Life with Forty Dogs: Misadventures with Runts, Rejects, Retirees, and Rescues

Winner of Dog Writer's Association of America Best Book: Rescue or Adoption and Dogwise Best Book Award in 2017.

From award-winning writer and photographer Joseph Robertia, Life with Forty Dogs is a collection of the funny, fascinating, and sometimes heartbreaking stories of the life-changing canine commitment he and his family made.

When Robertia and his wife, Cole, first entered the world of dog sledding in Alaska, they had never expected to have their household grow up to forty dogs—“primarily rogues, runts, and rejects from other kennels.” But quickly they found their lives inextricably intertwined with each dog they rescued as they learned each one’s unique character and personality and how irreplaceable each was for their team and for their family.

This book is an invitation to understand the essence of life with forty dogs in its entirety and, through that comprehension, to truly appreciate what Robertia sees every day. Not everyone can sacrifice their spare time, salaries, and sanity to get to know so many characters—from the well-mannered to the wily—but Life with Forty Dogs will reveal the endless adventures and misadventures that come to those like Robertia and his family who have dedicated themselves to their furry companions.

For the past fourteen years Joseph Robertia has been an award-winning writer and photographer. He spent more than a decade as an outdoors reporter at the Peninsula Clarion newspaper and currently writes for the Sports & Outdoors section of the Alaska Dispatch News―the state's largest newspaper. In recent years he has freelanced as a professional journalist with articles and photographs published in Alaska Magazine, Mushing Magazine, Salmon Trout Steelheader, and in Alaska 50: Celebrating Alaska’s 50th Anniversary of Statehood, just to name a few. Along with his wife, he has mushed dogs with his kennel fielding teams in the 1,000-mile lditarod, Yukon Quest, and more than thirty other races.