a broken down cottage in the middle of
Scotland
(or if you don't yet want to go the whole hog - yet, somewhere in rural
Norfolk
).
Stage Twelve - You are driving your mud-spattered Transit out of
a forest at 7am in the morning after running several teams of your dogs in
harness for 5 or 6 miles in the mud and ice. You are wet through, your feet
and hands are raw with cold but your face is burning as your heater kicks
in. Your dogs are asleep - gently and happily steaming in their cages behind
you. You glance over at the well-dressed drivers snug and warm in their top
of the range Audis on their way to well-paid office jobs and without a trace
of irony, ask yourself, "How can anyone live like that?"
