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By Tim Engle for The Kansas City Star

One thing you can say about this Kansas City winter: It’s fine practice for anyone about to head north to Alaska. Put Leawood veterinarian Vern Otte in that group — he’ll be working this year’s Iditarod, the fabled sled dog race that starts Saturday.

“It’s not as cold here as it is there, but this is nice preparation,” he says with a smile. “I can test out my clothing.”
Otte (say it “Ott”), 67, looks like he just stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting. His orangeish-red tie is populated by blue dogs and yellow bones. His manner is calm, soothing. Here in an exam room at State Line Animal Hospital, he slips glasses on his bald head every so often to point out something on a computer monitor about the thousand-mile Iditarod route.

This will be Otte’s fourth year as an Iditarod trail veterinarian, and in case you’re thinking it’s some kind of working vacation, think again.

For one thing, it’s cold up there. Really cold. Bone-chilling. Twenty to 30 below is normal. Last year temps dropped to between 40 and 50 below.

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