Founded more than a decade ago, the Chugiak-based August Fund finds ways for retired sled dogs to be adopted by Alaskans and people all over the nation.
but at the time was just starting out as a musher. When one of his dogs, August, suffered a broken leg, St. Louis started the August Fund to raise money for August’s vet bill.
While St. Louis said the aging dogs at Lanier’s kennel were treated well, that’s not necessarily the case with all kennels. But due to their training, the dogs are often ideal candidates for adoption. “In some cases we do rescue. In some cases, there are wannabe mushers who came up here from the Lower 48, thought they wanted to run Iditarod, had no idea what they were getting into, and they get a bunch of dogs from a musher who’s happy to hand you a bunch of dogs he’s not using, and then the next thing you know, you’re in over your head. So, those often are rescues.”
“It’s kind of hard to send somebody five hours from Anchorage to look at a dog they might or might not want,” St. Louis said. “And Bill would rather we help select. So he sends them in to us, and I’ll foster them.”She said they spend around $250 a week on food and supplements for the average of around 20 dogs that the fund supports. Since the dogs are older, they try to keep adoption fees low and offer a single fee of $250 for anyone who adopts two dogs.
For Joe Davis, an infantry officer in the Army at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson who works with Alaskan Command, he found a running buddy.“She obviously likes to get out and run too,” said Davis, who lives in Eagle River. “I kind of feel guilty if I don’t get her out to run as well. It’s easy for me to skip out on my mileage goals, but I kind of look at her and say, ‘Well, I need to at least take her for a run.’ And then once you kind of get going, it’s easier to keep those miles going.
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