As the sun rose to mark his 31st straight day in the big city, Buddy Streeper started Wednesday morning with the usual short walk to the dog lot and the four dozen sled dogs who rest comfortably in the back of an unusually big diesel rig.
"It's the biggest dog truck in the world," Streeper said about his 30-foot-long Ford F-450, situated in one of Anchorage's most peculiar dog lots.
The three-time Fur Rondy champion, along with his fiancee, dad and dogs, has been staying at the Holiday Inn Express off Spenard Road since mid-January.
Given that the 27-year-old Canadian makes a living at various sprint-dog races in Alaska and northern Canada, extended hotel stays are part of the gig.
But training for this year's Fur Rendezvous Open World Championship, which starts downtown today, has been different than in previous years.
Streeper's fiancee, Lina Gladh of Sweden, is racing too, in an effort to help Streeper Kennel bankroll as much of the record $75,001 Fur Rondy purse as it can.
"We've come up here with our eyes focused on the Fur Rendezvous," Streeper said.
Streeper has never traveled so far from his home in Fort Nelson, British Columbia, with so many dogs. His adventure became easier when hotel managers plowed an area in the back of its parking lot so Streeper's 48 dogs can pee, poop, eat, stretch and bark without bothering other guests.
The Streepers have a room with a view of the front range of the Chugach Mountains and their dog truck. But their dogs may have an even better situation.
Two dogs live inside each straw-filled box that is tall enough to let them sit upright. Each is let out seven times a day and gets more exercise than your average house dog. They eat meals fit for canine kings and some have even wandered off for a swim in a nearby duck pond, a place Streeper calls "their Holiday Inn Express."
At 8 o'clock each morning, the parking lot teems with excitement. Dogs are ready to leave their boxes, stretch their muscled legs and wait impatiently for breakfast -- a yummy mix of human-grade beef, chicken and liver.
By 9:30 a.m., it's time to pee. Most of the dogs are set loose to do their business. Some trot around the truck, while others climb a two-story snow berm to stretch their legs and romp around in a vacant and frozen bog on the other side.
The dogs get off-leash freedom because they obey Streeper's voice commands. One of the dogs, Oprah, barked Wednesday at a stranger who was talking to her master in the parking lot.
"Oprah, who are you barking at?" Streeper asked.
She stopped barking immediately.
"She's the yappy one," Streeper said.
And not every dog listens so well.
Yearlings Blaze and Balto slipped out of the parking lot one day while the Streepers were rounding up the dogs for the ExxonMobile Open race at Tozier Track.
They called and called and called, but Blaze and Balto didn't come and the clock was ticking closer to race time.
Gladh and Terry Streeper took the truck to Tozier Track, while Buddy stayed behind with a rented mini-van to find the dogs.
"I come to an open pond and there they were," Streeper said, "swimming with mallards, chasing them around."
On Tuesday night, Streeper did the chasing -- but after something much larger than ducks.
Moose are common around the hotel because they roam the vacant land between the Holiday Inn parking lot and Northwood Road, which connects Spenard Road and International Airport Road.
Some have wandered close to the dog truck. Streeper only knows this because the dogs sound off at intruders.
"If they bark, there's something wrong," he said.
Streeper was on a mushing trail, not in a parking lot, when disaster struck Tuesday during his final training run in Far North Bicentennial Park. He and his dogs met a very protective cow moose on the trail.
"In Canada, if you run into a moose, they get scared and run away," Streeper said.
This isn't Canada.
The moose charged his 12-dog team of yearlings and injured a dog named Isaac. With her yearling nearby in some alders, the cow knocked Isaac unconscious and kicked at others. Streeper let out a big shout and the moose bolted for the deeper snow.
Streeper loaded Isaac into his sled bag at the 10-mile mark near the Campbell Creek Science Center. He pulled his snow hook and called to his team with the cow at a safe distance. By the time the team reached Tozier Track, Isaac had regained consciousness.
Encounters like that can happen during Fur Rondy, but chances are slim because the trail is cleared by a group of snowmachine drivers.
That doesn't mean a moose can't collide with a back-of-the-pack musher -- or with dogs living in a hotel parking lot.
"I've never seen so many urban moose," Streeper said.
And the moose in Spenard have seldom spotted so many sled dogs.
Find Kevin Klott online at adn.com/contact/kklott or call 257-4335.
Post your Rondy photos and video
Video: 2008 Running of the Reindeer
By KEVIN KLOTT
kklott@adn.com