Pepper was actually the first casualty of the year. She's the dog, for those of you who have read the dog "bios", who got trampled by a cow. But her injury wasn't severe enough, and it happened early enough, that she was able to heal and rejoin the team. This weekend, though, Aero may have become our first casualty; a casualty that can't be overcome in time for the Iditarod. Ironically, her injury was almost identical to Pepper's -- a ripped up toe. But Aero's happened without the cow. Instead, she stepped on a snap -- the hardware that connects the dogs to their neckline and/or tugline -- and get her toe stuck and then jerked her foot back to get free and ripped off a portion of one toe, and also split the webbing between two toes. So far, we've had it sewn back together twice. She's doing fine and will recover fully, but with the recovery time occurring during some of the most critical training miles of the season, Aero probably won't be able to get back in the line up in time for the race. So, Aero may need to just be a cheerleader this year.