I rescued Emory at the animal shelter. I couldn’t believe a doodle was found stray, but when I met her she was skeletal, dying, and suffering. After months of vet visits she was diagnosed with EPI, a pancreas disease that requires her to have pig pancreas enzyme with her meals so she can absorb nutrients (ie. her pancreas doesn’t work).

Once she started taking the enzyme her energy changed within two days. She doubled her body weight, to her healthy weight, in two months. During this time, I was rehabbing a broken thumb and rib from a MTB crash and getting back into trail running. It worked out that our comeback tours aligned perfectly and soon we went from 20 min walks to hour long trail runs. The trails in Whitefish, MT are primarily off-leash, and in this freedom, Emory found her purpose.

Soon, I could not sustain the amount of running that Emory needed, so she started running with some elite-local runners. Before I knew it, she was doing trail marathon training, knocking out 20 mile runs like it was no big deal. She won a local dog category half marathon in the snow (time 1:17), started running with the local high school XC Team, and can do a 5min warmup mile on the track.

Emory now has an entire care team of runners that find so much joy in helping her fulfill her purpose. Of course, Mom (me), still runs, hikes, XC skis, skins (ski mos), and bikes with Emory as well and is endlessly proud of her running prowess and reputation.

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