Flora

Sponsored by liz Graves
Sponsored by Greg, Dayna Gunnar and Ellie

In photos from the Can Am 100 in 2020, Flora appears huge, supersized. Given that Flora’s harness is two sizes smaller than Aurora, and the same size as little Spiller next to her, the best explanation I have is that Flora’s spirit grew with confidence in that race, projecting beyond her physical size. 

Flora was a fluffy puppy who could barely walk in a straight line. I had reached out to Ed and Laura at Nature’s Kennel asking about puppies, and from the array offered there was Flora, from the one precious litter from Laura’s lead dog Maple. I chose Flora immediately. A tiny black bear, Flora as a puppy was innocence, honesty and trust. 

Throughout her first year in the team as a two year old, Flora moved around in and between Aurora’s faster team and Ariel’s slower team. I listened to her, encouraged her. There was still 20% of Flora that was not sure, not fully there, not fully understanding.

And then we started racing. 

It started with the Grantham race, where Flora ran in wheel with Gem. Even with no teams ahead of us, the energy around a race is unmistakable: the scents of other teams, the thrill of spectators, and the different person I know I become in a race. Flora was strong, confident and powerful. At the end, Flora was clearly satisfied, the final piece falling into place.

Since that first year on the race trail, Flora has become part of the solid confident front end I rely on. She’s fast, she’s driven, she’s fearless of anything that comes at her in a race trail. Her biggest test yet was leading the Laconia races in 2022, which are short in terms of mileage but ask a lot of the lead dogs: tight head-on passing, tons of road crossings thronged with spectators, a trail route that is a bunch of lollipop loops so the dogs feel like they are spinning in circles. And, being asked to do it all at speed. There was a head-on pass with one of the teams coming out of a lollipop, where the teams passed so close their tongues could have touched, Flora (with Jax), executed the turn flawlessly. Flora stepped up, stepped way up, and forever will I trust her in a race despite how goofy or emotional she might be in training.

Flora was named after a character in Laura Neese’s favorite show The Andy Griffith Show. Out of respect for Laura and Maple’s connection, I kept Flora’s name, which I don’t usually do with puppies.

Born: 2017

Parents: Sugar Daddy (Berkowitz) x Maple (Berkowitz)

Race record:

2022
Wilderness 35: 1st place
Laconia Open Class: 8th place, leader both days
Can Am 100: 1st place

2020
Blue Mtn 30 mile (1st place)
Can Am 100 (1st place)