Blair Braverman Profile picture
Oct 11, 2018 29 tweets 6 min read Read on X
I want to tell you a story about Grinch.
This is Grinch. A dog stands on a dog house in the field. He has a very long nose and no visible upper teeth, and he looks upward in delight at being pet.
Grinch is a sled dog. Grinch looking focused in harness with a snowy face
Grinch is very strong. Grinch pulls a woman in the snow while she makes an exaggeratedly alarmed facial expression
He has the biggest heart of any dog I’ve ever met— Image
Image
—and he’s dumb as a box of rocks. Grinch tries to see whipped cream on his nose.
One time he barreled through a herd of wild turkeys to pee on a lamppost. He did not notice the turkeys. A picture of Grinch mid-shake, ears flapping
Another time, the dogs were resting in a baseball diamond between 40-mile runs and he barked WAKE UP LET’S GO so many times that he had to go in exile by the fence so that his teammates could sleep. Grinch stands in a blue coat in the snow, tied to a chain link fence, looking self-pitying.
Grinch likes to pee on things. Grinch peeing on different pieces of grass, leg lifted
Image
He likes attention. Image
And he likes pulling things! Which is what we took him to do the other night. A black blur with an overbite stands in a harness in the snow
We’re using a wheeled cart for dryland training, since we don’t have snow right now.
Historically, Grinch has had some issues with the cart. Grinch and Matt Power are supposed to be pulling a cart with lightweight metal traces, but somehow Grinch has crawled sideways under tiny Matt and lifted his feet off the ground so he just hangs there, draped over Grinch.
But the other night, as we set out, everything seemed great. Grinch ran with Jenga, galloping down the railroad grade. They were having a blast. Grinch and Jenga in front of the cart, tails wagging. Grinch lifts his pointy face into the air.
After about a mile and a half, I figured we’d gone far enough, so I stood up and turned the cart around so we could head back the way we’d come.
“Ready, guys?” I asked the pups. “Let’s go!”
But we did not go. The dogs stand ready before the cart.
Grinch was ready to run. “ABBWABABAA!” he screamed. Blurry Grinch screaming in the dark
“Cool!” I told him. “I’m with you on that. Let’s go!”
But we did not go. Grinch twists around and looks at Blair with his mouth wide open. Jenga still stands at attention.
Finally, I realized.
Grinch was confused.
Guys, we’d been running in one direction. And now we were facing the other direction. It was very confusing.
To be clear, there is no brake on the cart. The only reason it wasn’t moving is because Grinch wasn’t running.
Jenga was like “omfg Bler tell me this is a joke” Jenga rests her head on Grinch’s back and gazes back at the camera
I kept thinking that Grinch would figure it out.
After a solid 20 minutes, during which time Jenga aged ten years, Grinch suddenly started running. I think that we basically waited out the span of his short-term memory so that he no longer recalled having turned around. Jenga still resting her head on Grinch’s back. You can practically hear the deep sigh.
Success!
And that, my friends, is the story of how Grinch saved the day and got us home.

The End. A blurry open smiling mouth in the dark. Grinch is very proud of himself for saving the day.

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More from @BlairBraverman

Mar 9, 2023
I’m very excited because I figured out how to embed images in a Patreon story to make it more like a twitter thread! Here’s part two in a series on unlikely sled dog friendships.
patreon.com/posts/unlikely… A slightly shaggy gray husk...
If you're wondering where the sled dog stories are these days, we have mostly moved them to Patreon for the time being. Recent stories include A Day in the Life of Hari, Boo Predicts the Future, and a vlog of Pepé enjoying a “spa day” at a hotel. An orange and brown sled do...
If you sign up, you’ll get sled dog stories straight to your inbox to brighten your day! Some levels also get zines, postcards, and other surprises in the mail. A yellow dog, Flame, with h...
Read 5 tweets
Nov 18, 2022
I don’t know what’s going on with Twitter right now but I’m just going to post some of my favorite pictures of the sled dogs that I have in my phone.
Here are some Grinch hugs that I am sending to all of you. A big black dog, Grinch, hu...Grinch does the same thing,...Grinch hugs the woman and p...Grinch presses his head int...
Here are Lima and Jules discovering that they both love screaming. A white dog and a gray sled...
Read 25 tweets
Mar 28, 2020
This story happened when I was 19, and I had just started working as a dogsled guide in Alaska.
I was spending the summer with 200 sled dogs and about a dozen people in a tent city on top of a glacier.

If you’ve read my book you know all about the glacier, but hear me out.
Read 52 tweets

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