Dogsong

Russel wakes from his deep, dream-filled sleep to find his dogs eating one of the deer carcasses. The dogs had fought during the night, breaking the gangline, so Russel fixes the rawhide then pulls the dogs away from the deer and back into line. He loads up the sled with the skins and deer meat and sets off again, letting the dogs lead the way north. Russel instinctively knows the weather and can tell from the color of the sky, a deep purple, that a storm is coming. The impending storm does not worry him; he senses it will not be severe, but something is making him uneasy, and he thinks it may be remnants of the dream, pushing him to drive his team on. Russel also feels more connected to his dogs since the dream. He lets the dogs lead the way and reflects on whether they know his mind, whether they have become “part of his thinking” (102). He wonders whether the dogs know why they are heading north, something he’s not sure of himself.

Russel lets the dogs run for about six hours, using all the daylight, until he sees a small valley with some brush.